Full Frame, please explain

Paul11

Paul11

Paul11

Soldato
Joined
28 Sep 2003
Posts
10,413
Location
London
i was thinking of moving to full frame at some point and then read the 5d vs 40d and many arguments for the 40d

what is the real benefits of going full frame , apart from getting the full mm of the lens which i guess means you get wider angles..

Am i missing something..... are there any other reasons to go full frame?
 
Viewfinder ranks highly for me, massive and bright makes a big difference and just the quality of image you can achieve form such a large sensor and the amount of detail that can be resolved. combined with excellent high ISO performance full frame is definitely the future.

Downsides would be that you really need excellent lenses that are sharp edge to edge to make the most of the sensor and if you're into any kind of photography such as wildlife or aviation then the extra length of a crop sensor is often more useful.

I've you're considering the move then I'd hang on until photokina in a month (as many of us are) to see what new full frame bodies canon release.
 
olv said:
Viewfinder ranks highly for me, massive and bright makes a big difference and just the quality of image you can achieve form such a large sensor and the amount of detail that can be resolved. combined with excellent high ISO performance full frame is definitely the future.

Downsides would be that you really need excellent lenses that are sharp edge to edge to make the most of the sensor and if you're into any kind of photography such as wildlife or aviation then the extra length of a crop sensor is often more useful.
Click to expand...
What he said!

What type of things do you take photos of?
 
SilverPenguin said:
What type of things do you take photos of?
Click to expand...

quite varied. experimenting with a bit of everything.

messing around with macro at the moment.

Thinking to get a 10-20 for some wideangle scenery, especially for holidays/travel.

but mainly portraits, and practising to do weddings.
 
Well as it sounds like you don't do too much long length shooting FF will probably suit you, especially for weddings where you may need to use higher ISO's in churches etc where a flash may not be allowed.
 
it all depends on the cost i suppose.

anyone have any idea what the 5d mk2 (or whatever they calling it) is likely to cost?

otherwise would a 40d would be a sensible upgrade from a 20d ?

i just cant see the benefits in real terms of going full frame.
 
Last edited:
Bear in mind that with a full frame camera you'll be restricted in which lenses you can use if you want to use your sensor's full resolution.
 
It also changes things like the DOF which can be useful.

For any landscape work it is a must- D3 + 14-24 + 24-70 - Ideal.

You should also get better Dynamic range, resolve more detail.
 
Paulus said:
it all depends on the cost i suppose.

anyone have any idea what the 5d mk2 (or whatever they calling it) is likely to cost?

otherwise would a 40d would be a sensible upgrade from a 20d ?

i just cant see the benefits in real terms of going full frame.
Click to expand...

Expect a release price of £2000.
 
olv said:
and just the quality of image you can achieve form such a large sensor and the amount of detail that can be resolved. combined with excellent high ISO performance full frame is definitely the future.

Downsides would be that you really need excellent lenses that are sharp edge to edge to make the most of the sensor
Click to expand...
I know someone that has got a Nikon D700 with some of the best Nikon lenses going & says that his Sony A700 takes sharper pics (he thinks principally because Nikon have been heavy handed with the anti-aliasing filter).
The D700 of course blows the A700 away in other areas but apparently not for sharpness/resolution (of course both are ~12Mp).

Just shows that it isn't as simple & cut & dried as one might expect.
 
Yeah, Viewfinder is the biggest thing for me, using a 5D after using the 40d viewfinder for a while is :O

And yes, bigger frame means a bigger sensor, so for a full frame 10mp camera and a crop 10mp camera the photosites are much less dense, so its less noisy
 
BUFF said:
I know someone that has got a Nikon D700 with some of the best Nikon lenses going & says that his Sony A700 takes sharper pics (he thinks principally because Nikon have been heavy handed with the anti-aliasing filter).
The D700 of course blows the A700 away in other areas but apparently not for sharpness/resolution (of course both are ~12Mp).

Just shows that it isn't as simple & cut & dried as one might expect.
Click to expand...

This could simply be that the A700 sharpens the image more than the Nikon, or processes the images in other ways (e.g. boosting contrast).
 
EternityEight said:
Yeah, Viewfinder is the biggest thing for me, using a 5D after using the 40d viewfinder for a while is :O

And yes, bigger frame means a bigger sensor, so for a full frame 10mp camera and a crop 10mp camera the photosites are much less dense, so its less noisy
Click to expand...

not only less noise but usually higher Dynamic range and sharper.
 
Inquisitor said:
Bear in mind that with a full frame camera you'll be restricted in which lenses you can use if you want to use your sensor's full resolution.
Click to expand...
Bear in mind that with a crop camera, you only get to capture the centre of the image delivered by high quality L-glass. For wide-angle, you have to resort to the EF-S lenses. :-)

Andrew
 
Paulus said:
Am i missing something..... are there any other reasons to go full frame?
Click to expand...

There is a subtle difference regarding bokeh (ie: getting the background out of focus)

For a given subject at a given distance, you will be using a shorter focal length with a crop frame.

This means that for the same shutter and aperture values, you will have more depth of field with the crop setup.

This means that there is a trend towards getting better bokeh from a full frame.

Subtle, eh?

Andrew
 
Gaffer said:
Bear in mind that with a crop camera, you only get to capture the centre of the image delivered by high quality L-glass. For wide-angle, you have to resort to the EF-S lenses. :-)

Andrew
Click to expand...

i dont get this..are you saying crop is better or worse?
 
Gaffer said:
Bear in mind that with a crop camera, you only get to capture the centre of the image delivered by high quality L-glass. For wide-angle, you have to resort to the EF-S lenses. :-)

Andrew
Click to expand...

Yes, but you're capturing that part of the image at a much higher resolution.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom