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Not sure if this has been discussed before as I am finding hard to define proper search terms looking for particular answers. Also, I am not sure if this is the right place for this post so the admins would like to move it to the appropriate place, pls do

It seems that there are a lot of people who want to upgrade from a crop camera to a full frame DSLR. The advantages are well discussed. But what I would like to know is if there are any situation where a photograph would be better recorded using a crop camera rather than full frame.

I apologize if this is a stupid question though. I took up photography not too long ago and absolutely loving it. Learning so much from photography and this forum. Everyone is quite helpful here. Thanks all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Cheers,
Andrew

maybe wildlife or concert photography because the longer focal lengths but a full frame would still handle its ISO better.

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Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

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Great question!

I'd say the biggest technical benefit of a compact (apart from stuff like movie modes and live view) is that their tiny actual focal lengths mean you can easily achieve very large depths of fields - ie a lot in focus from close to far.

Unfortunately the flip side of this is that it's very difficult to achieve the opposite effect with a compact where you have, say, a portrait on a blurred background...

Gordon

not sure he meant a 'compact' camera, think he might have meant a cropped sensor like what the D80 has?

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If you "crop" enough, you get a compact
So what Gordon said depends on sensor-size, not mega-pixels...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Sorry, I mis-read that! My mistake!

There are actually still noticeable differences in perspective and DOF between cropped and full frame bodies - and of course full-frame gives you noise and dynamic range benefits. Depeneind on the sensor resolution, full frame can also be less demanding on the resolution of the lens, although they can suffer more from vignetting / light fall off in the corners, especially with wide angle.

Gordon

Thanks everyone for your input. I see a lot of posts with people looking to upgrade to a FF body and just wondered if there were situations where a crop sensor would be better used. Maybe for those requiring longer focal length would be better on the crop. Though, I guess the wide angle will be the big hassle for most on a crop.

Anyway, thanks again everyone and all the best in the new year

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Canon 40D, 24-70 f/2.8L, 85mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8 II, BG-E2N, RS-80N3

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Remember that if you have a high res full-frame, you can also crop the image and end up with the same result as the cropped body. So cropped bodies don't really have an advantage by multiplying the focal length - UNLESS of course the total number of pixels in the frame is bigger.

There's an example of what I mean on this page:

http://www.cameralabs.com/features/Cano ... ge3c.shtml

Ahhhh..... thx Gordon. Should've found / read this article in the first place. A very good read. Thx again.
Andrew

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Canon 40D, 24-70 f/2.8L, 85mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8 II, BG-E2N, RS-80N3

My Flickr!

Interesting.... My name is Andrew. I was about to point out FF don't have 35mm crop factor, but Gordon beat me to it.

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