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Should I buy full frame?

tmoseley1
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Should I buy full frame?

Hi all,

I want to get back into photography!

I posted a question thread here before, and I thought a poll would be interesting. The situation: I am an amateur photographer, and have been for ~30 years, and like nice Canon equipment. After stupidly downsizing my gear, I have a R7, but want to take more landscape and travel photographs. I am therefore strongly wanting to upgrade with a new full frame Canon mirrorless body.

I see all the pros and cons, and this really comes down to which is worth the money. An R8, R6 Mk II, R5, or R5 Mk II. Or am I crazy and maybe should stick with the camera I already own.

I'd appreciate your thoughts and votes.

Edited on Sep 18, 2024 at 05:37 PM · View previous versions

Sep 18, 2024 at 05:35 PM

RoamingScott
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Should I buy full frame?

Post your best shots on your current gear for some context where you feel FF would do better

Sep 18, 2024 at 05:35 PM

tmoseley1
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Should I buy full frame?

RoamingScott wrote:
Post your best shots on your current gear for some context where you feel FF would do better

I don't know which, if any, it would, and since I bought the R7 I've honestly not felt the urge.

Sep 18, 2024 at 05:39 PM

RoamingScott
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Should I buy full frame?

tmoseley1 wrote:
I don't know which, if any, it would, and since I bought the R7 I've honestly not felt the urge.

Then we, along with you, have no idea what problem you're trying to solve.

Sep 18, 2024 at 05:42 PM

tmoseley1
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Should I buy full frame?

I’m trying to decide what full frame camera to go with, if I should even bother. I’m not solving a particular problem.

Sep 18, 2024 at 05:50 PM

marsguy
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Should I buy full frame?

As Scott says, you need an idea of what problem you're trying to solve. What kinds of photos do you like the most, do you love to shoot at night, are you trying to capture moving subjects (including children)? Would those situations benefit from full frame/a different camera? Which lenses would you need to solve your needs? And so on...

That said if you've been bitten by the bug and you're looking to lighten your wallet, pick up a used R5 in the classifieds here for around 2 grand. They're fantastic landscape instruments and you won't feel a need for better autofocus unless you're specifically chasing wildlife or you have running children. For travel I like simplicity unless photography is a big focus of the trip, so I'd get a used 24-105/4 and not look back. Also grab a used 14-35 for landscape and wide cityscapes (if you insist on bringing 2 lenses for travel) and you're set. I love the 14-35 even for walkaround use, and the R5 has enough pixels that you can easily crop to a 50mm FOV and still have it look fantastic, especially since the 14-35 is so sharp. If you need a bokeh monster/low light prime, besides the 85/2, all the cheap ones leave something to be desired, but they are certainly options.

I hope this helps with any GAS you might currently be feeling

Sep 18, 2024 at 05:52 PM

tmoseley1
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Should I buy full frame?

I like landscape, night (about astro and just night photography), and wildlife and birds. Wildlife and birds I have handled with the R7.

Lens-wise I also have a 15-35/f2.8, 100mm macro, and 100-500mm RF lenses. I also have the 18-150 and 10-18 RF-S lenses.

Here’s some I took with my old 7D

https://flic.kr/p/7uzEkh
https://flic.kr/p/2p6rmNH
https://flic.kr/p/7eiQTz

Sep 18, 2024 at 06:06 PM

tmoseley1
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Should I buy full frame?

RoamingScott wrote:
Then we, along with you, have no idea what problem you're trying to solve.

I didn’t realize what an excellent question this was. Thank you!

Sep 18, 2024 at 06:08 PM

Mike_5D
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Should I buy full frame?

It sounds like you have a pretty good setup already.

Sep 18, 2024 at 06:26 PM

Mike_5D
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Should I buy full frame?

The last time I bought a new camera, I was very aware of what shortcomings my current camera had. I waited to upgrade until I found a camera that addressed enough of them in a significant enough way to justify the expense. Until you can do that, "shoot what you brought."

Sep 18, 2024 at 06:32 PM

Jeff Nolten
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Should I buy full frame?

You are going to spend a lot of money to get a FF kit the equal of what you have and I don't know what improvements you'd see. Look at the Sigma 18-50 f2.8 which does for your R7 what the current kit does not. What then would you be missing? Shoot raw and use current post processing software and you'll negate most hardware advantages. IMHO of course.

Price an R5 + 24-105 L kit and see if you think it would be worth it. I have the R5 + R7 combo and it makes a nice super kit. I use the R7 kit for some outings and my wife uses it for major travel when I'm using the R5 kit. We also have the RF 100-400 in our combined kits.

Sep 18, 2024 at 07:46 PM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Should I buy full frame?

The R6II looks really nice and the R6 is apparently very inexpensive if you can buy one locally or something. Your 15-35 looks much more interesting on FF.

But the R7 looks good/great too are you having any issues. 32mp looks appealing

Personally I don't utilize max DR much. I don't really feel compelled to upgrade to FF on landscapes even though ff is better

Sep 18, 2024 at 08:27 PM

StephenS_CP
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Should I buy full frame?

I've looked through your Flickr albums. You have some very nice photography there. It seems to me that you are already well acquainted with using a crop-sensor and UWA for "landscape and travel". I'm not sure you need any advice on that score.

It seems to me that between your R7 and the RF-s 10-18 and 18-150 lenses, you already have "landscape and travel" covered. The 2 lenses give you FF equiv. 16-240mm FOV. The R7's very high pixel density provides great detail. And, it is a light, easily managed travel kit as well. There are whole image threads on FM presenting highly credible landscape/travel photography using crop-sensor cameras.

For me, the justifications for your picking up a 2nd body include:
1) I don't ever travel with just one body. I always want a backup.
2) While I don't think it has ever limited me when I do use the R7 for landscape, it is rated to have 1-stop lower DR than the full-frame R bodies.
3) One of the lower MP FF cameras (R6/R8 variants) would be necessary to pair with your RF 15-35 f2.8 for night/astrophotography

Personally, I have an R5 that I use for other than bird/wildlife photography. I have an R7 and long lenses that I use for birds/wildlife. But I am seriously considering the opposite to your dilemma. I'm trying to decide if I want to buy an RF-s 18-150 and one of the 10-18 or 10-20 UWA zooms to pair with my R7 as a light travel kit to replace my M5 + EF-m 18-150.

Sep 18, 2024 at 08:34 PM

tmoseley1
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Should I buy full frame?

StephenS_CP wrote:
I've looked through your Flickr albums. You have some very nice photography there. It seems to me that you are already well acquainted with using a crop-sensor and UWA for "landscape and travel". I'm not sure you need any advice on that score.

It seems to me that between your R7 and the RF-s 10-18 and 18-150 lenses, you already have "landscape and travel" covered. The 2 lenses give you FF equiv. 16-240mm FOV. The R7's very high pixel density provides great detail. And, it is a light, easily managed travel kit as well. There are whole image threads on FM...Show more →

Thanks for the response, and looking at my port on Flickr.

Sorry, what’s UWA?

Have you ever tried the R5 for Astro?

Sep 18, 2024 at 09:07 PM

StephenS_CP
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Should I buy full frame?

UWA = Ultra Wide Angle lens, used in this context to emphasize needing 10mm focal length to get a FF-equiv. 16mm which is my personal requirement for travel and indoor photography.

I do very little night-time/astrophotography. I shot some Aurora pictures earlier this summer, and sometimes go for Milky Way pictures when traveling to the mountains or remote areas. Since I have it, I've always used my 5DSr + EF-mount Sigma 14mm f1.8 rather than the R5.

Sep 18, 2024 at 09:23 PM

artsupreme
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Should I buy full frame?

I would choose between the R5 and R6II used. You can get a lightly used R5 for $2000 and a lightly used R6II for $1600. Both are great deals and both bodies can do it all, but the R5 has resolution if you want that for cropping and future proofing your files.

Sep 18, 2024 at 09:29 PM

melcat
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Should I buy full frame?

tmoseley1 wrote:
Lens-wise I also have a 15-35/f2.8, 100mm macro, and 100-500mm RF lenses.

I’m going to disagree with the majority here and say that, yes, you should get a full frame body, because you already have this very nice (and expensive!) full frame lens kit.

Putting the RF 15–35mm f/2.8 IS and your 100mm macro on full frame would immediately make their focal lengths much more useful, especially for travel. These 3 lenses together would make an excellent travel kit, provided you can carry the weight and provided you’re not someone who uses the 50–70mm focal lengths a lot.

With the 100–500mm you can do a lot of birding on full frame, and adding the RF 1.4× extender makes it usable for smaller or more distant birds too. (I use this on my full frame R3.) Since I’m happy with the R3, I haven’t investigated how the R5, R5 II or R7 perform, but YouTuber Duade Paton likes the R5 better than the R7 for birding. Since that’s your main use case for APS-C, you could just sell off the R7 and the two APS-C lenses, put that money towards a full frame camera, and not have to deal with the choice of which camera to take on an outing and switching between interfaces, reconfiguring camera bags etc.

I didn’t vote in the poll, because as I said I’m very happy with the R3 and had no need to investigate further, so just don’t know. But someone who can afford the 15–35 and 100–500 might also be someone who would be happier “buying once and crying once” and should be looking at the better models. The original R5 had noticeable rolling shutter and I’ve seen reports in this forum of viewfinder lag with it – I never had those problems with the R3 and I wouldn’t expect the new R5 Mk II to exhibit them either.

Sep 18, 2024 at 09:48 PM

tmoseley1
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Should I buy full frame?

melcat wrote:
I’m going to disagree with the majority here and say that, yes, you should get a full frame body, because you already have this very nice (and expensive!) full frame lens kit.

Putting the RF 15–35mm f/2.8 IS and your 100mm macro on full frame would immediately make their focal lengths much more useful, especially for travel. These 3 lenses together would make an excellent travel kit, provided you can carry the weight and provided you’re not someone who uses the 50–70mm focal lengths a lot.

With the 100–500mm you can do a lot of birding on full frame, and adding the...Show more →

Thanks for a very informative response. To fill that gap, I was thinking about the 24-240 as a travel lens, or maybe the 24-105 f4.

Sep 18, 2024 at 10:06 PM

steamtrain
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Should I buy full frame?

tmoseley1 wrote:
Thanks for a very informative response. To fill that gap, I was thinking about the 24-240 as a travel lens, or maybe the 24-105 f4.
The latter imo. You're upgrading to get the best IQ, and the 100-500mm can take care of the longer focal lengths.

Sep 19, 2024 at 05:59 AM

MintMar
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Should I buy full frame?

FF is basically only needed if you want easier way to get a thin DOF, or you have a use for larger pixels (either lowlight or having less sharper lenses). And perhaps if you want to use full image circle of specific FF lens and not just a crop.

Sep 19, 2024 at 07:02 AM

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