Quote: Reading all the rants from all the people yelling about full-frame as a way to to get better photographs (because of the shallower DOF) encouraged me to start this thread.
(Grabs pop-corn... and then puts it down: too early for pop-corn...)
Quote: What if Pentax came out with new, ultra-fast DA* lenses? Would you stop complaining, then?
Of course not... what would Internet fora be for?
Quote: What about a conversion from full-frame to APS-C like this:
85mm f/1.4 --> 55mm f/1.2
300mm f/2.8 --> 200mm f/2.0
80-200 f/2.8 --> 50-135mm f/2.0
You'd get your shallow DOF, but you'd also get an extra stop, for available light.
Or, if you honestly think that a full-frame camera looks noticably better than an APS-C all the time, then think of that extra stop as a means to turn down your ISO (to regain image quality).
And if you're like me, and want your pictures to actually be sharp and have a discernible subject (I know, I'm so old-fashioned), then you could simply stop your lens down a stop. You'd have the same available light as a full-frame camera, but you'd have a sharper photo.
As you rightfully pointed out, a larger aperture isn't really a replacement for clean high ISO. DoF is DoF and the question is: can I get the DoF I want (shallow or not)? If I have to open the lens up to regain IQ and avoid high ISO, then I'll loose my chosen DoF and that's a trade off I prefer not having to make.
Plus if Pentax made those large aperture zooms, they would be very expensive, they would be bulky and then you'd end up with the same price/size than FF but still would be missing the most important benefits (IMO of course) of FF which are increased DR and lower noise.
When you take pictures with FF or APS-C you always have to choose some compromise but they are somewhat different.
Using APS-C, my compromises were that I tried to favor low ISO and thus often used the lens wide open and "risky" shutter speeds, after 1 year of using FF, I have now taken the habit of letting the ISO run more or less freely and get higher shutter speeds and smaller f-stops: that's a compromise (I take the risk of more noise but find it OK up to 3200) but in the end, the pictures I am getting are more in line with what I wanted, thus my desire (but not great hopes) for a FF from Pentax.
Quote: Thoughts?
Yeah!... time for a cofee...