Originally posted by zoolander K-1 owners ! Is switching to FF worth it ? Dear K-1 owners, I am contemplating switching from my K-3 to the K-1. 1st question: Is it worth it, and how much better is the K-1 over K-3/K-3ii in terms of IQ, ISO and overall performance ?
Yes and no. I still think there is no perfect camera for everything. It depends on what type of photography you do. In crop mode, the K1 is less performing than the K3. And when using the K1 in full frame mode (36Mp), beside less high iso noise there is no much advantage in IQ when using the camera JPEG processor, in order to keep the file sizes and burst rate, most of the 36Mp vs 24Mp details are lost. Then there is the depth of field thing; and yes, with fast lenses the K1 can render amazing where the same picture taken with the K3 will look good but ordinary. So some artistic portraiture, FF beats APSC. What I did, I considered that I'd keep the K3 for use with long lenses / wildlife or traveling with a couple of limited primes, and have the K1 for stills, landscape and portraiture. Then I revamped my lenses so that it made sense to use both formats, so I could sell some lenses and finance the K1 and a standard zoom with it. Basically, when having ASPC and FF or both from the same camera, it reduces the number of lenses you need because the x1.5 crop factor gives an additional option. You can also crop the 36Mp into a 24Mp image. In short, the K1 is big and slow but offer flexibility for post processing cropping etc... The K3 is faster, smaller and cheaper, but less room for cropping and processing the files.
About JPEG processing: I still have a Nikon coolpix2100, small sensor 2.5Mpixeln, JPEG look flashy, very colorful with lots of contrast (Nikon style :-) ) but... better not compare the photos with the real life gradation of tones and colors... Simple, for phones and point and shot cameras, a lots of effort is put into image processing to make images stand out to the eye of the purchaser, but that's fine for most people in hurry (take a shot a post it over the web).