Originally posted by lesmore49 Excellent photography, Ian.
It is obvious to me that your are quite a skilled photographer, of that, IMO, there is no doubt.
The question in my mind though, would your...personal... photographic results be similar....say up to 11 X 14 or so...if you had used a top ASP-C DSLR /lens combo such as a Pentax K-3 or Nikon D 7200...with similar quality lenses as the Nikon lens you use with your FF ?
It's not a criticism, as I'm considering going full frame eventually. More of a request for your thoughts on the matter.
Rather than repeating what is said here using both 24mp on cropped and FF here some of my thoughts
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/16-pentax-news-rumors/298256-ff-out-4-mon...ml#post3381323
Often people would spent a considerately a lot more on lenses to see this kind of gain when using apsc so why not pay once for that gain and buy a FF camera .
There is a lot to consider, if your style of wildlife photography you are not FL limited meaning that you have a lens required for your needs then there can be advantages.
Lens resolution, A lens on a smaller format has to resolve more detail to compete with a larger format lens.
A very good read
Equivalence in Pictures: Sharpness/Spatial Resolution | Strolls with my Dog
This will also give you an advantage when using a TC as you will see very little loss to IQ even when using a cheaper zoom like the 200-500 F5.6
I have a limited time with the D810 and 200-500 F5.6 along with I think was the older 1.4 converter
warning large full res image
as you can see not much of an IQ penalty
Cost of FF when you consider equivalent lenses
( cut and paste from another post)
This is how I look at the augment of selecting FF or Apsc
My needs in a Apsc
16-50 F2.8 $1070
50-135 F2.8 $1170
200 F2 $6800
300 F2.8 $7500
Total =$16540
FF
24-70 F4 $1370
70-200 F4 $1300
300 F2.8 $7500
400 F4 $7500
Total=$17670
With apsc I would save 7% on buying my dream system lenses
Why would I not spend the little extra on the FF body and gain all of the benefits of FF for just $1500 dollars
The price difference we see between FF and APSc lenses really is not from that of the format but rather what lenses are not available with same aperture diameter. The benefit with Apsc is that sometimes we are forced into buying a lens with a larger aperture diameter in FF than what would need and this is what drives up the cost of FF
The largest deciding factor is versatility with my 200-400 lens I can have a 400 F4 36mp FF camera, 500mm F5 24mp 1.2 cropped camera or 600 F F6 15mp 1.5cropped camera. Big advantage when out in the Field.
or with a walk around wildlife lens like the 70-200 F4 it shares the same versatility with no real cost penalty as the 50-135 F2.8 other than the FF body.