Full Frame Cropped or APS-C?? My wife and I are going to Africa and, of course I'm bringing my gear. I am currently shooting with a 5D Mark3 and plan to take my 70-300L (among others)...

patcarls47

My wife and I are going to Africa and, of course I'm bringing my gear. I am currently shooting with a 5D Mark3 and plan to take my 70-300L (among others) with me. If I want to get an effective focal length of 480 mm, which will give me the best results for large prints a)shooting with 5d and cropping image, or b) buying a 7d, and relying on the crop sensor to give me the extra reach I'm looking for?

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Africa--once in a lifetime. Use the best gear you can buy. Full frame, uncropped. Buy a lens for reach.

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Kmgw9v wrote:

Africa--once in a lifetime. Use the best gear you can buy. Full frame, uncropped. Buy a lens for reach.

Agreed

heyjoe Loc: cincinnati ohio

7d or 70d both good choices also ,great reach,low light should not be an issue,

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

patcarls47 wrote:

My wife and I are going to Africa and, of course I'm bringing my gear. I am currently shooting with a 5D Mark3 and plan to take my 70-300L (among others) with me. If I want to get an effective focal length of 480 mm, which will give me the best results for large prints a)shooting with 5d and cropping image, or b) buying a 7d, and relying on the crop sensor to give me the extra reach I'm looking for?

Don't bog yourself down with equipment. You will enjoy the trip much more.

Use your 5D III and 70-300L and a WA add the 400L 5.6 A little cropping doesn't hurt and you will appreciate the handling and save some money.

mikedidi46 Loc: WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA

:thumbup: :thumbup: I have the 70D and it is an awesome Crop sensor. I would love to have a 5D MK3

Roger Lee

If you're focal length challenged and in good light, go with the crop sensor, hands down.

Otherwise the 5DIII stays glued to my hand.

Have a good time!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There were some comments / questions about Africa earlier this year that included references to dust and not wanting to change lenses in the field as well as needing a shorter lens when things get closer than a super tele could handle. Rather than buying, look at renting something like a 100-400L II that can also use the 1.4III extender. This would take you to 460 before croppng with no appreciable IQ loss nor change in weight / size relative to the 70-300L. You can rent a second body too.

Dick Z. Loc: Downers Grove IL

Kmgw9v wrote:

Africa--once in a lifetime. Use the best gear you can buy. Full frame, uncropped. Buy a lens for reach.

I agree. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Jim Bob

Kmgw9v wrote:

Africa--once in a lifetime. Use the best gear you can buy. Full frame, uncropped. Buy a lens for reach.

Best possible advice. Anything else should be disregarded, assuming of course this would in fact be a "once in a lifetime" trip.

Bozsik Loc: Orangevale, California

oldtigger wrote:

Agreed

:thumbup: :thumbup:

hawaiidave Loc: Honolulu, HI

I took a full frame Nikon Df, and a D5300 APS-C with the idea of shooting the Df and 24-85 for people and landscapes and the 70-300 on the D5300 for animals. I bought an OpTech dual sling so I had both ready to go. I also had a high quality Vortex binoculars. Within the tour group was a group of ten friends from Hawaii. I found that it was so much hassle to lug two heavy cameras I ended up using the Df with the 70-300 and the binoculars and leaving the D5300 behind. At the end of the trip we found that people like my wife who shot with a Lumix that fitted in her pocket got a lot of the more memorable pictures of the group having fun, eating meals, shooting what we ate, taking shots of the camp accommodations and camp personnel. I missed most of because the only time I took my camera out was on safari

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

Rent camera and lenses from Borrowlenses.com. Bring at least a 400mm. Bring a 1.4 TC just in case.

Roger Lee

Nope, the full frame has the image quality, but the 7DII will put more pixels on your subject if you're focal length limited period.

Couple that with a 100-400L II and you'll get amazing results. Better results than is possible with the full frame due to less pixels captured on your subject.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

Roger Lee wrote:

Nope, the full frame has the image quality, but the 7DII will put more pixels on your subject if you're focal length limited period.

Couple that with a 100-400L II and you'll get amazing results. Better results than is possible with the full frame due to less pixels captured on your subject.

I have no idea what you are trying to say. If the full frame has more image quality what else is there?