Full frame in crop mode or crop camera better for birds? I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....I can shoot the 750 in crop mode but it seems megapixels will go down to roughly 10. I want...

marciamyers Loc: Georgetown, In.

I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....I can shoot the 750 in crop mode but it seems megapixels will go down to roughly 10. I want to print some bird photos but doubt I will go larger than 11 x 14. Will the reduced megapixels hurt the print quality and would I be better off with a D7200 and the same Tamron Fx lens....getting the same 900mm max but not losing resolution? D7200 has a good price now...799 body only, 999 w 2 kit lenses.... not sure I need the lenses though.....thanks for input, still new and sorting through the mass of info

Jakebrake Loc: Broomfield, Colorado

$200 for 2 lenses? Wow, IMO you can't have enough glass!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Ms Stokes has preference for the Canon SX50. Light, long reach 1200 mm. With post, such as On1 resize or BenVista Photozoom the resolution can be increased greatly... perhaps 800% with few artifacts.
Older edition of Photozoom, 6, via Ashampoo is $20... On1 and Photozoom 7 are both expensive.
The UHH cult will suggest you pay thousands for equipment that weight is 40# in a back pack to do what a simple set up will do a great job and leave room in your back pack for a sandwich and cold beer....
http://stokesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/canon-sx-50-hs-for-bird-photography-i.html

Jakebrake Loc: Broomfield, Colorado

dpullum wrote:

Ms Stokes has preference for the Canon SX50. Light... (show quote)

10-4 on the cold beer, good buddy!👍

ELNikkor

10mp is plenty for an 11x print, especially if in RAW. My D40 only had 6mp, and it could do 16x20 no problem! Just try a few at those sizes, spend less than $25 and maybe save yourself a grand!

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi Marcia,
I have a D750 and a D7200 so my suggestion is based on experience with them. I suggest shooting with the D750 in FF mode with the lens you mention. You can always crop in post if needed and may get lucky and be able to use more MP than the crop mode would provide. That said, I shoot almost all of my bird pictures with the D7200 because it reaches to the equivalent of 900mm before doing any cropping thus very often results in no lost MPs. By the way, I recently got a low mileage, second D7200 for my wife on eBay for $675.00 (no lenses). Take care & ...

zug55 Loc: Naivasha, Kenya, and Austin, Texas

marciamyers wrote:

I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....I can shoot the 750 in crop mode but it seems megapixels will go down to roughly 10. I want to print some bird photos but doubt I will go larger than 11 x 14. Will the reduced megapixels hurt the print quality and would I be better off with a D7200 and the same Tamron Fx lens....getting the same 900mm max but not losing resolution?

Some folks on this board have the uncanny ability to get off topic. I actually am interested in some thoughful responses to this question as well.

zug55 Loc: Naivasha, Kenya, and Austin, Texas

Al Beatty wrote:

Hi Marcia,
I have a D750 and a D7200 so my suggestion is based on experience with them. I suggest shooting with the D750 in FF mode with the lens you mention. You can always crop in post if needed and may get lucky and be able to use more MP than the crop mode would provide.\

If you take a picture with your D750 at 24 MP and then crop it you de facto get a cropped image at, let's say, 15 MP. If you take the same shot, same lens, with your D7200 you get the same cropped image at 24 MP. Thus you get a better image quality on your D7200, right? Comments?

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

You'd be better off with a D500.

marciamyers wrote:

I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....I can shoot th... (show quote)

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

zug55 wrote:

If you take a picture with your D750 at 24 MP and then crop it you de facto get a cropped image at, let's say, 15 MP. If you take the same shot, same lens, with your D7200 you get the same cropped image at 24 MP. Thus you get a better image quality on your D7200, right? Comments?

Sounds right to me.
You get far more MP with the crop camera in the photo. Thus a final product that should be better.

Bill_de Loc: US

marciamyers wrote:

I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....

Since you have the camera and lens, why not take a shot and print it. The only thing that matters is if you are satisfied with the results.

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FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

Architect1776 wrote:

Sounds right to me.
You get far more MP with the crop camera in the photo. Thus a final product that should be better.

So, FX lens on FX camera in crop mode = fewer MP than FX lens on DX camera?

twowindsbear

marciamyers wrote:

I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....I can shoot th... (show quote)

How do you KNOW what you're shooting? When you put your D750 into 'crop mode' does the view finder show the reduced sensor area?

I'll recommend shooting full frame and max zoom and then crop the image to best show your object.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

FreddB wrote:

So, FX lens on FX camera in crop mode = fewer MP than FX lens on DX camera?

Yep.
The D750 has 24.3 MP
D7200 has roughly 24MP.

Crop the D750 by any amount and it has fewer MP.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

marciamyers wrote:

I have D750 and a Tamron 150-600....I can shoot th... (show quote)

Shooting birds you will always be cropping regardless of how long your lens is, unless you are really lucky and can get close. As long as you have at least 6 mp, you can make a 40x60 or even bigger, and no one but some dopey photographer who will walk up to the print to examine the fine detail will complain about image resolution.

The D750 will have lower resolution after cropping, whether you do it in camera or later in post processing, but the image quality may be better, because of the larger pixels.

Here is an example of a heavily cropped bird picture that I have printed to 16x20 and looks excellent. Taken with a 600mmF4, D800, no in-camera crop, however if I did I'd still crop it down to what you see, which is a hair under 6 mp. You wouldn't be able to crop as tight with the D750, but it would still have less noise than any APS-C camera used at similar or higher ISO.

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