b top gun

Most likely it has been debated here "ad nauseam".....cropped sensor(DX) or full frame(FX). I have been having this debate with myself for too long now. Have a Nikon D7100 that has been to AZ twice and the Pacific North Wet four times; when I review my images I ask myself "What if I had used a Nikon FX instead?" Would I have seen a difference in I Q ? The debate has come down to, do I upgrade to a D750 or not? Have used a D850 on several occasions, especially at night, with really nice results. The challenge with the D850 is its size and weight vs. my D7100. I shoot mostly 'scapes...landscapes and seascapes; occasionally video and with the D850 have done a few time lapse videos. Lenses are not an issue, have a couple of Nikon FX and multiple Nikkor manual focus primes from my 35mm film days. Action shots for me.....waves crashing a rocky shoreline. Mirrorless is not an option.

jlocke Loc: Austin, TX

I have a D7200 and a D750. I was shooting a lot of pictures of my grandson's hockey team with the D7200 and an 80-200 f/2.8 lens and wanted something that was a little better in the low light. So I found a D750 on Adorama for around $830 with a shutter count of only 693! There is a little less noise in the photos, but other than that, the picture quality is about the same. I don't know if you'd see an appreciable difference.

Quixdraw Loc: x

There is no difference apparent in output between my D7200 and D750. My D810 allows crops which would not be practical with the other two. Best friend has the D850 feels the extra MP just slows things down post. Personally, I could probably get along with a D500, but I enjoy the cameras I have. Travelling I carry one DX and one FX along with lenses - gives the most flexibility.

67skylark27 Loc: Fort Atkinson, WI

I have the D750 and I use it for portraits, landscapes and some wildlife. Now I have a D500 and D7200 and just keep the big lens on it and have two set ups. It works great. Get the D750 and don't look back.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

I have a D7100 and recently purchased a D780 and while I like the new camera with some new features and is full frame, when I look at the final product it is hard to determine which camera took the photo. It just depends on what you expect to achieve in getting a new camera. The D750 has a great rep and will be a great addition but if you think the end result will be greatly different you may be shocked.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Although I did use a few digital cameras prior to 2010, when I learned that Nikon was making a full frame digital, I purchased one. I upgraded to the 800e and then the 850. To my way of thinking photographically, using a smaller sensor was akin to shooting with a 127 camera. The bigger the negative the better. The same applies to digital in my opinion.
--Bob

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi b top gun,
I have the D7100, D7200, and D750. I'd be hard pressed to identify picture differences between any one of the three without looking at the camera's data. Yes, the D750 is a little better in low light but I seldom shoot in those conditions. Take care & ...

Najataagihe

Why not both?

Get what makes you happy.


A DX makes me happy, as I have always shot in "telephoto" mode to keep from getting blown up.

It is now how I see pretty much everything.


Landscapes? Zoom in on details.

Portraits? I hate artificially big noses.

Action? I am too old to be in and amongst the action.

Etc.


BUT, that is me.

What makes YOU happy and what does your current gear not do that you want it to do?

Once you answer those two questions (we can't answer them for you), you will have your answer.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

D750 is my favorite Nikon ever and I have almost all models from the D300 to the D810 with the exception of the D500 and D600 series. The 24mp is better for post op than the higher mpx cameras when working with the full file. If you need to do a lot of cropping, the higher mpx cameras would of course be better. The 24mpx seems the perfect compromise between noise and sharpness. Go for the 750, you won't regret it.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

I would suspect the one advantage to the D750 would be lower light capacity. It’s a shame you don’t consider mirrorless an option because the Z7 would give you the same IQ as the D850 in an amazingly small and light package. My Z7 body is no bigger than my M4/3 Panasonic G9.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a full-frame camera.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

Top gun I'm glad you asked that question because I've thought of going full frame many, many times over the years and the only thing stopping me was the doubt that I would see any appreciable increase in image quality since I don't shoot in low light. Now we've heard from several who own both full frame and cropped sensor cameras that there is no noticeable difference except in certain shooting situations. Guess I'll stay with cropped.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Aside from a little difference in DOF there's no intrinsic reason why FX should be appreciably better then DX for IQ.

Of course, given an FX and a DX sensor with the same number of pixels, the FX will have larger pixels so it will collect more light so the noise will be slightly lower. The difference might be noticeable, but it won't be a big difference. The linear size of the FX pixels is approximately 1.5 times that of the DX pixels. Since the area goes as the square of that number and the noise varies inversely as the square root of the area, the noise seen in the DX image will be about 1.5 times that in the FX image. Since most photos are not seriously impacted by noise, it won't be a big effect until you get into low light situations.

A larger difference would be seen between an older camera and a newer model. Low light performance has improved fairly steadily although there's some suggestion that the improvements have almost topped out now and differences are due more to signal processing than intrinsic sensor characteristics. The D7100 came out in 2013 and the D750 in 2014, so there will be some difference but again, probably not a lot.

One disadvantage of switching from DX to FX is that your DX lenses will have to be replaced with FX lenses, so the cost of upgrading could be significant. You can use DX lenses on an FX camera but (1) the camera will probably want to switch to DX mode, which just uses a small portion of the sensor, reducing your pixel count; or (2) you can switch off the cropping but the lens sharpness will fall off significantly at the edges of the frame. You might even get vignetting on your images on some lenses.

The real difference between the D7100 and the D750 will be in the build quality of the camera and the bells and whistles that the camera offers.

mymike Loc: Tucson, AZ

You could try renting a D750 or FF of your choice from Lensrentals.com or borrow lenses.com and test drive for a week and see if it makes any difference. Then decide. I have both DX and FX and shoot mostly with my Z6. But that’s just me.

Quixdraw Loc: x

One additional thought, and I'll assume the D7100 is pretty much the same as the D7200 in terms of control layout, the D750 and D7200 are virtually identical in terms of physical layout. The only exception I can think of is a different position for the computer output cable. Very beneficial when working two cameras.