ds927

I have a Canon 80D but am thinking of upgrading. I mainly take pictures of family activities - sports, school events, vacations, etc and some are low light or far distance. I'm struggling with what features really would be best. I have crop now but should I stay with that or does full frame really give me better options? I think if I'm buying new I should venture into the mirrorless cameras. While my old lenses are not bad, they aren't top of the line either, so I'm open to something different. Any recommendations?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Nothing about your 24MP advanced EOS model is due for replacement nor upgrade. If shooting sports, look at the focal length of your lens(es) and the questions of (a) indoor / outdoor and (b) distance. Do you need a wider aperture for indoors? Do you need a longer focal length for center-field action? Removing the 1.6x crop factor via full-frame will surely cause issues. Spend your money on what is impactful. Replacing an EOS 80D is not one of them.

ds927

Thanks. Maybe you're right. The money might be better spent on a new lens vs. the camera. I hesitated to go that route of continuing with this mount type if another type of camera would be better. Why do you say full frame would cause problems? I've struggled to decide which is best and think I must be missing something.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

It depends. I, also, was using an 80D and thought about the R7. In my case, I am retired and the $ wasn't an issue so I got it. The main reason was for the IBIS and eye-focus. I found that with many more pixels I can crop deeper. There are drawbacks as well. The viewfinder goes to sleep quickly and the R7 uses batteries faster than the 80D. However, it does come with a battery that holds more and the spares from the 80D fit as well.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Some reasons for crop vs ff are:
1) More "reach"
2) more lens choices
3) lighter
4) smaller
5) less expensive

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Concerning your thought of format change...I have two roughly equivalent DSLRs. One is fu frame, the other is DX. While I do not shoot sports as a discipline, what I do shoot is pretty similar to what you do. I did a somewhat structured experiment last summer, because I was curious about the question that you are asking.

My result was that both formats were completely capable of and compatible with anything I wanted to do. Full frame was a little better at some things, like architecture and building interiors, and DX was a little quicker and easier to use. (I had exactly the same lens, 24-120mm f/4 on each camera.) Neither format caused me to miss any shots.

You might consider doing a similar experiment. Even as a thought experiment. Is there a faster or wider or longer lens that would help you do what you want to do?

Now it may be that you just would like to have something new. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. I'd suggest giving the same kind of thought to your choice. You can then make a better choice than we can.

By the way...I probably grab the crop camera 75 or 80% of the time. It does the job and is just more fun to use.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Canon EF / EF-S lenses are fully supported on EOS mirrorless cameras, via the RF adapter. There is ZERO risk of buying another EF / EF-S lens today.

Your EOS 80D is a cropped sensor body. Your lenses 'seem' longer due to the 1.6x crop factor. If you're at your max focal length and then cropping into the image files to still get closer, removing the crop factor will present an issue. Example, 100mm on a full-frame camera is 100mm. That lens is also 100mm on your 80D, but the field of view seems like you were using a 160mm lens as the cropped sensor captures just the center portion of the image, a view that seems like 160mm on a full-frame camera for the field of view of the image.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Another matter that might be relevant; your computer.
Some of the full frame cameras produce humongous sized files that an older slower computer might struggle with.
Do you create RAW files? Even my D7100 produces RAW files that slow down processing on my laptop, same as my little LUMIX LX100II. As for batch processing? Nah.
I’d go for a new lens.

ds927

Thanks. This helps me a lot!

ds927

I do RAW sometimes, mainly the pictures I suspect I'll want to work with, but normally just stick with jpg just for this storage issue. I have them backed up to an external drive but they do get big!

ds927

What a great idea to comparison test the 2 types of cameras in the same setting. I have a friend with a FF, so I may reach out to see if I can borrow hers to do that.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

When I'm deciding on a new camera, I compare what it offers with what I have now. I also spend time reading reviews and comparisons. Generally speaking, new technology will offer better results, regardless of the MP count or sensor size.

ELNikkor

For sports, my friend used a 70-200 f2.8 for soccer and indoor basketball on his 70D, took excellent photos. That may be the only upgrade you need.

brentrh Loc: Deltona, FL

I moved up to R5 from D5 for better image and features. Works for me, but when I upgraded to D5 full frame had to replace some lenses. R5 adapter ring makes all my red line lenses work perfectly. Newer cameras are better all with what you can afford but it is the photographer that makes the difference

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

No worry about the mount as if you do upgrade all your EF and EF-S lenses will work 100% and better on a R body.
So get a good lens with more reach or whatever you want.
Low light performance for your camera is good, perhaps a larger aperture lens will help.