Full Frame or Not

[Adey Baker]

Anyway, back to the subject I think that only working photographers 'need' FF, where clients specify it, whereas some hobby photographers might 'want' FF to get the very best out of their interest/hobby/all-consuming passion/waste of time and money.

Telephoto lenses seem to be more or less OK with FF or cropped sensors but there are still questions over wide-angle lenses in FF yet Canon don't seem to have done much with their range other than improving a couple of WA zooms. With prime wide angles there are just the old film-based designs and any optical defects need to be corrected with third-party software. I must admit that I've never seen any photos, first hand, taken with wide angles on FF cameras - perhaps the problems are more visible in test situations rather than 3-dimensional real-life photos.

(Incidentally, wouldn't the renowned 'tonal gradation' of Minolta lenses be actually better in digital cameras than the higher contrast Zeiss optics? - Just a thought )

[Joe]

I didn't mean to knock any minolta optics as such. Thinking about it, you have a very good point. some of the Zeiss glass was contrasty.
BUT (and my guess is this is the big but), the name Zeiss has a big following and is well known, even among those who perhaps don't follow optic design. We certainly get many in the shop who'll say things like "there's a good zeiss (or zeuss as some say) lens on this compact/ camcorder etc"....realisticaly I think it's brand power over and pure technical reason.

Back to the subject in this thread.....

I WOULD want to see Nikon produce a full frame camera, as I'm sure many Nikon fans would. Ironically, the strength to justify such a model would lay with the market share perhaps gained from Canon, particularly the 5D....which would buck a trend, certainly amongst some of the big agency pros. I feel Nikon certainly have to pull a few radical new models out of the bag to bite back market share to hark back to their hayday dominance in the F2,F3,F4 model days.
As a consumer, and interested punter, I would certainly like to see Nikon do something along full frame lines, but in reality I really can't see it happen......in the next couple years atleast.

[Don Hoey]

A bit of net scouring and I found a link to The World of Canon Sensors that has some explanation http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/cmos/index-e.html


I also found this link that explains the expected differences in MP count and sensor pixel pitch. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/es...r-design.shtml

Nothing to change my prediction for Nikon in post one. The question is when. Just wish I had an Hs to simulate it by stitching two portrait orientation shots together to compare with a landscape format X image.

From Adey's post re a possible Sony full frame sensor, and picking up on Leif and Joes comment on the megapixel race, then the question is, will pub bragging rights continue, as the full frame sensor gives them more opportunity to go to 20mp. ( Marketing mans delight ) Higher count than the 1DS MkII but not necessarily better image quality.

Don