My views on upgrading from crop to full frame DSLR

There are thousands of threads around the eternal question of should I upgrade to full frame. I did not want to add one more “hurray I got a full frame thread”.But after a few months of using and comparing DX/FX, I hope this could serve for a few D7000 holdouts who are still validating and hopefully help a few who are considering a switch to full frame. To give a bit of background, I have been holding on to D7000, my first DSLR. And looking back, one of the reasons I bought the D7000 was a sagely advise I got on the internet “Buy your second camera first”. There could not have been a better advise. After many years of good service upgrading the D7000 was a challenge.The obvious upgrade candidates were D7200 or D7500 and by way of improvement, they were not compelling enough for me to upgrade. The big draw of D7200 is the extra pixels and competent AF system, whereas D7500 was a mixed bag. It is a mini D500 with some of the high ISO images are astounding. However, barring the sensor and tilt screen, it is not what I was looking for. I could have overlooked the single card slot, but removal of AI index tab was pretty much unacceptable for me. So, I decided to buy a full frame.D610 was ruled out since I wanted better autofocus and D750 seemed like a perfect fit. But the question remained on the associated cost of full frame lenses. For a while I contemplated, but what swung the decision was, I had been shooting pretty much with primes (35 1.8 /50 1.8 /85 1.4 ) out of which the 50 rarely comes out of the bag and the 35 was almost welded . So, it felt natural an upgrade would just mean the body and mostly one walk around lens. I was just hoping I could get a deal during holidays on D750 and waited patiently.Out of no-where I stumbled upon an ebay listing for used D810 and the rabbit hole took me to used D800s whose prices have dropped unbelievably low. The D800 meant I did not have to bother about lens as the DX crop would pretty much give me a D7000 image. I took the plunge on a mint D800 and with hardly a few thousand-shutter count, I am more than pleased with my upgrade. Now that I have been shooting with D800, I want to share some observations of someone who upgraded from DX to FX.Handling:Worse than D7000. The grip is not great. I hand held it without strap for a few days and I did not like the heavy and unbalanced body compared to by D7000 which in my opinion was better balanced for my pinky. I bought a holster and it feels a bit better now. The power button and Dpad are smoother, but the shutter sound is not crisp.Controls:I do not like the ISO button placement, but Auto ISO on single flick is great. The metering buttons on D7000 was far better than the controls which are unusable on D800. I just assigned Fn2 for Matrix and leave it on Spot. However, I do not understand how anyone can shoot with this gimped button placement. If anyone knows how one can change ISO or metering modes while looking through the view finder, I will appreciate. I preferred the primary knobs of D7000 for its simplicity but not much to complain as I usually shoot Manual mode/single. Fortunately the AF selector works the same. So does exposure compensation. Overall, it’s a Nikon you expect it to be.Autofocus:Coming from D7K, which has more mood swings than your pregnant wife, the AF is predictable. However, I can see the left AF issue is pretty strong to a point I cannot use 3D AF. I think the bad rap that Nikon got for D600 was deserved. After acknowledging the Left AF issue, Nikon never issued a service advisory for D800. Does it impact my shooting? Yes, I am forced to be conscious which I prefer not to be. But it is better than D7K.First impressions:It is not faster or slower than D7000, I rarely go to CL/CH with D7K, but I think 4fps is not fast at any stretch so not worth switching. I was expecting to be blown away by the view finder, but it was just marginally better. When I realized it did not have an IR trigger, I could not believe it. At only $400 Nikon was offering a laughable solution. I plan to shoot tethered rather. (Connecting to digicam control and a powerpoint remote seems good to go). Battery life is worse. With the D7000; I never had to worry about charging my battery. But D800 is comparably half the endurance.If you read this far, you would have assumed, I am mostly neutral or indifferent to the camera. But I wanted them to get out of the way before I say how much I like the D800. Lens Image Quality: When I took the decision to upgrade, my primary reason was; an upgrade to full frame will also improve upon my lenses. So essentially it will be a body + lens upgrade. But I was not prepared to see the quality of files that I managed to get.Simply put, as I shot mostly portraits, I was able to get the shots I liked with way less effort I used to put on D7K. And this was not an exaggeration. The neglected 50mm suddenly became a thing of beauty. The 35DX was surprisingly sharp and crisp with acceptable vignetting (which I prefer for portraits). But the true revelation was the 85 1.4. It is the ultimate combination with full frame for portraits.Dynamic Range:Coming from D7000 it is not a day and night difference, but I can clearly see D800 holding up incredibly well for pushes in post processing. I have pretty much switched over to darktable/Gimp with D800 and I manage to get a lot better colors compared to D7000.Color, Sharpness and Tonality:I sometimes shoot jpeg small at 9MP and the images are sharp and crisp compared to my D7K raws. I am not very keen on sharpness usually, but I am impressed at D800 raw. It is not just the sharpness, but the beautiful roll over of tonality is a delight. I never saw any follies on my D7K until I compared it with D800. Now I know why some full frame users scoff at DX. But what pleases me the most is the color. I no longer have to fight the jaundice that plagues skin tones from D7000. This is particularly true for images that are slightly out of focus where D7K used to demonstrate weird color shifts. This is the single most important advantage I relish with the upgrade.So do I recommend an upgrade to full frame for anyone shooting DX ? I know this might sound a bit cliché but if you have to ask, you should not upgrade. Sometime about a couple of years ago, I took a photo in low light which I was both proud of and knew I would have gotten better if I had a full frame. I thought about it a long time and decided to watch over what I shoot. I limited my shutter count to ensure I get the shot right as much as possible. I knew I had come to the edge of what my camera can do and I made the decision to upgrade.I remember moving from point and shoot to DSLR and was underwhelmed at my inability to get the best out of D7K. It took a lot of practice and I did not want to repeat the same mistake. But at the current prices, a used D6xx or D800 are absolute no brainers. It costs lesser than a D7500 or even D7200 (though new vs used). Have a go and give yourself a treat. What if you prefer to buy only new? I suggest just wait. The age of sub $1000 full frame cameras are already here and it will only get better in the short term before bouncing away. Unless you are at the edge of what you can get out of DX, you may not appreciate much of what FX gives. It might sound a bit hypocritical. But remember it is only a small percentage of images you will see the difference between FX vs DX. via /r/photography https://ift.tt/2VKjIB6