Guys, I’m new here. I’m an amateur bird photographer from Brazil. I photograph mostly small birds im rainforests. I usually work with low light ambients.
My current equipment are: Sony a6500 + Sony 100-400GM lens wich gives me 600mm of reach.
I feel sometimes that I don’t have enough reach with my setup, since I photograph small bird that are far away in the trees. Therefore I have to do a lot of cropping in post processing to get to decent size birds. But, when I do so, a lot a time I end up losing too much resolution, getting non usable images. I’m thinking in upgrade my equipment and have 2 options:
Buy the new 200-600mm lens and use it on the a6500 body getting that 900mm reach so I be doing less cropping or buy a full frame camera such as the a7r3 or a9 or a7r4 with the 200-600mm lens and keep the 600mm reach, but with higher resolution. My doubt is:
Will I get better resolution images with the 900mm in a APS-C body or with the 600mm + post processing cropping in a higher resolution full frame body? Could anybody help me? I’m sorry if I’m not clear enough. Thanks guys!
If you buy a full frame camera your APS_C lenses will either not fit or will give you a crop that just uses the same number of pixels as the APS-C camera did. So you need a full frame camera and another lens to go with it. That’s my understanding. So you’re better off getting a long lens for your current camera for your immediate needs.
Welcome. Yours is a classic problem. What I did was fine tune every aspect of my own behavior to enable me to approach, be close, and be with them in their world. I shortened the distances between us instead of using the more powerful lens. It requires intimate thinking about them, their world, and one’s self. It changed how I image birds and greatly enriched the time I spend in nature and the images I bring from there. It caused me to discover how amazing they are, and avoid the mind and body numbing weight of a larger lens. I shoot 420mm (300 + 1.4TC) on full frame w/grip = 6lbs. GL
Welcome, Lucas. Igor and Steven both make good points. On Steven’s point, that will work with some birds, but my understanding of rainforest ecology is that many birds stay up in the canopy and getting up there with them could be very difficult. I believe the 200-600 on your current or another crop sensor camera has the advantage over a full frame in your situation mostly because the subject is larger in your viewfinder and that makes it easier to make sure the critical focus is on the bird rather than a nearby branch or leaf. Having that focus perfect is the most important factor in being able to do a large crop.