Minor gear swap question

[stevef]

My photography is about 95% birds & widlife, and the remainder is landscapes and macro.
Current body is D500. Lenses are;

500mm Nikon f5.6 PF
70-210mm Nikon f4
12-28mm Tokina F4
24-85mm Nikon F3.5-4.5
100mm Tokina F2.8

To better utilize the wide and mid zooms for landscapes, I am considering buying a full-frame D750 for a very affordable option. The D500 would end up essentially married to the 500PF, and I would use the D750 for landscapes and macro work. Any faulty logic here?

Another option for a little more net expense is to sell the D500 and buy a D850, and have one body for everything. The only question is what am I giving up if I lose the D500? Frame-rate for one. But anything else? My primary concern would be IQ comparing a 20.9MP DX-cropped image with a 45MP FX image cropped to the same size in post.

 

[Anjin San]

Personally...I think the DSLR is on the way out and would think a lot before buying another one...I woul$ spend an extra 500 in your case for a Z6II. I’m getting the 7II myself and likely the 500PF to replace my Tamron 150-600 G2...but will keep my D7500 since it’s resale value is low, it gives me a second body for hiking, and it has the crop factor for more pixels on target...although the 7II in DX mode avoids that issue. The 7500 also has a higher frame rate as well...

 

[JSD]

My photography is about 95% birds & widlife, and the remainder is landscapes and macro.
Current body is D500. Lenses are;

500mm Nikon f5.6 PF
70-210mm Nikon f4
12-28mm Tokina F4
24-85mm Nikon F3.5-4.5
100mm Tokina F2.8

To better utilize the wide and mid zooms for landscapes, I am considering buying a full-frame D750 for a very affordable option. The D500 would end up essentially married to the 500PF, and I would use the D750 for landscapes and macro work. Any faulty logic here?

Another option for a little more net expense is to sell the D500 and buy a D850, and have one body for everything. The only question is what am I giving up if I lose the D500? Frame-rate for one. But anything else? My primary concern would be IQ comparing a 20.9MP DX-cropped image with a 45MP FX image cropped to the same size in post.

Look for Steve's discussion of D500 versus D850 cropped

 

[stevef]

Look for Steve's discussion of D500 versus D850 cropped

I tried the search box but no luck

 

[JSD]

Try this, https://backcountrygallery.com/cropping-full-frame-vs-shooting-a-crop-camera/

 

[Chad Huff]

My photography is about 95% birds & widlife, and the remainder is landscapes and macro.
Current body is D500. Lenses are;

500mm Nikon f5.6 PF
70-210mm Nikon f4
12-28mm Tokina F4
24-85mm Nikon F3.5-4.5
100mm Tokina F2.8

To better utilize the wide and mid zooms for landscapes, I am considering buying a full-frame D750 for a very affordable option. The D500 would end up essentially married to the 500PF, and I would use the D750 for landscapes and macro work. Any faulty logic here?

Another option for a little more net expense is to sell the D500 and buy a D850, and have one body for everything. The only question is what am I giving up if I lose the D500? Frame-rate for one. But anything else? My primary concern would be IQ comparing a 20.9MP DX-cropped image with a 45MP FX image cropped to the same size in post.

I have a lot of the same gear (some different lenses, but both those bodies). The D750 is a very good landscape lens. Not as high resolution as the D850, obviously, and that can be a disadvantage in Landscape Photography, but it is plenty high enough Rez for good sized prints viewed at the distances people actually look at photography... Without looking up the lenses you have, are any of those wider angle lenses DX? If they are then you would have some vignetting issues with the D750 using them... For what its worth, I have loved my D750 but am probably selling it in favor of a full frame that can work with wildlife as well (higher frame rate and deeper buffer). I say probably because my D750 is basically new (less than 7K shutter) and I hate taking a big hit by selling it, but I think a D5 would probably suit me better at this point (unless Nikon comes out with an actually great mirrorless I suppose).

AS for the D850, this is just my opinion I imagine, but I think the high resolution is kind of a disadvantage for wildlife a lot of times. AS lots of people have noted, it amplifies your shooting technique (or lack there of), but ALSO, don't underestimate the issue of file size... It takes a whole different approach to file management and post processing. You may need bigger external hard rives, more processing power in your laptop, more cards (or bigger), and it takes a lot longer to download you images. Its not a problem with landscapes, how often would you really come home with 1000 images on a landscape trip??? But wildlife, I mean its not hard to get 2000 shots in a good full day, especially BIF. I can't imagine the culling nightmare of a Canon R5, lol.

Those are just my thoughts as someone who is kind of in the same boat... I am probably selling my D750 and my D3 (under 13K shots) to fund a D5.

 

[Steve]

The D850 is a good option IMO, especially if you can get it with a grip so you can get to 9 FPS. The pixel density is close - 19.4MP for a DX crop. It's so close that once I got my D850 I stopped using my D500. There wasn't any point. If I was a bit too far, I could crop to DX and have a virtually identical image. BUT - if I could get closer I could put more pixels on my ducks and see a noise advantage with my final output over a D500.

 

[Warren D]

I agree with Steve with the condition that the D500 is a tad better in the AF department being a little faster and it does have that extra fps that may get the frame you want.

 

[KimM]

The D850 is a good option IMO, especially if you can get it with a grip so you can get to 9 FPS. The pixel density is close - 19.4MP for a DX crop. It's so close that once I got my D850 I stopped using my D500. There wasn't any point. If I was a bit too far, I could crop to DX and have a virtually identical image. BUT - if I could get closer I could put more pixels on my ducks and see a noise advantage with my final output over a D500.

This has been my experience exactly. I have a D500 that sits on the shelf as a backup to the D850. To address the cull/storage nightmare for those 1-2k days with birds, I have been using Fast Raw Viewer after I dump the card to an external hard drive. The culled images (another external HD) are kept as a 3rd/disaster backup and this is the file I import to LR for further review. No idea what to say about the mirrorless waiting game.