Sure if you have a super high resolution body like the D800 cropping is the same as a DX body, but a) the D7000 is already higher resolution than the D800 in DX crop mode (15ish vs 16ish IIRC) and the rumoured 24MP D300s replacement will be even more, b) the price of the FX bodies are easily twice as much as DX, and c) the FX bodies are larger and heavier; if you just plan on cropping, then why bother with the extra weight?
It comes down to pixel density. The DX D7000 has 16Mp, but the FX 12Mp D700 cropped to DX is only 5.3Mp and you can clearly see the difference in resolution between the two. I have the D700 and D7000 and I use the D7000 primarily for "reach" for birding with my 500 f4 VR and 300 f2.8 VRII, mainly.
For starters, as many said, DX doesn't give reach. It can put more pixels on the target all else being equal. DX is just a smaller crop of the same image circle. We all know that but we want to call it reach.
I think those that are going to use the D800 as a birding camera won't, or at least shouldn't, use the crop mode of the D800 unless they are running out of card space and want smaller files or want to get the higher frame rate afforded by using DX mode.
That's your choice.
Which the D800 will do in both FX and DX mode or FX mode and cropped to DX. Either way, the results will be great, better than the D7000 from what I can see.
Well, maybe that's what they wanted to get. However, from my use of photographing birds, even 800mm on FX is still not that long. I use the D7000 + 500 f4 VR + 1.4x TCII or 1.7x TCII (1275mm when crop factor is factored in) and that isn't enough in some instances.
Which is probably what they didn't want to get.
I think you're being a bit simplitic and a bit smart alec in your reasoning. I shoot birds and believe me, I need long lenses for most of the birds I go after. At the moment I use the D7000 simply because it has 16 quality Mp's and is better suited for reach than my D700 at 5Mp when cropped for the same framing. The D800 will be an excellent camera for this as I can shoot in FX mode and crop back to DX for 16 quality Mp's, so I can therefore use one camera to do two jobs. Using the D800 in FX mode is a better option as it gives you choice when cropping back.I used either an 80-200 or 70-300 on the D300 or D700. I just played around but I was better outfitted. I could have had a ball with an 85 f/1.4 on my D700 much of the time. Now there's birding glass.
I agree. I will be using my D800 for wildlife photography (birds, mammals, macro) and some landscapes. I see it as a great camera for this range of subjects, as it offers something that none of the other models have: flexibility.
Lance, this is precisely the route I have taken, using a D800 to replace a dx and an fx body (D300 & D700 in my case) for the same reasons.
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Nope and you weren't there. There is no real way to shoot that long in some of those ponds, but that aside, you missed the point. The point was not that you don't need long glass for birding but that you don't always need long glass. Sometimes a person might do way better with short glass. Had you brought only that monstrosity of multiple converters to that place I'm talking about, you'd have also not had much to shoot at. Rookeries or Baby Factories are inside bushes and small trees.
No, I wasn't, but it is irrelevent as I know how to shoot birds.
I didn't miss the point at all. Are you saying that these well heeled photographers don't have shorter lenses and that you are the only one with "the knowledge"? Give me a break.
Like just about every other photographer, I take a variety of lenses .
Yep, and they'd be in the bag, ready.
No fooling? ALl these guys must have come down in the last shower.
Really? Man I wonder how I got those close up shots that I get.The fact that you feel you need only long glass for most of your birding doesn't always hold true for everyone else at other locations. Sometimes it's way better to go in after them.
No, it is obvious that you don't ubdestand it and I have considered a V1 and adapter.
I'm saying they they certainly have shorter glass, but left it in the hotel or whatever, not realizing that some bird shooting is done at shorter distances.
LOL.
