[Leica] Was Leica Book 2019 Pix in; Now Mark, what about crop sensors?

[Mark Rabiner]

I talked about my new D500  on the LUG and my hopes for it when I got it in January 2019.
Its fast and built to a professional level above any of my other digital cameras certainly including the D750 and D700 which I found out later were at the "prosumer" level a thing I found surprising at the time with so many top pros using them.
A main thing for me has always been that the smaller the format is the smaller the camera itself should be.
Full frame film cameras could be quite compact though half frame even smaller. I was fond of using my IIIF over my M system.
The 4/3's cameras were larger in size than any 1.5 crop cameras when they came out and had to change their specs to micro 4/3s to catch on with the public who were not a dumb as the camera makers thought.
I said on the LUG countless times that after making my move from cropped to full frame I'd never look back based on the results I was getting and stick with full frame.
But a reason also being the cropped cameras where not all that much smaller and lighter than the full frame.
If they made a real compact cropped camera I'd really look hard at it. They did but they area also quite toy like.
I'd use a smaller than full frame camera if the body of the camera also was small enough to justify its smaller image circle.
So when kind of fell in love with the D500 after playing with one a couple of times at a local camera store it went against my core ideas.
The camera had a smaller format sensor but its body was just a tad larger and heavier! Putting full frame glass on it did not feel or look at all stupid.
So I thought having a camera with no anti-aliasing filter which shoots faster and feels more professional and with a metering system way better with sensors going out to the edge would make a nice option to my D750. In a situation with a lot of low light I'd certainly also bring the D750.
Interestingly on the LUG some of the people who were negative on my hopes for the D500 used them extensively for the rest of the year with the bulk of what we saw from them being from that camera. I'm talking at least two guys here.  Maybe three. The more I used the D500 the more I loved the sharper looking results I got from it and the feel and speed of the camera itself. In the past month loving the results I've been getting from my new 28 1.8G which gives me 42mm on my D500 which is true normal and sharp as heck. 
I have a full frame and half frame option now and happy about it. The cropped cameras I started out with in the beginning of the decade do not approach the results of Dxomark gives to the cropped cameras of today. And many are quite compact. Not mine though. My D500 is a hockey puck.
A point I'd like to make is I did not "trade in " my full frame for a cropped camera as is often the case here putting all my eggs in one basket and not really shelling out any cash. It added the D500 to my inventory of digital Nikon bodies. But focused on it this year in which I found it to not be a limited special purpose high speed camera but one you could just have in your Billingham side bag every day.
Next year I'm sure I'll use my D750 a few more times. It feels like a toy in my hands. The buttons are mushy I thought it was broken.

 
 

-- 

Mark William Rabiner
Photographer

On 2/13/20, 12:32 AM, "LUG on behalf of Aram Langhans via LUG" <lug-bounces+mark=rabinergroup.com at leica-users.org on behalf of lug at leica-users.org> wrote:

    Mark.  I remember when you were putting down crop sensor cameras saying 
    that full frame is the only way to go.  You were quite vocal about that 
    showing no mercy to those who used crop sensors like the M8 and other 
    brands.  I did not agree with you back then when I was getting great 
    results from my Nikon D7000, until I did go to full frame and saw the 
    difference.
    
    So, why the change of heart?  DXOmark clearly shows full frames at the 
    top of the heap.
    
    
    Aram
    
    On 2/12/2020 12:52 AM, Mark Rabiner wrote:
    > I just sent my two jpgs into Brian 3000 pixies on the long side.
    > I think 2019 was a good year for my photography output  with  DX format and fast and the sharp D500 Nikon I'd gotten in January for my birthday. I'm glad my photo friends here will be able to see them and I'm be interested in seeing their stuff when the book comes out.
    > 12/2/1998 was my first post but I was a lurker reading the daily digest for a few years before that. I'd laser print it out staple them together and put it under my pillow. But also read much of it.
    >
    > The email I sent to was:
    >   yearbook at leica-users.org
    >
    > Thanks Brian!
    >   
    >
    
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