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Author Topic: Light weight Canon with full frame sensor  (Read 4092 times)

Dave Gurtcheff

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« on: May 07, 2008, 03:49:48 pm »

I just returned from a week vacation in St. Augustine Florida; sort of an annual mini high school reunion. Even though I went to HS in NJ, so many classmates retired in Florida, we hold a get together. I did not think I would be doing any "serious" photography (i.e. anything I could sell). So I decided to travel with my light weight travel/street camera, a Leica M8. However I took 15mm, 21mm 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm lenses, so the bag was not all that light. Given the 1.33 crop factor, I covered the equivalent of lenses ranging from about 20mm to 100mm. Wouldn't you know I had opportunities to photograph some really exotic terns, but my 100mm equivalent was no use. I must say I would sell my M8 outfit in a minute if Canon offered a small light weight full frame body with say 15 to 18 M Pixels. My serious landscape and nature work is done with a 1DS III. I do need the full size high pixels for my 20"x30" prints, but the body seals, multiple auto focus points, high frame rates, etc (and heavy weight) are over kill for me. If I had a light Canon as spelled out above I could have travelled with a 24~105IS and 70~200 f4, and maybe a 1.4X extender, and it would probably not weighed more than what I took. (I could also have thrown in my bag the very light weight w(and outstanding) 400 f5.6.
Anyone else see a need for a light weight full frame Canon?  
Dave G
www.modernpictorials.com
PS-the 5D is not all that small and light, and I would like more Mpixels
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madmanchan

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2008, 09:36:16 pm »

No problem, I'm sure you'll see a PowerShot or similar camera before long with 20+ MP ...
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Eric Chan

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2008, 12:28:49 pm »

I don't think that weather sealing is overkill for a lightweight "professional" camera. A lightweight camera is much more likely to be carried into harsh environments where a full-sized body would be overkill. I know I'd give a lot for a smallish body that could survive serious abuse. So far for me it's a 20d that's working like a champ, (I think it's mostly luck, though). I would certainly pay to be certain my camera would still function when crusted in ice and so on.
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Nill Toulme

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2008, 05:13:16 pm »

Yes full frame would be nice, but... if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of quality for the sake of portability, you can do pretty darn well with a 400D, Sigma 18-200 OS or equivalent, either a 70-300 IS USM or a 100-400L IS, and a 15mm fish.  That's my usual casual travel rig.

Nill
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« Last Edit: May 18, 2008, 05:13:35 pm by Nill Toulme »
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DonWeston

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2008, 10:25:18 am »

I have travelled lately with two types of kits, one an M8 kit similar to yours except I end with a 90mm TE and combine my 50 and 35mm into a 40mm Nokton. While it is compact, it is NOT necessarily light. The other is a Canon dslr, last year it was an XTi, and two zooms and fish. Went to Paris with the latter and G7 in July, was great, light and made some great images...More recently, a 5D, 24-105, 70-300USM IS, 20mm, G9. All worked great, and depending on mood, performed the job. In some ways almost an embarassment of riches...a FF XTI would be grear for some trips but not others, say Africa, where the 1.6x would be handy..

Guess one needs different tools for everything, selecting what is taken is the BIG question always...what body, what lenses??? There is not a perfect camera or lens. For me, after a half dozen P&Ss, I am done, just does not work for me, except for handing a stranger a camera for a snap, just too much loss of image quality. Guess then, it might be a XTi or XSi as backup, can always put it is P mode for snaps....but that means carrying carrying two cameras always, and at all times if I want to have my "GOOD" camera with me two...

Maybe in a year or two when base dslrs are 14-16mp too, I can do it all with one camera, or at least feel comfortable enough to go with just the XSi type camera alone. If I could just limit my end use to just personal photobooks, the XTi or XSi would do it even now, but alas I also like to have the option of doing 24x36 prints or bigger ......guess I don't have to look that closely at the prints.....  

guess the end question would be two small body dslrs like the XTi size, one FF and one 1.6X...but with a 511 battery, then you could really two body, two lens kit and cover most everything so I guess, after my long winded thinking, I would like aXSi with a FF chip for travel, can I also request a 40d size body with Mrk III speed...
« Last Edit: May 19, 2008, 10:29:07 am by DonWeston »
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BJL

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2008, 12:46:14 pm »

If the M8 with its 10MP in 1.3x crop format seemed a good choice, why not 10 to 14 MP options in the only slightly smaller "1.5x", or Canon's "1.6x" (or even 4/3"), with their superior wide angle coverage options due to having lenses that avoid that 1.3x sensor crop? Especially now that you have discovered the portability advantage of carrying one or two zoom lenses in place of a larger number of primes.

With 35mm format DSLR's, the choices seem to be

1) lenses f/2.8 or faster. Then the kit ceases to be lightweight , due to big, heavy zooms or multiple primes.

2) lenses f/4 or slower like the Canon 24-105/4L. Then using smaller formats with shorter, brighter lenses like the Canon 17-55/2.8 will given about equal speed (combined ISO+f-stop) and DOF control, and probably less total kit bulk.
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John Camp

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Light weight Canon with full frame sensor
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2008, 01:46:03 pm »

Thom Hogan seems to be suggesting on his website that one or more light Nikon FX cameras may be out this year. As BJL says, however, it's often the lenses that are the problem; I have a D3 with the three top-end zooms, and they make a large and heavy combination. I'm beginning to think that the right kit might look back to the 60s, when good zooms were rare. Say prime wide, normal and slightly long lens (135?) plus one prime chosen for your special interest, or a 1.4 extender. That'd be a manageable kit. Or, Nikon/Canon could produce slower but fully pro zoom lenses of the f3.5/f4 range, to keep them compact...

As for weather sealing and so forth, the Pentax K10/20 are weather- and dust-sealed, and are very compact. It can be done.

JC
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