Going Full Frame with a D750

Today was a very exciting day for me: my new camera arrived, equipped with a brand new lens! Since I got involved with digital photography I had only two cameras, started with a Nikon D5000 and in the last two and a half years I was shooting with a D7000. 

But I was always wondering about full-frame: would this make a difference with my images? And while I know that the photographer's vision  is the most important component, in this art technology and vision have to work together to constantly to push for better and better results. After having my fare share of images with APS-C DSLRs,  now it was time to move one notch up to the world of full-frame cameras. 

So my new D750 arrived today, with the 24-70mm f2.8 professional lens, a big boy representing one of the Nikon "Holy Trinity" zoom lenses.  With this lens the D750 really dwarfed the D7000, epecially with the 16-85mm DX lens mounted. 

After un-boxing and holding the body for the first time, I instantly noticed how light it was. First I thought it was lighter than my D7000 - and certainly if feels lighter compared to its own size.  The buttons and the ergonomics of the camera were instantly familiar to me since the D7000 practically has the same layout. The live view switch moved a little lower, and there is a safety lock on the main dial which switches between the various modes the D750 - this one seems to me a little superfluous, I never accidentally moved from aperture mode to shutter priority on my D7000, and I have to pay attention now not to force the dial without pushing down the safety lock.  I will get used to it. 



So the next job was to get my favorite settings installed on the new camera.  Of course I have learned already about some of the new things compared to the D7000 - without writing pages and pages about the menus, I will simply refer to the fantastic write-up by Nasim Mansurov - you can read it here, that is my setup too... 

Then I mounted my new 24-70mm lens and tried it out indoors - I used the auto-ISO setting to have the camera go to higher ISOs if needed to keep a minimum selected shutter speed. I used this option before on the D7000 too, but here the D750 can actually pick the shutter speed to even match the lens' focal length automatically - a great new setting helping to ensure sharp shots! Amazingly, my images came out relatively noise-free up to ISO 6400 ! Previously I would not go higher that 1800 - to my taste this was already too much  noise on the D7000.  I think I have just met the first advantage of a full-frame camera (and 4 years evolution of the technology) : great low light level performance. 

Tomorrow, I will take it outdoors to do some more tests and will hopefully came back with some nice test shots! Have a great evening!