Up and downs of Full Frame on spotting? GO!

For now I have the 1100D and the Canon EF300mm f4L IS USM, And I want to change my camera to 6D soon, Any up and downs for full frame in spotting? (My other option is 7D)

Pros of full frame (in aviation photography):

-better iso performance

cons:

- you lose the crop factor and as such you might end up being short with your lens

- AF is not the best unless you take the 5d mk III that costs quite a bit compared to a 7d

Don't buy the 7D right now since a new model in going to be announced the next week and prices will drop significantly for the 7d in the coming weeks.

Yeah I heard about the new models, Who knows, maybe I will buy the 7D if the price will be 2000$-+.. But I hope that if I won't, The price of the 5D MK3 will drop

6D AF is very good, as long as you use the center point. Everywhere else, not good.

Having the 7D for 3 years and 6D since the begining of this year i have to say:

- The autofocus on 6D is crap when compared to 7D. Maybe it´s slightly better than 1100D.

- 4.5 fps from 6D x 8fps from 7D. That additional 3.5 fps is useful when photographing fast and small moving subjects (i.e. fighters). For commercial jets the 6D is ok.

- You can use on 6D 2 ISO stops above the 7D with aprox. the same amount of noise. For example, ISO 800 on 7D has the same amount of noise of ISO 3200 on 6D.

- You´ll lost the "advantage" of crop factor on tele shots. Considering that 1100D is 12MP and 6D is 20MP you can crop the image and have almost the same size. Otherwise, at extra cost, 1.4x extender will work fine with your lens.

I f the solution is APS-C, I personaly wouldn´t buy the new 7D mk II. I would go for a used 7D in good condition or a new 70D. Their Af system and burst are pretty decent to spotting and the´re cheaper!

I hope it helped.

Ahoy!

Likely already said, but getting so much more space compared to APS-C and having tons of room for cropping. If your system has a decent back-catalogue of FF lenses like Minolta has for the Sony/Minolta A-Mount, then you can get some cracking optics for relative peanuts that can still out perform more modern (and more expensive) similar lenses of the same focal length and aperture.

The Sony FF bodies also are dual format so can use both APS-C and FF lenses, though in APS-C mode image size is reduced to 11MP which is still plenty big enough, so is 2 cameras in one body effectively. I don't know if this is the same across other manufacturers FF bodies, though depending on the lens type (particularly UWA and WA), I found APS-C lenses to be far superior to FF WA lenses in A-Mount.

Another handy feature of some manufacturers bodies is the in-body stabilisation (all lenses become stabilised) if you can't afford dedicated in-lens OS versions. I can only relate to Sony/Minolta A-Mount to a point as I still use OVF DSLR and not the latest mirrorless EVF SLT system which is hit and miss with respect to compatibility of some lenses and accessories, particularly flashguns (daft I know - hence 'old skool' DSLR doesn't have such issues), though Sony have a long way to go before it gets to the Nikon levels of high ISO low noise handling, though another feature would be the sensor cleaning of Olympus. If I were to look for another brand and model subject to funds, I think it would be the Nikon D600 and D800 series, though maybe a 5D Mk II would be a contender (I just don't get out that much any more to warrant such an investment).