Looking Back at Full Frame

 
D800, Series E 50mm f1.8

I took a look back at the four Full Frame bodies I've owned over the last few days. I've owned three of the Nikon FX bodies, the D600, D700 and D800, in that (slightly ironic) order, additionally I've had Sony's A7II.

The D600 was my first attempt at full frame. I owned only for a couple months. The files I got from it were excellent, great IQ, lovely colour and the D600+Sigma 105/2.8 pairing in particular was just gangbusters. The downsides were the ergonomics, which were marginal, and I had a weather sealing issue with it.

The D700 was a great beast of a body, everything I disliked about the D600 wasn't an issue with the D700. However the files are merely good. The old 12MP sensor is old enough that the IQ just doesn't stand out. It's pretty good, but I couldn't justify getting a D700 over say a D7200 or D7500 today.

The D800 files are outstanding, just absolutely the best files I've ever had. I have good memories of the body as well. The downside was weight, as I'd been using it as a carry camera which it simply doesn't do well at, and manual focusing, it was marginal with my 28/3.5 AI'd and my Zeiss 85 Planar. I sold the body instead of the lenses, when I should have done the opposite. As great as the Zeiss was, the D800 + Nikkor 85/1.8G would have been better than the Zeiss 85+ A7II.

The A7II doesn't really stand up. The files are simply meh, resolution is good, noise is good, results simply do not excite me. The colour is what stands out, but not in a good way. The handling was OK, nothing to crow about, but not particularly awesome either.

In hindsight, I should have kept the D800 last year, and sold the 85/1.4 Planar instead. Combine that with a decent light carry option (which the NEX-7 almost achieved) and I would have been in a good place overall.

I need to put some serious thought into this, as a D800 + E-M5II could readily achieve that pairing for me. I'd need a couple lenses for this, but the 18-35G, 50/1.8G and a 105 macro would cover most of that (add a 70-300E and everything I need on FF would really be covered)