So, I've decided to make a big change to my photographic setup. Out with the DX SLR I have and in with a full-frame sensor with the required new glassware.

I have been looking at the Nikon DF, mainly for the sensor and the retro look & feel. I've played with it and really love the thing.

But, since I have just sold my 2 other lenses which are Nikon fit I could also look at Canon, I just have no clue about them as I've been a Nikon-ite for 20 years. the thing is, aside from the DF I'm struggling. I sold my D600 as it just never delivered, I hated the D800 I borrowed due to its computer busting image sizes and the D4 is larger than a London Bus.

So let the fight suggestions come forth please. If I can find a Canon that feels good in the hand and delivers the images without killing my PC come download time then I'm up for it.

Oh, and if anyone's interested in the D300 I went back to, complete with 18-300, F3.5-5.6 VR lense, it'll be up for grabs.

Dom.

What sort of money are you looking for the D300?

i would suggest best thing is go into a shop and get your hands on the various models

no amount of spec reading will tell you what its gonna feel like

i have a 7D,6D,old 5D. the 6d and the 5dmkii are very solid camera, nikon have the d800 and now d810

it think all of these cameras are as good as each other. the trick is getting the glass that works for you kind of shooting

Pixel counts will only be going in one direction - you'll have to live with that I think. I know I'd like more than the 8 megapixel on my 8 year old canon, but I don't know how much difference it would make. Friend of mine has one of those nokia phones with a 40 megapixel camera so each picture fils up his phone memory. Seems a bit rediculous.

number of pixels has nothing to do with the quality. it's all about the CCD. the Df uses the D4 sensor so will be the danglies. it has one fatal flaw - no Video. so it's a non starter for me. other than that I love it as it's like my old film Nikons. most semi pro togs use the 5D but there's an upwelling in the states against Canon and people are ditching the whole system and moving to Nikon. some cheap second hand used Canons are coming onto the market now.
I'm not sure if FX or DX formats haven't had there day with the likes of the Pan GH4 now being offered as a pro system camera - 4k and 1080p for £1300? and then there is Black Magic http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products

You could get a proper camera of course .... the one with the red dot. As for MP thats for kids - quality of the glass every time.

+1 for quality of the lens. Stick a good lens on a D300s and you won't need much else unless you're a pro. Current MY2020
Gone: 1 x L405 and 2 x L322's

OK, thanks for this so far. My thoughts are that the 5D in any mark is just a D4 - i.e. the size of a London bus. Way too big for me.

The D810 looks tempting at first glance but that 36mp sensor creates massive files; it's just too much and I honestly think we've seen the back of the megapixel race. As said above it's not about the amount of pixels, more the quality of each pixel and the quality of the glassware dropping the image on to the sensor.

Video I don't care about as I never use it, all my stuff is still. SWMBO has a 1080p video camera anyway.

The draw of the DF if the D4 sensor in a small package. Maybe a Zeiss lense or the Nikkor F1.4 50mm and the 28-300 zoom.

Off to find a decent camera shop to find an equivalent Canon package if one exists. up to about 20MP will be fine, so maybe a smaller body with 5D /III sensor?

PaulTyrer - you will have a PM shortly.

Are they really up to 36mp? That's insane. I took 5gig of pictures when I was in Scotland at 8mg. That would be 22.5gig with that camera!

the DF and the 5d are similar in size

storage is cheap as chips now, so size shouldn't matter

i have a whole rake of cards, so take shots without thinking of storage, the nice thing about the newer sensors is not pixel count but dynamic rage and iso performance.

Pixel count should be ignored - it's already way more than you need unless you're either planning to print life-size pictures or massively crop the final image to zoom in. Great for marketing with little real world value.

Either way the lens quality is significantly more important - otherwise you'll just capture a bad shot in more detail.

File size matters for storage - OK, it's cheap now, but you still fill it up - and it still takes longer to transfer.

Dom - Download time depends on the card you use - there are faster cards - I don't know anyone who uses a cable - just a card reader as most laptops now have SD readers - is that what you mean by download time ? There should be no difference between Nikon or Canon in that case.

I agree that the The ISO range & the performance of the camera at high ISO is something i'd look for - that will allow much better photos in low light conditions.

Canon glass historically has been better than the nikkor ones (a good review site http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/). Just look at most sporting events and 90% of the lenses will be off white canon L glass.

I have an older 1d body and some Canon L glass and it still takes great pictures especially fast sports.

The only time I have been glad of more than 10MP was when I was shooting some time lapse of star fields (canon 60d 18MP) and was then able to get less noise (when run through a denoiser) and still have lots of resolution (about 5k in video terms) so could do lots of pans and zooms where the actual camera had been stationary.

Recently, I have been using the 60D more (much lighter) but am seriously thinking about actually jumping to Panasonics new GM4 as it can shoot 4k natively, something I doubt canon will introduce anytime soon. I may then look at their 6D or even 5D for stills as I haven't done so much stills lately. Current: RR L322 2010
Past: RR L405 2017, RR L322 2012, 2008 & 2004, 2018 D5, 2016 Defender, 2011 D4, a few Disco2s, P38, RR Classic, couple of Disco1's, SIII SWB

For what it is worth, I just moved from D700 to D810. I find the D810 amazing in comparison, AF speed and accuracy, detail, colour (better WB) and weight (a little lighter).

The 36mpix I do not find too big, a 32Gb SD card holds more than I will shoot in a day and for transfer to the pc, it takes a bit longer, but not too bad.

I used to have the D300 before the D700 - I saw a nice improvement with each move, if you can try the D810 in a store it will help you decide. Don't forget the cost of decent FF lenses.

DavidC, you mentioned WB there, do you not shoot in RAW? Current: RR L322 2010
Past: RR L405 2017, RR L322 2012, 2008 & 2004, 2018 D5, 2016 Defender, 2011 D4, a few Disco2s, P38, RR Classic, couple of Disco1's, SIII SWB

I do RAW +JPG fine. I only process RAW if I need to.