Notes from the full frame world

I have been the happy (slightly overwhelmed) and very jittery owner of a Nikon D600 for almost a month now. The decision to go for this camera is a bit illogical because technically it decreases my reach (as it is a full-frame and doesn't bring in the 1.5 crop factor that comes with the Nikon D90) but this was a camera I anyway needed because I had more or less grown out of the D90 (at least in terms of having to deal with its ISO limitations, and living within its limited focus points and effective Megapixels). Hence the decision (very very long drawn, involving a lot of heartburn and trepidation) to go for the Nikon D600.

But then -- considering that I have no formal training in photography, that I am allegedly restless and lacking in patience, that I am mostly a loner with not much support from a peer group and so on -- my progress in photographing birds has been surprisingly fast. And in a bit less than three years since I progressed into the digital photography world, I was shooting full frames (on the D-90)  like I was born to do just this.

Naturally then, it was time for an upgrade. And I have been very very very happy with the Nikon D600 overall; and it would seem I can permanently live at ISO 800 (that lets me do a lot in terms of Shutter speeds and its worth a lot out in the field, a lot indeed) and not have to deal with noise. Then again, I stand to gain a lot thanks to the vastly more focus points while shooting birds in flight as well (though I still have to try it at length) and now I will not need to "zoom out" when I manage to get very close to birds, as happened on numerous times when I was at Wardha -- getting to touching distance to a family (parents and a sub-adult) of Common Hoopoes and had a Common Flameback overflowing the frame more than once...

I do miss my "reach" and I am lusting for a Nikon 600 mm, but then overall its good to be in the full frame world and then again, as they say, not having enough reach is a good problem to have all said and done, for photographing birds is mostly about the skill to get closer than ever before.

Then again, I can always shoot in the crop mode :-)