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Old 21-10-2013, 02:40 PM
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gregbradley
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
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The current highest performing cameras with top of the line highest rated sensors in APSc size is:

Fuji XE1/2 XPro 1, XM1 (cheapish too) (Fuji has good lenses 14mm F2.8, 18-55 F2.8 stabilised).

Sony Nex 6 is not bad but behind the Fuji. But very good. Nex 5n would be the same. Older Nex 5 has good low light performance.

The new Sony A7 is the cheapest full frame interchangeable lens camera, is mirrorless, very few reviews but a relatively enthusiastic response. May not be suitable for all legacy lenses without some colour shift in the corners - but I think that is mainly Zeiss and Leica lenses. It probably would work fine with Canon and Nikon lenses.

This is an updated 24mp full frame sensor. Both this and the 36mp sensor are likely to top DXO mark ratings once tested.

Nikon D610 should be good but D600 was plagued with oil/dust issues on shutter and Nikon put out the same camera with a different shutter. So I would wait for reviews that definitively state the oil issue is fixed. D610 would be the earlier Sony 24mp full frame sensor not the very latest.

Nikon D800 and D800E are very very good but expensive. Low light performance of the D610 would be almost the same and I think an image from either camera would look much the same. Other Nikon models in APSc no doubt are good. D7100, D5300 most now do not have anti aliasing filters which Nikon has pushed into the mainstream. Sony is following suit with RX1r and A7r 36.4mp with no AA filter and offset microlenses for better corner and edge performance.

Canon 6D is popular and has good low light performance. Its the competitor to Nikon D610. I haven't heard of any quality issues with the 6D and owners seem pretty happy with it.

60Da is the astronomy version of APSc size 60D. I have seen some reasonable shots with that camera. I'd describe it personally as being good but a bit lacking not as good as the 20Da was in its day which was sensational.

Latest Canon APSc though I think are lagging pretty badly in the noise department. I think they were at their heyday with the 20D through to 550D. I think the megapixel race after that probably came at a cost of low light high ISO performance. 70D has split pixels for autofocus which is great for terrestial imagers but for astro work again I think its come at a slight cost for low light high ISO performance. We are a minority market so our use usually does not count.

There are several cameras that use the Sony 16.3mp Exmor sensor, Nikon D7000, Pentax K5, Fuji XE1 and 2, Xm1, XPro 2 (albeit with a different colour filter array) and of course Sony Nex 5 and 6 models. Its been a classic sensor with exceptional performance.

I hope that helps.

I recently modified a Sony Nex 6. I have nearly recommissioned it and I hope to be able to post results in a little while.

Greg.
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