Should I buy a D750 to upgrade from D5200 to shoot video in low light?

I'm shooting a very important concert in a few weeks. It will be held in a church that is very long, and I'll be shooting from the choir loft, so my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR will not have enough reach. I'll be using my Tamron 150-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens.

My colleagues will be using Canon 6Ds with the same Tamron lens. They were thinking about using crop sensors but said that the light was 'too dark' for a crop sensor camera.

My D5200 I've noticed can get pretty noisy in low-light. I've not had problems in regular concert situations because the lighting is usually ok. But this church is pretty dimly lit.

For those of you who have experience with both crop and full sensor Nikons, how much of an improvement in low-light will a D750 give me over the D5200- for video?

Thank you in advance for your replies!

The difference in the 2.8 lens and the f/5.6-6.3 is a lot of light lost. Also the DX is going to give you more reach than the FX camera will. HAve you though about sticking to DX but moving up the the D7200? A lot less money but all your lenses will still work on the D7200. That might be good enough in low light and at half the price.

Also you might get better results shooting the 70-200 f2.8 and cropping that losing all that light by shooting the 150-600 at f5.6-f6.3. The ISO difference alone might be better in being able to use a much lower ISO

Don, thanks for your reply.

The D7200 has a crop mode but that still won't reach all the way to the stage of the church. I need 600mm on a full frame (or 400mm on a DX body) to reach the stage.

syoo8 said:

Don, thanks for your reply.

The D7200 has a crop mode but that still won't reach all the way to the stage of the church. I need 600mm on a full frame (or 400mm on a DX body) to reach the stage.

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The difference in aperture of the two lenses is going to kill any gain you might get. Shoot at 200mm 2.8 and crop the photo. Will get better results than you will once you up the ISO to get fast enough to shoot the long lens. Again, go to the church and do some test shots if you can.

syoo8 said:

For those of you who have experience with both crop and full sensor Nikons, how much of an improvement in low-light will a D750 give me over the D5200- for video?

Thank you in advance for your replies!

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An FX will give you a one stop better signal under the same light as a DX but that does not necessarily imply the quality will be good in the circumstances you're shooting.

Like Don said; you're shooting her at f/6.3 if you want the 600mm and she's not even sharpest before f/10 on my D750. That's a tight hole when shooting indoors during low light.

syoo8 said:

My colleagues will be using Canon 6Ds with the same Tamron lens. They were thinking about using crop sensors but said that the light was 'too dark' for a crop sensor camera.

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Did you already compare on DXO mark or senscore the low light capability of the cameras.
You will see indeed a 1 stop improvement of 6D and D750 over D5200.
You will also see noise levels that are high on a D5200 (small pixels).

But long lenses in church for a concert, is very challenging. Do expect a low hit rate!
Use the lens optimally (I believe 500mm is the max for high IQ?), be ready for extreme lens technique (maybe remote triggering, several short bursts, left hand on the lens, etc...)
Somehow my feeling is that the material will not make the shot here, it is the smart photographer who will make the most of the impossible that will bring it.

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I missed the video part. No clue there.

nikonpup said:

go to the church and shoot some test shots, or go outside in the evening and shoot. Will the the subject be moving or stationary?
If you are going to shoot video, buy a video camera.

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How will test shots help in determining how video comes out? In my experience, video is a completely different animal.

Video cameras like the Red are wayyyy out of my price range, while camcorders and their small sensors will be useless in a dark church. Hence the DSLR. Which video camera were you suggesting?

syoo8 said:

How will test shots help in determining how video comes out? In my experience, video is a completely different animal.

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You will shoot your video at a specific frame-rate so if you take shots at that shutter-speed and they turn out to be bad, expect the same to be true for for your video.

Don Kuykendall said:

The difference in aperture of the two lenses is going to kill any gain you might get. Shoot at 200mm 2.8 and crop the photo. Will get better results than you will once you up the ISO to get fast enough to shoot the long lens. Again, go to the church and do some test shots if you can.

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Don, cropping video won't really be an option for us- and even using crop mode won't make up the difference. :-(

What if you simply rent a cam + 400/600mm f/2.8?

It's much cheaper than buying a new cam with no guarantee you'll get it recorded as you like.

syoo8 said:

Don, cropping video won't really be an option for us- and even using crop mode won't make up the difference. :-(

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You can crop video. I do it all the time with my drone video.

Don Kuykendall said:

You can crop video. I do it all the time with my drone video.

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I'm sure you do, Don.

syoo8 said:

I'm sure you do, Don.

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I'm also sure that he does, syoo8.

J-see said:

What if you simply rent a cam + 400/600mm f/2.8?

It's much cheaper than buying a new cam with no guarantee you'll get it recorded as you like.

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This, IMO, is the only logical choice. I shoot indoors quite a bit with the 70-200 and I can't imagine shooting anything at f/6.3. I've done some low light testing (stills only) with the Tamron you have & it is far, far worse on my D600 than the 70-200. Super slow, cranked ISO, etc.