FX lens on DX body

[Bob Blaylock]

I'll try to be brief. I had a Nikon D750. I shoot mostly wildlife and nature shots. In reading, a lot of folks preferred a D500 for wildlife. I got the opportunity to sell the D750 and buy a D500. I kept the 28 to 300mm zoom I had bought for the D750. In reading, again, consensus was that the FX should work fine on the D500 even though it's a DX format. Anyone have actual experience with similar setup? Tips? Advice? I'll most likely be shooting AP.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Sam

My only direct relevant experience is using ancient lenses for my F2, on my D3200. The F2, and the lenses that I have for it, predate the FX/DX distinction by several decades of course. The F2 uses standard 135 film, with a 36×24mm image area, and so the lenses are made to cover that area. I believe the FX or “full-frame” format is defined as being about the same size as a standard 135 frame—36×24mm.

DX is defined by a smaller image size, 24×16mm.

At least two of my ancient lenses get used fairly often on my D3200—my 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens, c. 1972, and my Vivitar 85-205mm ƒ/3.8 zoom lens, c. late 1960s or early 1970s. In fact, my entry in last week's Weekly challenge is a composite of two images, one taken with each of those lenses.

Anyway, there is no good reason that I can think of why an FX lens should not work just fine on a DX camera.

I wouldn't recommend going the other direction, a DX lens on an FX camera.

Here, by the way, is the result going the other way, of mounting the stock 18-55mm lens from my D3200, which, of course, is a DX lens, on my F2, which uses a full 35mm frame. I only took this one picture, with the lens zoomed at 18mm, and you can see that it fails to cover the whole frame. Interestingly, as I observed through the F2's viewfinder, as you zoom it toward the other end, it covers more and more of the frame, covering the entire frame before you get to the 55mm end.

 

[wildshots]

Bob Blaylock,

But what a nice result can come from a little cropping. I had this result as well trying DX lens on the D750 when I first purchased it. That led me to acquire the 28-300mm FX that I have now and hope to use on my D500.

Thanks for the info and the example.

Sam

 

[bluzman]

I'll try to be brief. I had a Nikon D750. I shoot mostly wildlife and nature shots. In reading, a lot of folks preferred a D500 for wildlife. I got the opportunity to sell the D750 and buy a D500. I kept the 28 to 300mm zoom I had bought for the D750. In reading, again, consensus was that the FX should work fine on the D500 even though it's a DX format. Anyone have actual experience with similar setup? Tips? Advice? I'll most likely be shooting AP.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Sam

I shoot a lot of wildlife images using both Shutter and Aperture modes. I sold a D750 and most of my FX lenses to fund my D500. At the time I had (and kept) a full frame (DG) Sigma 100-400mm that gave great results on the D500. Eventually, though, I found that the combo of the Sigma and the D500 was getting a bit too heavy for this old guy so I sold the Sigma. Currently, I have two full frame AF-P FX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR lenses that I use on my D500 and D7500 bodies. I find that these lenses can produce excellent results on APS-C bodies.

 

[wildshots]

I shoot a lot of wildlife images using both Shutter and Aperture modes. I sold a D750 and most of my FX lenses to fund my D500. At the time I had (and kept) a full frame (DG) Sigma 100-400mm that gave great results on the D500. Eventually, though, I found that the combo of the Sigma and the D500 was getting a bit too heavy for this old guy so I sold the Sigma. Currently, I have two full frame AF-P FX 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR lenses that I use on my D500 and D7500 bodies. I find that these lenses can produce excellent results on APS-C bodies.

Thanks for that bluzman. Good info. I have the Tamron 150-600. I'm not using it much for the same reason. I did revisit my settings in the D500. Previous owner had made some poor decisions. I shot some in very good light Thursday and was moderately pleased with the results with the Nikkor 28-300mm zoom. I think now I need to get used to AP and using that front wheel to bump my f stops a little for better exposure.

Sam