Changing from FX to DX mode easily

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grandpaw

Senior Member
Tip for changing from FX to DX mode on the D600

This is something that you may not use a whole lot but would be nice to have easy access to it if you are out shooting and need the extra reach. It can also be set to work on other buttons such as the FN button but I choose the preview button option because I never use it. The preview button will be found at the bottom right of the lens as viewed from the rear of the camera.

1st go to the custom settings menu, looks like a pencil on the left side of the menu screen, and choose "F" Controls and press the OK button.
2nd choose "F3" Assign preview button and scroll down to Choose image area and press OK

Now when you look through the viewfinder and hold down the Preview button you can rotate your thumb or front finger wheel and quickly change between FX and DX modes. In the DX mode you will have a smaller framed box appear on your screen in the viewfinder that will show you just what will be in the DX version of the image when the shutter is pressed. This will quickly give you the option of taking advantage of the 1.5 crop factor if you see that you need it.
 
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nikonpup

nikonpup

Senior Member
thanks, this something that i will use. It took me a couple tries before i found the right menu items, maybe old age or never updating my software was the problem.
 
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Mark F

Senior Member
So, something I have been wondering ever since this dx mode showed up on full frame. Why not just take the picture and crop what you can use in PP?


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Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Mark F said:
So, something I have been wondering ever since this dx mode showed up on full frame. Why not just take the picture and crop what you can use in PP?


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The actual result being the same, the only thing I can see it would give you is an idea of crop... Otherwise, I'd just crop after the fact since nothing else actually changes except if you'd ever want to crop larger, then, you would have lost the extra data.
 
4

480sparky

Senior Member
nikonpup said:
it was old age. :) grabbed the wrong camera d7100 not d600 works on both just a small difference in menus.
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How do you switch a D7100 from FX to DX since the D7100 is a DX body?
CalvinHuh.gif
 
G

grandpaw

Senior Member
Mark F said:
So, something I have been wondering ever since this dx mode showed up on full frame. Why not just take the picture and crop what you can use in PP?


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You can also do that. Some people may not want to mess with software. I'm just giving you an easy way to do if you want to. There are many ways to do almost anything on your camera. The object is to pick the one that works best for you.
 
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Mark F

Senior Member
grandpaw said:
You can also do that. Some people may not want to mess with software. I'm just giving you an easy way to do if you want to. There are many ways to do almost anything on your camera. The object is to pick the one that works best for you.
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Only time I would think about using the crop mode would be if I was using a dx lens, which if used on a d600 will automatically switch to dx crop mode if you set it that way. I still have that feature turned off and have used say a dx 35mm lens which didn't require as much crop as the camera would give you. I have known some that want to use dx crop mode on a fx lens, but for the life of me can't figure out why.



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BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Mark F said:
So, something I have been wondering ever since this dx mode showed up on full frame. Why not just take the picture and crop what you can use in PP?


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36MP D800 photos are HUGE. 16MP D800 photos in DX mode aren't. If you're doing all your work in LR, it still keeps the big NEF file around. I prefer not to fill up my hard drive if I don't have to.

That said, I don't worry about it as much on the D600.
 
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Mark F

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
36MP D800 photos are HUGE. 16MP D800 photos in DX mode aren't. If you're doing all your work in LR, it still keeps the big NEF file around. I prefer not to fill up my hard drive if I don't have to.

That said, I don't worry about it as much on the D600.
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Ok.. sort of makes sense... although I think if I were to worry about that, I wouldn't be buying a d800 and using it in crop mode.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Mark F said:
Ok.. sort of makes sense... although I think if I were to worry about that, I wouldn't be buying a d800 and using it in crop mode.
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Every tool has its uses. I bought the D800 when I wanted to upgrade my D7000 for wildlife and birds. I'd purchased a D600 and the difference in IQ I saw from the D7000 was significant enough that I wanted better high ISO performance for birds since I frequently need to shoot at 1/1000 for birds in flight, and the D7000 got noisy around ISO 800. I was ready to pull the trigger on the D7100, but its buffer fills and the camera stalls after 1 second of continuous RAW shooting, an unacceptable stat for a bird photographer. I did some deep deliberation (there's a thread here with the details) and decided the D800 gave me a better alternative as a second camera to my D600 - a camera that would shine in the studio and make for great high res landscapes, and a camera that would provide me the performance and IQ I wanted for wildlife, while allowing me to shoot in DX mode, with its added reach, when I need to and still get 16MP images. The added bonus is that when shooting in DX, the reduced file size also increases the number of shots I can take before the buffer fills on the D800 (I can go about 4 seconds in FX and twice that in DX). And while there may not be a lot of applications where you need 8 seconds of continuous shooting, an Eagle or Owl in flight coming at you, circling or coming in for a kill is definitely one of them.

So yes, there are some of us who bought the D800 to use in crop mode. Not all the time, but definitely some of the time. Sure, you can crop later, and I often do. But when I know I'm going to have to, if I can save time on import and space on my hard drive when all it takes is a quick press of a button and turn of a wheel, I'm going to. Why waste time and space?
 
G

gqtuazon

Gear Head
BackdoorHippie said:
reduced file size also increases the number of shots I can take before the buffer fills on the D800 (I can go about 4 seconds in FX and twice that in
So yes, there are some of us who bought the D800 to use in crop mode. Not all the time, but definitely some of the time. Sure, you can crop later, and I often do. But when I know I'm going to have to, if I can save time on import and space on my hard drive when all it takes is a quick press of a button and turn of a wheel, I'm going to. Why waste time and space?
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The image area option is one of the most used features along with Mup and remote control.

The D800, D3s and D4 series even have the 1.2x crop feature. I try to do less processing on images and cropping is one of the steps that I don't do a lot anymore. It also works great when taking video.


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SkvLTD

SkvLTD

Senior Member
If Fn is that button on the bottom left by the lens mount, then mine just had that set to FX/DX switch. Couldn't think of anything better to bind to it tbh, since most key features are already nicely bound to one button or another as is.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
SkvLTD said:
If Fn is that button on the bottom left by the lens mount, then mine just had that set to FX/DX switch. Couldn't think of anything better to bind to it tbh, since most key features are already nicely bound to one button or another as is.
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It's physically to the right of the lens, but I guess that's left if you're staring at the camera front. The giveaway is the white "Fn" label next to it. ;)
 
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