DX Zoom

riman · Feb 18, 2016

I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?

Thanks!

AT Miami · Feb 18, 2016

GlennW said:
No reason for the lens to be any less sharp on D3300 or D5300. Nothing about the lens is changing regardless of what body you put it on. All it does is convey the same light to maybe a little less "sharp" sensor.

Half of the light it conveys to the focal plane misses the DX sensor. Therefore, you lose half of the data wrt what is detected by an FX sensor. This is the reason for a D3300 or D5300 to be less sharp.

DaveR43 · Feb 19, 2016

riman said:
Osvaldo Cristo said:

riman said:

I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?

Click to expand...

There is no or just a small difference in size and weight when you go to telephoto zooms either for DX or FX image circle.

It is the main reason manufacturers do not invest a lot of money in specific zoom lens at telephoto range for different sensor sizes: it is cheap to develop for FX as DX will use the same lens with no significant disadvantage in size and weight if it was made specifically for DX.

If you look for good image quality telephoto zoom lenses you will have to stay with FX lenses... but you are not "losing" anything. Be happy!

Regards,

--
O.Cristo - An Amateur Photographer
Opinions of men are almost as various as their faces - so many men so many minds. B. Franklin

Click to expand...

Well I always thought that too until I saw this

If you are basing your concerns on the first section, where the video looks at standard zooms, in general, the most cost-effective solution for standard zooms is a DX lens.

However, as you will see from the second half of the video, there are some advantages for DX when considering subjects that you cannot reach without cropping a full frame body, and then using an FX lens on a DX body is quite appropriate.

And telephoto FX lenses on crop bodies can be also better than the DX equivalents. For example, the comparison below shows that at 200mm f/5.6, the 70-200 f/4 on a D7100 is pretty close to the results on the full frame of the D750, but the 55-300 DX lens, also at 200 mm f/5.6, is not as sharp.

70-200 f/4 on D7100; 70-200f/4 on D750; 55-300 DX on D7100 - all at 200mm f/5.6

Having said that, FX lenses are more expensive; for example, the Nikon 70-200 f/4 is significantly more expensive than the 55-200 or 55-300 DX lenses.

So it might be worth waiting until the recently announced 55-200mm II has been reviewed. That might be a good compromise between cost, size and performance.

--
DaveR

BOB44713 · Mar 24, 2016

riman said:
I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?
Thanks!

The Sigma 50-150 F2.8 is excellent and tack sharp and will give you the equivalent of a 75 to 225 with the 1.5 crop factor.

riman · Mar 24, 2016

BOB said:
riman said:

I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

The Sigma 50-150 F2.8 is excellent and tack sharp and will give you the equivalent of a 75 to 225 with the 1.5 crop factor.

DaveR43 · Mar 24, 2016

riman said:
BOB said:

riman said:

I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

The Sigma 50-150 F2.8 is excellent and tack sharp and will give you the equivalent of a 75 to 225 with the 1.5 crop factor.

Click to expand...

Esquilo · Mar 26, 2016

volks 1 said:
riman said:

That is what I thought but that may not be true...check this out

Click to expand...

Did long time ago and still don't buy it. There are way too many DX camera owners that are more than happy with the results of using Fx lenses.

I totally agree. I only own two DX lenses: Sigma 10-20 mm and Nikon 16-85 mm. All other lenses I have are FX: Nikon 28/1.8, Nikon 50/1.8, Nikon 70-300 mm and Sigma 150-500 mm.

When it comes to telephoto lenses longer than about 65 mm there are no DX lenses simply because there are no benefits from making them DX. (Nikon 85 mm macro is an exception, but that is a strange animal in many ways.)

It is only when you get down to wideangeles that it actually makes any difference.

Esquilo · Mar 26, 2016

DaveR43 said:
Having said that, FX lenses are more expensive; for example, the Nikon 70-200 f/4 is significantly more expensive than the 55-200 or 55-300 DX lenses.

The 70-200 is not more expensive because it's FX. It's more expensive because it is a pro lens and not a budget lens like the 55-200 and 55-300. The 70-300 is a closer match.

DaveR43 · Apr 26, 2016

DaveR43 said:
riman said:

BOB said:

riman said:

I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

The Sigma 50-150 F2.8 is excellent and tack sharp and will give you the equivalent of a 75 to 225 with the 1.5 crop factor.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Aky · Apr 27, 2016

I sold d300, 12 24, 17 55. Than D500 was out. Really a wonderful camera. But Nikon is missing updated lenses of their workhorses, like a 17 55 2.8 vr or a better wide angle pro zoom. To buy or to buy again old lenses is non sense, to buy a 24 70 vr and to build a system around it could be a good choice for the nowdays D750 and its D500 technology FF version that will arrive next year. I think this is could be the reason to not produce anymore pro dx lens. D500 will be simply a second camera in a FF system to add fps and 1.5x to lenses. If we look at dx lenses there is no space for a pro dx system, pro wide zooms are missing! Unfortunately!

Warkari · Apr 27, 2016

riman said:
BOB said:

riman said:

I was thinking of adding a DX camera, the Nikon D500, but it I cant find a good DX zoom. I use DXO mark and none of the DX come up to the quality of FX..

I do not want to use and FX lens on a DX body so does anyone have any idea as to what lens I might get to cover roughly from 80-200 and get a really good IQ?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

The Sigma 50-150 F2.8 is excellent and tack sharp and will give you the equivalent of a 75 to 225 with the 1.5 crop factor.

Click to expand...

PatMann · Apr 27, 2016

It makes little sense for Nikon or anyone else to make a high quality DX lens with fast AF-S system and a wider fixed aperture like f/4 or f/2.8 in this focal length range since there are already excellent FX lenses in the range and there would be little saving in weight, bulk or price to make a high-quality lens in this range that covered only the DX image area. The 70-200 f/4 VR lens is an outstanding lens that works well on both formats and is sharp enough for today's high-resolution DX sensors. I particularly like using it because it is quite sharp at 200mm and more responsive than the 70-300 VR lens it replaced in my kit. I use it for birds on my D810 and expect it to be a real workhorse on my D500 with half again as many pixels per bird. If you are getting the 16-80 lens as a midrange zoom for your D500, I would recommend this as an excellent lens to pair with it on the telephoto end.

The 80-200 f/2.8 D ED Nikkor is less expensive, also very good and has a wider aperture that may permit you to use a faster shutter speed. The AF-S version of the 80-200 f/2.8 is available used at a similar price, but many of these lenses were heavily used, are not likely to be as reliable, and are expensive to repair (if parts are even available) if the AF-S system fails.

The latest version of the 55-200 VR DX lens is also a good performer optically, but the AF is much slower than that on the two FX lenses mentioned, which would have a substantial impact on your shooting if you are looking at a lens for fast action like sports and wildlife shooting. The smaller maximum aperture through much of the range would also be an obstacle that would result in slower shutter speeds for some shots.

--
Pat

riman · Apr 29, 2016

Thanks everyone for your help...

RRowlett · Apr 30, 2016

I find this kind of agonizing amusing. On a practical level, bench test ratings are not going to hold you back in making good images.

I think the 18-140DX is not shabby--surprisingly good actually--and if you want to drop more $$ the 16-80DX is even better. At the short end the 12-24DX is still high quality. At the long end you can use pretty much anything expensive but the 70-300VR is a real value with excellent image quality. It's pretty easy to put together good variable aperture or f/2.8 to f/4 zoom collections for DX depending on how much $$ you want to drop.

I've rarely found that optics are the limiting factor in producing compelling images, though.

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