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Wide DX lenses with FX camera?

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Greg Salter

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I've got a D7000, and have been upgrading my lenses over the last couple years in anticipation of going FX. The only 2 DX lenses I have left are:
  • Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye
  • Nikon 10-24mm f3.5-4.5
I want to buy a D750 soon. If I put these 2 lenses on FX camera, does the camera adjust to DX lenses?

Will it be a similar experience and similar quality to shooting with my D7000, or will I have to go through steps to make the photos suitable?

Essentially, will I need to keep my D7000 for these 2 lenses until I can replace them in a few years?

Thanks!

Greg
 
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Greg Salter said:
I've got a D7000, and have been upgrading my lenses over the last couple years in anticipation of going FX. The only 2 DX lenses I have left are:
  • Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye
  • Nikon 10-24mm f3.5-4.5
I want to buy a D750 soon. If I put these 2 lenses on FX camera, does the camera adjust to DX lenses?
Click to expand...
Yes, normally the FX camera will switch to DX format when you mount a DX lens. This behaviour can be changed in the menue. When in DX mode the DX format is showned in the viewfinder.
Greg Salter said:
Will it be a similar experience and similar quality to shooting with my D7000, or will I have to go through steps to make the photos suitable?
Click to expand...
The D7000 deliver approx 16 Mpix, while the DX part of the D750 will be 10.4 Mpix. The DX quality is quite good.
Greg Salter said:
Essentially, will I need to keep my D7000 for these 2 lenses until I can replace them in a few years?
Click to expand...
No, I don't think so, but you should test it if possible.
Greg Salter said:
Thanks!

Greg
Click to expand...
 
Unless you don't like the required extra effort, I would shoot the D750 in FX mode with these lenses. This means you will see vignetting in the corners with your 10.5mm, and with the 10-24mm at least with wider focal lengths, but after cropping to the acceptable area in the center, what you have left will still be more resolution than you get if limiting the D750 to DX mode.
 
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The default setting on a Nikon FX camera is for it to automatically adjust to DX mode when a DX lens is attached. If not set that way, you can change it.

If you don't have DX mode enabled, your images will look something like this - 24mm on an 18-200DX lens mounted on a D700:



111230-143401-08-d700.jpg


You could of course crop it manually after the fact.

--
Phoenix Arizona Craig
www.cjcphoto.net
"In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not."
 
lokatz said:
Unless you don't like the required extra effort, I would shoot the D750 in FX mode with these lenses. This means you will see vignetting in the corners with your 10.5mm, and with the 10-24mm at least with wider focal lengths, but after cropping to the acceptable area in the center, what you have left will still be more resolution than you get if limiting the D750 to DX mode.
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That's like I handle all my DX lenses when I shoot FX. Some are much better if you take the lens shade off (and no filter attached, of course), but can give other complications.
 
Greg Salter said:
I've got a D7000, and have been upgrading my lenses over the last couple years in anticipation of going FX. The only 2 DX lenses I have left are:
  • Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye
  • Nikon 10-24mm f3.5-4.5
I want to buy a D750 soon. If I put these 2 lenses on FX camera, does the camera adjust to DX lenses?

Will it be a similar experience and similar quality to shooting with my D7000, or will I have to go through steps to make the photos suitable?

Essentially, will I need to keep my D7000 for these 2 lenses until I can replace them in a few years?
Click to expand...
I had a D300 and the 10-24 lens. I bought a D750. As has been noted, you can choose to shoot either FX or DX with a D750. I tried the 10-24 out and didn't like the results either way; I got poorer images with the D750 than with the D300. I haven't put the 10-24 on the D750 since. Since your D7000 is 16 MP compared to my D300's 12 MP, you would experience an even greater loss of resolution than I got.

You may be happier with the fisheye. I hear that if you chop off the lens hood, you can get a circular fisheye image on FX.
 
I find this works well with higher MP FX dories like the d800 or d850. I’ve used my Sigma 10-20mm on both bodies with great results.
 
I would absolutely ditto this recommendation. In DX mode one of the D800 series bodies with 36MP will still provide 15MP images with DX lenses. With one of the hi res bodies (look at used bodies with low actuations) you may well decide that you do not have to replace your current two DX lenses. I mix and match all the time, particularly when using low use lenses (e.g. you semi fisheye for most is a low use lens).
 
Spell check murdered my post, but you get the idea.
 
gnet158 said:
Spell check murdered my post, but you get the idea.
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I think it substituted "dories' because of the fisheye lens discussions. Sometimes these spell checkers get too smart for their own good.
 
Leonard Migliore said:
gnet158 said:
Spell check murdered my post, but you get the idea.
Click to expand...
I think it substituted "dories' because of the fisheye lens discussions. Sometimes these spell checkers get too smart for their own good.
Click to expand...
I write mostly in English and Swedish, and the spellcheckers sometimes create havoc, not least when using phones, replacing English with Swedish, and vice versa.
 
PHXAZCRAIG said:
111230-143401-08-d700.jpg
Click to expand...


This image shows good use of vertical lines and diagonal shadows :-)

This aside the image circle is slightly soft at the edges - which is as it should normally be with a DX lens on FX format..

If you crop one 6th off each side and top and bottom - to get to DX format - the edge softness is mainly cropped out.

For good image quality the circle produced by the lens should be larger than the format size to eliminate corner softness.

A DX lens that just fully covers the FX format at a particular zoom setting is still unlikely to be critically sharp at the edges and corners.

--
Leonard Shepherd
In lots of ways good photography is much more about how equipment is used rather than the equipment being used.
 
In fact, I would suggest cropping manually after the fact always, if you don't mind a little extra postprocessing. That's because if you crop wider (i.e. greater length/height ratio) then you will get a wider horizontal angle of view, compared to just taking the usual aspect ratio of DX mode.
 
UPDATE: Just put in my order for the D850 this morning, excited! Thanks to everyone for your replies on this.

(I was waiting for the D750 replacement to come out, but the D780's lack of vertical grip killed it for me. And I got a great deal on the D850 with the grip!)

I'll try out both the 10.5mm fish and the 10-24mm for a while, experimenting with both DX-mode as-is and FX-mode with cropping afterwards.

I expect I'll upgrade to the 14-24mm in a year or so, but I'd really like to keep the 10.5mm fisheye if I can, since I rarely shoot with it, and don't want to spend the money to buy the older FX version.

And I'll keep my D7000 anyway; the resale value is small, and maybe occasionally I'll want a second body.

Cheers!

Greg
 
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Greg Salter said:
UPDATE: Just put in my order for the D850 this morning, excited! Thanks to everyone for your replies on this.

(I was waiting for the D750 replacement to come out, but the D780's lack of vertical grip killed it for me. And I got a great deal on the D850 with the grip!)

I'll try out both the 10.5mm fish and the 10-24mm for a while, experimenting with both DX-mode as-is and FX-mode with cropping afterwards.

I expect I'll upgrade to the 14-24mm in a year or so, but I'd really like to keep the 10.5mm fisheye if I can, since I rarely shoot with it, and don't want to spend the money to buy the older FX version.

And I'll keep my D7000 anyway; the resale value is small, and maybe occasionally I'll want a second body.

Cheers!

Greg
Click to expand...
A good decision. Going this route allows for gradual migration to FX since one's DX lenses remain quite usable producing high res images.

My main lenses on my D800 bodies are FX, but I also shoot with my older DX lenses when I need backup lenses with me or when the DX lens (e.g. Tokina 10-24 semi fisheye) is something special. Most but not all my DX lenses automatically reset the camera into DX mode when mounted. The Nikon DX lenses seem OK but some of my third party DX lenses (eg referenced Tokina) require me to manually reset the camera to DX mode.

As some other respondents have noted, one can just continue to shoot in FX and crop later. However, with DX lenses in dark scenes it can be hard to see the boundaries of the DX crop.
 
Just as an aside:

there are some other dx lenses that nearly fill the fx frame. Leonard is right - you do lose resolution outside the dx frame and often get heavy vignetting but FWIW the ones I know of are:

nikon g 35 1.8 dx - at some apertures

tamron 10-24 - 'useable' from 14mm upwards

I have played around with both of these - for fun - on my z6 using a dumb adapter and some sticky tape to hold the G lens aperture open.

Probably most useful if you have the higher Mpx of a z7 or a d8xxx and want to repurpose those dx lenses if one hasnt got a Z or FX equivalent.

I guess you only have 24/ (1.5^2) = 10.6 MPx from the dx frame alone on a d750 in dx mode say - which is fine for me since I use a nikon 1v1 a lot ( same mpx )

There are others: sigma 11-16 ?

cropping to get rid of the 'bad' in post a great idea.

richard

some examples: quick shots MF and I missed focus a bit and exposure's out a bit also - SOOC - make of them what you will. I think I left the hood on the tamron which may have added to the vignetting.

35dx g, about fully open
35dx g, about fully open

Tamron 10-24 HLD at about 15 I think - fully open
Tamron 10-24 HLD at about 15 I think - fully open
 
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Greg Salter said:
  • Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye
  • Nikon 10-24mm f3.5-4.5
I want to buy a D750 soon. If I put these 2 lenses on FX camera, does the camera adjust to DX lenses?
Click to expand...
Greg:

Here is a couple of shots with the exact combo you described Nikon D750 c/w a Nikkor 10.5/2.8 lens.

Terry



6c5c74b99fcc4fc391e06505efcf4a4e.jpg



42443fbf4bb6492793d715a09dfdee41.jpg

Terry



--
Graham Fine Art Photography
www.pbase.com

Galleries by Terry J. Graham

www.pbase.com

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www.flickr.com
Remember, it's not the CPU that's in your camera that makes great images, it's the one located about 4" behind the viewfinder that does.
 
The 12-24DX is usable from 18 - 24mm on FX and somewhat usable down to 15mm on an FX camera that has the 1.2x (3:2 or whatever it's called) mode - there is vignetting in the extreme corners that could be easily cropped
 
This lens behaves exactly the same on both FX and DX

The 12-24 DX behaves like a FX lens up to 17 mm before vignetting takes over
 
UPDATE #2: Thought about it, and... why wait a year? Bought the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 today.

I finally have the Holy Trinity™!!! :-)
 
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