Dx mode

How many people tend to use DX mode on their FF cameras?

I've got to admit that I have never really seen the need for it, when you can crop and compose at your leisure later on...but yesterday, I found myself on a particularly windy Fife beach, photographing Kiteboarders with my trusty old D3.

Wary of changing lenses in a sandstorm due to my already dust magnet sensor, I thought that using DX mode might be a compromise solution....it was a game changer for me, having that greyed out area where you can see what's just about to enter the frame, being able to jump from FF wider frame to DX more telephoto frame, and having AF



points across a higher percentage of the frame made the whole shooting experience a lot of fun.

I can see me using it a lot more in the future...not like I'm bothered about the lower MP for what I do .

Bob Smart said:

How many people tend to use DX mode on their FF cameras?

I've got to admit that I have never really seen the need for it, when you can crop and compose at your leisure later on...but yesterday, I found myself on a particularly windy Fife beach, photographing Kiteboarders with my trusty old D3.

Wary of changing lenses in a sandstorm due to my already dust magnet sensor, I thought that using DX mode might be a compromise solution....it was a game changer for me, having that greyed out area where you can see what's just about to enter the frame, being able to jump from FF wider frame to DX more telephoto frame, and having AF



points across a higher percentage of the frame made the whole shooting experience a lot of fun.

I can see me using it a lot more in the future...not like I'm bothered about the lower MP for what I do .

Click to expand...

I don't see the reason to use DX mode unless the lens I use is DX - even then I wouldn't because some DX lenses such as the AFS 12-24 F4 DX or the AFS 35 F1.8 DX under certain circumstances can give us FX size image. Just crop as require - why wasting MP unnecessary.

mais51 said:

Bob Smart said:

How many people tend to use DX mode on their FF cameras?

I've got to admit that I have never really seen the need for it, when you can crop and compose at your leisure later on...but yesterday, I found myself on a particularly windy Fife beach, photographing Kiteboarders with my trusty old D3.

Wary of changing lenses in a sandstorm due to my already dust magnet sensor, I thought that using DX mode might be a compromise solution....it was a game changer for me, having that greyed out area where you can see what's just about to enter the frame, being able to jump from FF wider frame to DX more telephoto frame, and having AF



points across a higher percentage of the frame made the whole shooting experience a lot of fun.

I can see me using it a lot more in the future...not like I'm bothered about the lower MP for what I do .

Click to expand...

I don't see the reason to use DX mode unless the lens I use is DX - even then I wouldn't because some DX lenses such as the AFS 12-24 F4 DX or the AFS 35 F1.8 DX under certain circumstances can give us FX size image. Just crop as require - why wasting MP unnecessary.

Click to expand...

Yep, that’s what I have always though, but found it useful yesterday and saved me a lot of time editing/cropping later.

Bob Smart said:

How many people tend to use DX mode on their FF cameras?

Click to expand...

I have D70; D90 and D750 cameras. All my lenses except one are FX and that is the Nik 16-85 which I like a lot. When mounted on my D750 the camera automatically goes into DX mode and I do use that quite a bit but by no means exclusively.

Bob Smart said:

How many people tend to use DX mode on their FF cameras?

I've got to admit that I have never really seen the need for it, when you can crop and compose at your leisure later on...but yesterday, I found myself on a particularly windy Fife beach, photographing Kiteboarders with my trusty old D3.

Wary of changing lenses in a sandstorm due to my already dust magnet sensor, I thought that using DX mode might be a compromise solution....it was a game changer for me, having that greyed out area where you can see what's just about to enter the frame, being able to jump from FF wider frame to DX more telephoto frame, and having AF



points across a higher percentage of the frame made the whole shooting experience a lot of fun.

I can see me using it a lot more in the future...not like I'm bothered about the lower MP for what I do .

Click to expand...

A few times I've played around with DX mode shooting sports, to gain zoom, but otherwise, FX. I crop in further as required later on.

Never.

I bought FX to shoot full frame.

I only use it when my intended subject matter is much too small. That's rare because either I just won't shoot it, or I have already chosen an appropriate lens.

I have never used, nor understood the point, of Dx mode on an FX body. When speed in processing becomes an issue, I upgrade my PC. Right now I can process a stack of 300 full resolution RAW images from my D850 into an image with Helicon through LR with a possible hand over to PS for some final work -- all in less than 10 minutes. My usual processing of a single RAW image from LR to DXO and back takes maybe a minute or two at the most if I have decided on the composition. That is the slow part -- getting the composition the way I want it. Seems ridiculous to try to do that in the field in a split second. Do not believe in throwing away data before I have an opportunity to assess its value.

JakeB said:

Never.

I bought FX to shoot full frame.

Click to expand...

I disengage AUTO DX

If I mount a DX lens then I will make my own cropping in post.

I totally get cropping in post ...having the d800, there's pixels to spare..see below..




Original photo




Crop

However, I would never describe the desire to get the shot/composition exactly how you want it straight out of the camera as "ridiculous"... I always strive to do this...I mean, it very rarely happens , but there's no harm in trying....

AWG_Pics said:

That is the slow part -- getting the composition the way I want it. Seems ridiculous to try to do that in the field in a split second. Do not believe in throwing away data before I have an opportunity to assess its value.

Click to expand...

If you're a sports event shooter on deadline, or worse, a sports event shooter on deadline with a plane to catch you really learn to nail composition in the field. Its been an excellent exercise in discipline and processing vision on the fly.

I really try to nail exposure and composition out of camera because I have to post 100-200 photos within an hour of event end.

Chuck Yadmark said:

AWG_Pics said:

That is the slow part -- getting the composition the way I want it. Seems ridiculous to try to do that in the field in a split second. Do not believe in throwing away data before I have an opportunity to assess its value.

Click to expand...

If you're a sports event shooter on deadline, or worse, a sports event shooter on deadline with a plane to catch you really learn to nail composition in the field. Its been an excellent exercise in discipline and processing vision on the fly.

I really try to nail exposure and composition out of camera because I have to post 100-200 photos within an hour of event end.

Click to expand...

Yes, that too, agreed, esp. with important sports or journalism events. Been there, done that.

Bob Smart said:

Wary of changing lenses in a sandstorm due to my already dust magnet sensor, I thought that using DX mode might be a compromise solution....it was a game changer for me, having that greyed out area where you can see what's just about to enter the frame, being able to jump from FF wider frame to DX more telephoto frame, and having AF points across a higher percentage of the frame made the whole shooting experience a lot of fun.

Click to expand...

I think you have hit almost all the reasons one might want to use DX mode on an FX camera Bob, the only other being file size. Needing to share the images quickly, either with an editor or on social media, and so minimising file size, could be an important use case to some. I think it's a bit of an edge case unless you are a journo, but if you had fun with DX mode, crack on!

Chuck Yadmark said:

AWG_Pics said:

That is the slow part -- getting the composition the way I want it. Seems ridiculous to try to do that in the field in a split second. Do not believe in throwing away data before I have an opportunity to assess its value.

Click to expand...

If you're a sports event shooter on deadline, or worse, a sports event shooter on deadline with a plane to catch you really learn to nail composition in the field. Its been an excellent exercise in discipline and processing vision on the fly.

I really try to nail exposure and composition out of camera because I have to post 100-200 photos within an hour of event end.

Click to expand...

I’m not on any deadlines and follow the same approach as AWG-pics by shooting in FF and cropping as needed. But this just goes to show the diversity of individual photographer’s needs and how they implement the built-in flexibility of the bodies to achieve those needs.

--
Alan Clark
https://arclark.smugmug.com/