Uusing N80 lenses on a D80 Digital camera

Hello all,

I will try and be breif with my question(s).

I presently own a Nikon N80 film camera, with two Sigma lenses. I would like to

buy the Nikon D80 digital camera. Today, while at our local mall, my wife and I

went inot the Ritz camera store to look at the D80.

I told the young lady that I have the N80 with two lenses, and she said that

they would work just fine with the D80, in fact, she said, I would get 40% more

picture by using the two lenses that I now have.

About a year ago, while in Chico, I went into a Wolfe camrea store and was told

that the lenses would do just the oppisite of what I was told today.

The salesman said that my 28mm, would only be a 40mm.

Can someone tell me which salesperson is right?

Thank you for your kind help, and I wish all of you a MERRY CHRISTMAS or HAPPY

HOLIDAYS.

Richard B. In Southern California

The D80 is a 1.5x crop factor camera. So multiply 28x1.5=42 so you have the effective fov of a 42mm lens.

Nick

Firstly, your 28mm lens will always be a 28mm lens regardless of the camera you attach it to.

A sensor smaller than that of 35mm film's dimensions will just be like cropping out of the centre of that piece of 35mm film. However, to achieve that same narrower angle of view of the DX sensor with your 35mm camera (as the reference point) you would need a longer lens, ie 42mm with a 1.5x crop factor.

The D80 has a 16x24mm "DX format" sensor that is considerably smaller than the 35mm film frame. Therefore, your lenses will appear to be longer as they will cover a narrower angle of view. Whether that means "more picture" or "less picture" really depends on what those terms mean, but the coverage is definitely a smaller scene area.

You can take a look at our photo.net D80 review here:

http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/D80

I would suggest you get one more lens such as a 18-70mm AF-S DX to regain the wider angle with the D80.

You lenses will have a field of view equivalent to a lens 1.5 times longer. This does not actually change the focal length of the lens. So, your 28mm lens will produce images similar to a 42mm lens.

This might be a good thing at the long end of things (i.e. a 200mm lens will give a FOV equivalent to a 300mm lens on 135 film -- but with more DOF). But, at the wide end, you will want to buy a wider angled lens to regain that FOV. The 12-24 lenses (Tokina, or Nikon or the 10-20 Sigma) which are designed specifically for the cropped format (i.e. they won't give a full image circle for film across the whole focal range -- but, might work on film at the longer focal lengths) will offer you that wider range again. You also could probably find a wider prime (i.e. a 20mm). But, they generally aren't as 'good' as the new cropped sensor zooms in this range.

Hmm... My post and Shun's crossed.

Shun has a point. The 18-70mm lens is often bundled as a kit with the D80 and will give you back that field of view and is a very good lens.