Full Frame Nikon & DX-Equivalent Lenses

[albertdarmali]

I am not going to upgrade to full frame yet, but maybe in 1.5 - 2 years time when the price of D700 hopefully has

come down to $2,000 range, (or maybe by that time Nikon would've released the cheaper FF version) I will upgrade

by then.

 

But I was just wondering whether I can still use some of my lenses if I go with FF DSLRs.

If I'm not mistaken, with full frame DSLR, my Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 can only be used at 16mm range only, but will

it be other setback as well? Maybe decrease of contrast, etc?

 

I also have a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP AF DiMacro. Now with this one, I am not sure whether I can still use it with

full frame or not. Have anyone tried this one (or it's equivalent) with a FF camera?

 

The rest of my lenses are Nikon Ai-s lenses. This I assume of course will work with D700 - maybe actually much

better with D700 than with my current D80.

 

But what about the 2 lenses I mentioned above? They are absolutely beautiful lenses and I hate to let them go

just because I switch to FF. Thanks guys.

[Rene11664880918]

2 years from now? The D700 will be old technology! At todays pace there will be already a D400 and maybe a D800 and

those will be the cameras every one wants.

 

The lenses you mentioned, I have no idea about the Tamron, I will say sell it! The 11-16 which I have and love my plan is

to keep it to use with DX cameras. My plan is to get a D700 with a 24-70 and keep my D300 with my 11-16. If you think

about it, its just perfect. 11-16 gives you 15.5 to 24 angle of view on a DX and you top it up with 24-70 FF. I'm not planning

to use DX lenses on FX cameras. It just doesn't make any sense at all. If that is the idea I would suggest you stick to DX

format! Rene'

[aschnaider]

You don't need to sell you Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP AF DiMacro lenses. They work with FF without any problems.

[albertdarmali]

Yeah I just found out that Di version of Tamron still works with FF cameras, but not the Di-II.

I am not sure how much the D80 will fetch 2 years down the road, but if the price is too low, I guess I can just leave it as a second body.

[Jerry_]

If you put a DX lens on a Nikon D3 body, the camera will (if you set it to do so) will switch to a DX format, i.e., a smaller image. Some 5:4 format images may turn out OK with a DX lens, but you will have to experiment.

 

 

Generally, the FX format (large file sizes) can be done with a non-DX lens.

 

 

And as noted above, you should have zero problems with the Tamrom 90mm macro lens.

[charles_hess2]

Don't sell the excellent Tamron, it'll work fine on a FX camera (check Tamron's website).

[ShunCheung]

Take a look at my sample image using the 12-24mm/f4 AF-S DX at 18mm on full D3 FX frame:

http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00QgSE

 

Even though the DX image circle can cover the entire FX frame in some cases, the edge quality is not necessarily acceptable. I would carefully check the limitations for each lens before relying on it.

 

Additionally, there are plenty of DX lenses that cannot cover the full FX frame in any part of their zoom range.

[albertdarmali]

That's right, I totally forgot about the edge sharpness especially considering we've been 'saved' by the DX factor all this time. It is something we really have to consider.

[scott_warn]

One thing to keep in mind is that in 2 years or so, Nikon's FX cameras will most likely feature around 24mp. So, using a DX format lens in the DX crop mode won't take a very big hit on image quality. If you do the math, the DX crop mode on a 24mp body works out to about 10.5mp so your Tokina 11-16 will probably do about just as well on a D400 as what you seeing right now on your D80. My advice would be to plan on keeping it.