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Full Frame-Non-Full frame and 4/3 Lens (1 Viewer)

redtail7

Well-known member
Hi
Can someone give me a short explainatiom of these types of lenses. I have purchased a D-300 and want to know if the Nikon 70-200mm f-2.8 IF VR lens is compatible with the camera. I have read that a full frame lens can only be used on cameras with a sensor that is 35mmX24mm and the sensor on the D-300 is only 23.6X15.8 What is this going to do to the photos? And what about the other lenses used with the D-300?
Thanks Redtail7
 
Hi
Can someone give me a short explainatiom of these types of lenses. I have purchased a D-300 and want to know if the Nikon 70-200mm f-2.8 IF VR lens is compatible with the camera. I have read that a full frame lens can only be used on cameras with a sensor that is 35mmX24mm and the sensor on the D-300 is only 23.6X15.8 What is this going to do to the photos? And what about the other lenses used with the D-300?
Thanks Redtail7

Full-frame lenses work fine on the D300 and other Nikon DX cameras. In fact, they work especially well on these cameras since only the central (optically best) part of the image is projected onto the sensor, producing the famous "crop factor". It's the other way round--DX lenses on full-frame cameras--that causes problems. I use the full-frame Nikon 300mm ED f.4 on my D-70 all the time, and get excellent results with it.
 
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Hi
Can someone give me a short explainatiom of these types of lenses. I have purchased a D-300 and want to know if the Nikon 70-200mm f-2.8 IF VR lens is compatible with the camera. I have read that a full frame lens can only be used on cameras with a sensor that is 35mmX24mm and the sensor on the D-300 is only 23.6X15.8 What is this going to do to the photos? And what about the other lenses used with the D-300?
Thanks Redtail7

On a camera Full Frame means the sensor has the same size as 35mm film

APS-C (or DX for Nikon) means the sensor is the same size as approx the old APS-C film.

If you put a 70-200 lens or a dx camera (a d300) then it is really the equivalent of an approx 105-300 as you have to allow for a crop factor (1.52 I think on a Nikon and 1.6 on a Canon)

Yes it is compatable. ALL full frame lenses are compatible with APS-C sensors.
that's because full frame lensors will cover all of the DX sensor. DX lenses are not fully compatible with Full Frame cameras because the lens won't cover the sensor. (the d3 has a special crop mode but that is confusing the issue).
 
Optically the lens whether it is on an APS sizes sensor or a full frame sensor produces the same size image. Something called the laws of optics.
A 70-200 lens on either camera will produce an image of the same size if projected on to a blank screen, film or sensor.
The difference is the sensor size. An APS sized sensor is simply smaller and does not sample the same field as the full size sensor.
The field of view that it senses is approximatly that of a 105-300 as in a smaller field of view, but without the magnification.

What you get is an image size of a 70-200 but the reduced field of view of a 105-300.

Think about it: Nail a Norwegian Blue to its perch. Put the perch say 100 ft away. Take 3 cameras of one make, 35mm film, full frame digital and APS digital and a fixed tripod. Take one lens say 100 mm. Put the lens on each camera and each camera on the tripod. The image produced by the lens has to be the same size. It does not magically make a different size image when moved to the APS digital. But part of the image that the 35mm and full frame digital sees will fall outside APS sensor, so it sees less of the image.

You can look at it either of two ways:

You have the magnification of a 70-200 lens with the reduced field of a 105-300, or,
You have the field of view of a 105-300 with the reduced magnification of a 70-200.

Either way you are losing out.:-C

If you buy a lens with the sales person saying that you are in effect getting a bigger lens. He is either ignorant or lying. Walk out of the shop.
 
Thanks guy for that info, it helped alot. Now what is a non full frame lens and what is a 4/3 lens or does a 4/3 lens not work on a D-300?
 
4/3rd lenses are designed for cameras using that format (Olympus, Panasonic, Leica) and are notcompatible with your Nikon, so don't worry about them!

Non-full frame lenses are designed for cameras like your D300 - they don't project as large an image circle as full frame lenses so won't fully cover a full frame sensor. They're OK for your camera but if you buy a full frame camera later they won't be suitable.
 
You have the magnification of a 70-200 lens with the reduced field of a 105-300, or,
You have the field of view of a 105-300 with the reduced magnification of a 70-200.

Either way you are losing out.:-C

If you buy a lens with the sales person saying that you are in effect getting a bigger lens. He is either ignorant or lying. Walk out of the shop.

I probably should have used the word equivalent shouldn't I. Although you are right to say you get the same size image that is not quite the full story is it?

if you compare the d300 to the Nikon full frames to the d700/d3 then the d300 has an advantage. all 3 cameras are 12 mp so the crop that gives a reduced field of view gives you greater pixel density so more of your pixels go on the bird.

there are advantages to the Nikon FF cameras but I believe that there are wildlife photographers who prefer the d300 because of the pixel density.

This will change of course when/if the Nikon FF using that sony 24mp sensor appears.

Adey - your comment is not quite correct. you can use dx lenses on Nikon FF. it has a dx mode which means it will cover the image circle although with much reduced MP count still you don't have chuck that expensive 17-55 f2.8 away !!

I believe the 12-24 will work on a FF as an 18-24 without going to dx mode.
 
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Adey - your comment is not quite correct. you can use dx lenses on Nikon FF. it has a dx mode which means it will cover the image circle although with much reduced MP count still you don't have chuck that expensive 17-55 f2.8 away !!

I believe the 12-24 will work on a FF as an 18-24 without going to dx mode.

I was trying not to confuse redtail7 too much, Pete!

My Sigma 18-50mm is designed for APS-C sized cameras but I've tried it on my old 35mm Canon body and the vignetting disappears round about 24mm

I've mocked-up a simple diagram, below, to show redtail7 the effects of different-sized lenses. The full frame lens will project an image the size of the larger (yellow) circle and the APS-C lens is the smaller (pale green) circle. Likewise the white rectangle is the full frame sensor and the blue is the APS-C sensor. As can be seen, the cropped sensor will be OK with either format, though it will only show the middle of the image, as explained in previous posts. As Pete and I have commented, some smaller format zoom lenses will fit the larger format at some focal-lengths (where the light green image circle will gradually enlarge up to the yellow circle as you zoom through the range). Trial and error will show how effective this will be with each lens.
 

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