Ed Walker Loc: Eclectic, Alabama U.S.A.

How will a lens designed for APS-C crop sensor camera function if I attach it to a full-frame camera? What difference will it make? Thanks for helping an old man understand these technical concepts.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

A lens designed for APS-C cameras will have what is referred to as a smaller image circle meant to be used with that smaller sensor. On a full frame camera a lens designed for APS-C will only cover part of the sensor. Nikon cameras tend to be designed to allow you to use an APS-C lens on a full-frame body, although it will only use part of the sensor. Canon cameras are not designed to use one. And as a result the image will most likely vignette badly on a Canon fullframe camera with an APS-C lens mounted.

An additional complication for Canon cameras is that their own branded APS-C lenses have a different mount called an EFs mount. These lenses cannot physically fit on a full-frame body. However, third party aps-c lenses have a standard EF mount and can be mounted on full-frame Canon bodies.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Depends on the make and the individual lens. Canon it's not possible with ef-s lenses , Pentax Da lenses can work in Da mode on the K1 but many are useable full frame. With the da 18 -55mm its ok between 24 - 55mm. Mostly you will get some vignetting and poor iq at the edges. Nikon has a crop mode for full frame.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

That depends upon the brand of camera and lens. A lens designed for an APS-C camera typically won't produce an image circle that will completely cover a FF sensor, resulting in vignetting.

Nikon covers this by having a DX mode (Nikon speak for APS-C crop) that will capture an image but only uses an APS-C sized portion of the sensor, so a sort of virtual APS-C camera.

With Canon and Canon lenses, the APS-C specific lenses (EF-S) will not mount (without modification) on a Canon FF body. The issue is that these lenses protrude further into the camera body, so may cause damage to both lens and camera through mirror contact issues. Third party APS-C designed lenses will usually mount, but may cause vignetting on a FF camera.

I do not know, but would expect other brands to have similar issues to consider.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

All Canon lenses designed for APS-C have EF-S mount, which FF cameras don’t provide, so you just plain cannot use Canon APS-C lenses on Canon FF cameras; you might be able to mount third-party lenses. Pentax K-1 automatically crops when a recognized APS-C lens is mounted, or you can control crop yourself.

Ed Walker Loc: Eclectic, Alabama U.S.A.

I am using a Canon 5Dsr and was considering the new Tamron 18-400mm as a "walk around" lens. Guess I will look elsewhere. Thanks for the responses.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

With a 5Dsr you not only want a FF designed lens, but also a good quality lens to take advantage of the resolution of that beast. Personally I would stick with a Canon EF lens, and probably L quality. A lens that covers 18-400mm will have so many design compromises to cover that range that it will not deliver the best results across the focal length range, especially with such a high resolution camera. Unfortunately lenses that will do the camera justice are typically not inexpensive.

You may find this interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkBOsTVfpdA

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You might want to review this list regarding Canon's "official" recommendation for lenses best suited for use with the ultra-high resolution EOS 5Ds and 5Ds R DSLR cameras.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News=15356

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Good information.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Experiment with a Tamron 10-24 (APS-C lens but Tamron used only EF mounts, so it mounts just fine) on a Canon 6D FF.
Some with hood and some without. My conclusion was I could use it for about 14-24 mm if I got caught with no other lens for my 6D. And I could live with it at 13 mm if there was nothing important in the corners. I almost never used it on my 7DII (had a long tele for birds on it 95%+ of the time) and my daughter just loved it at her Anime and Cosplay events so it became her birthday present.

I did no PP, cropping or anything else, just braced the camera hand held against the door frame and shot. Why those particular lengths? Because those are the ones marked on the lens. I did test off camera for full zoom range to make sure nothing protruded risking mirror and lens damage before I mounted it on the camera.

10 mm with hood


10 mm no hood


13 mm with hood


13 mm no hood


14 mm with hood-it has disappeared


14 mm no hood


15 mm


18 mm


20 mm


24 mm

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Nice examples...

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Yep, while that lens will mount on your camera it will not give you the performance you're hoping for.

repleo Loc: Boston

No problem with the Sony A7xxx cameras. The camera has a APS-C crop mode. It engages automatically with Sony lenses. You may have to go into a menu and turn it on for third party lenses. The crop mode eliminates any vignetting. The APS-C lens will provide the same field of vision as it did on the APS-C camera, but the megapixels in crop mode will be much less than FF (less than half) and may even be smaller than on the APS-C camera, so you won't be able to enlarge as big. However, you should get the same ISO performance as the FF sensor can produce.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Good answer. I do believe that repleo is correct that by using the dx mode of the full frame camera, you'll end up with fewer mp than if you'd used a dx camera. This is how it is with my D800 and D7000. It's one reason that I kept my D7000 as my second camera. On vacation I keep my 10-24mm Tamron on it to serve as my dedicated wide angle camera and lens. It also helps to keep from changing lenses all the time.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

From Nikon -

https://photographylife.com/using-nikon-dx-lenses-on-fx-cameras