Canon user's question about Nikon lenses: Maybe a stupid question, but what nomenclature does Nikon use to differentiate between their full frame lenses and their crop sensor lenses?

Bison Bud

Maybe a stupid question, but what nomenclature does Nikon use to differentiate between their full frame lenses and their crop sensor lenses? With Canon it's EF for full frame and EFS for crop sensor, but it doesn't seem to be that cut and dried with Nikon and doing some comparison shopping and research has been confusing for me. Good luck and good shooting to all.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Bison Bud wrote:

Maybe a stupid question, but what nomenclature does Nikon use to differentiate between their full frame lenses and their crop sensor lenses? With Canon it's EF for full frame and EFS for crop sensor, but it doesn't seem to be that cut and dried with Nikon and doing some comparison shopping and research has been confusing for me. Good luck and good shooting to all.

Crop lenses will have "DX" somewhere in the long name, "Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED"

Bison Bud

Yeah, I understand the DX and FX nomenclature, but it appears that many lenses offered don't include that info. in their descriptions. Do I just assume that it's a crop sensor lens unless it specifically says FX?

NJLen Loc: Freehold, NJ, USA

It's not made for crop sensor lenses unless it says DX.

leftj Loc: Texas

NJLen wrote:

It's not made for crop sensor lenses unless it says DX.

Hmmmm

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

All of my Nikkor lenses made specifically for crop frame bodies have DX printed on the lens barrel.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Bison Bud wrote:

Maybe a stupid question, but what nomenclature does Nikon use to differentiate between their full frame lenses and their crop sensor lenses? With Canon it's EF for full frame and EFS for crop sensor, but it doesn't seem to be that cut and dried with Nikon and doing some comparison shopping and research has been confusing for me. Good luck and good shooting to all.

All Nikon lenses are full frame lenses UNLESS they say DX on them.
Its not the issue with Nikon that it is with Canon because Canon intentionally adds a plastic extension piece on the back of their EFS lenses to prevent them from even mounting on FF cameras. Nikons crops sensor lenses WILL mount and function perfectly on all Nikon FF bodies, but will exhibit the expected vignetting caused by their smaller image circle.
Canon is the ONLY manufacturer who cripples their crop sensor lenses this way. All other manufacturers of FF and crop sensor cameras allow their lenses ti interchange. Even the aftermarket Canon mount crop sensor lenses from Tamron, Sigma, and Tokina will mount and function on FF Canon bodies, with that expected vignetting.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

MT Shooter wrote:

All Nikon lenses are full frame lenses UNLESS they... (show quote)

Thanks for the info!

BebuLamar

Nikon calls their lenses FX for full frame and DX for APS-C but only the DX lenses are labelled.

Bison Bud

Thanks, that really helps clear it up for me. Apparently, all the crop sensor lenses will be marked DX where the full frame ones may or may not be labeled with FX. I also appreciate the info about using a DX lens on an FF body, but I thought that some of the Nikon FF bodies actually shoot in crop sensor mode with a DX lens attached. Is this an automatic function or would I need to crop the images to eliminate the distortion due to the DX lens?

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Bison Bud wrote:

Thanks, that really helps clear it up for me. Apparently, all the crop sensor lenses will be marked DX where the full frame ones may or may not be labeled with FX. I also appreciate the info about using a DX lens on an FF body, but I thought that some of the Nikon FF bodies actually shoot in crop sensor mode with a DX lens attached. Is this an automatic function or would I need to crop the images to eliminate the distortion due to the DX lens?

You can set the to FX, DX, or automatic to either on the D800 and most probably all of the 800 series. Don't know about other cameras.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Bison Bud wrote:

Thanks, that really helps clear it up for me. Apparently, all the crop sensor lenses will be marked DX where the full frame ones may or may not be labeled with FX. I also appreciate the info about using a DX lens on an FF body, but I thought that some of the Nikon FF bodies actually shoot in crop sensor mode with a DX lens attached. Is this an automatic function or would I need to crop the images to eliminate the distortion due to the DX lens?

Full Frame lenses are NEVER marked FX, Nikon only uses the "FX" designation on their Full Frames BODIES.
Nikons full frame bodies can be manually set to shoot in DX Crop mode, as well as having the capability of automatically switching to DX Crop mode whenever a DX lens is attached.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Bison Bud wrote:

Thanks, that really helps clear it up for me. Apparently, all the crop sensor lenses will be marked DX where the full frame ones may or may not be labeled with FX. I also appreciate the info about using a DX lens on an FF body, but I thought that some of the Nikon FF bodies actually shoot in crop sensor mode with a DX lens attached. Is this an automatic function or would I need to crop the images to eliminate the distortion due to the DX lens?

Most Nikon FX cameras (maybe all) can tell if a DX lens is added to the camera and will reduce the active part of the sensor to DX size. But when that happens your pixel count will be reduced the the number of pixels that are outside the DX size.
All FX lenses work well on DX cameras.
The only caveat is the new AF-P lenses. There are some cameras the AF-P lenses are not compatible with.

JPL

There are 3 main types of lenses from Nikon.

Nikon full frame lenses, can also be used directly on Aps-c cameras. Those lenses have no special label.
Nikon DX lenses. Made for Aps-c cameras, can also be used for full frame cameras in either DX mode or full frame mode, but then with vignetting or totally black areas outside the image circle. You will know them from the DX label.
Nikon 1 system lenses. Those are labelled as Nikon 1 lenses and can only be used on Nikon 1 cameras. You will know those lenses from the Nikon 1 label plus they are much smaller than other Nikon lenses.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Bison Bud wrote:

Yeah, I understand the DX and FX nomenclature, but it appears that many lenses offered don't include that info. in their descriptions. Do I just assume that it's a crop sensor lens unless it specifically says FX?

Not so
My 200mm macro is FX, but there is nothing on the lens stating this.
Guess I should have read all the responses before posting.
Thanks MTshooter.