Clapperboard

woodyd You are right. Absolutely right. It doesn't matter what lens is fitted to any camera the focal length does not change. A 300mm. lens is just that regardless of the camera it is fitted to. Of course the lens mount has to match in order to fit the lens but that has nothing to do with nor will it affect the focal length of the lens. I am not conversant with the Nikon lenses and mounts. Lenses specifically intended/designed to be fitted to crop sensor cameras can be manufactured cheaper than lenses for full frame as the 'coverage' required is less. The image circle required is smaller to only cover the smaller sensor. In days of old (??**) it was an item of judgement between lenses to compare the coverage so as to avoid vignette problems.

C6Joe Loc: NorthWestern Nevada

I have a number of specialty lens from my F2/F3 days that I use on all my later Nikon digi's. (D70S, D200, D7000, D7300)
In manual mode, they work just fine. I use my 16mm fisheye all the time (Too cheap to buy a new one...this one cost enough as it was, back in the 70's!) And my two long lenses, a (very) old Vivitar 600mm, and my 8" Celestron mirror telephoto and tripod w/beanbags, etc.

woodyd Loc: Israel

Boberic I'm not sure I'm with you on this. From what I understand, the longer the focal length of a lens the more it magnifies the subject being viewed. A 35mm lens will not show the fine details of a bird's feathers at a distance whereas a 1000 mm lens will. Of course they also have very different field's of view but there is also a magnification factor involved and what I'm trying to get at is that a cropped sensor does not alter that magnification factor.

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

Advertisers are only interested in making the sale. Misleading people and taking advantage of what people don't understand is what the are all about.

The crop factor determines the equivalency. Nikon's DX crop factor is 1.5. If you were to use a FX 300mm lens on a DX camera you would multiply 300 X 1.5 to get an equivalent field of view of 450mm. The focal length will remain 300mm. What changes is the field of view, and you are correct the sensor does not magnify the image at all.

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

You are correct.

woodyd Loc: Israel

Thanks everyone.

Bill_de Loc: US

But now that you have been brought up to speed you are no longer deceived.

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Rongnongno Loc: FL

I have yet to see a manufacturer advertise this. Folks do thought.

What is really going on is that to see the same field of view a DX would need a 450mm. That is all*.

Note:
The 'crop' is not the sensor but lens selection within its circle of diffusion.
Full Frame (FF) cameras a one of the worst misnomer. It refers to 24x36 format. ALL sensors are full frame. The only time there is a 'sensor crop' is when only part on a sensor used when the lens used is made for a smaller format, like using a DX lens on a FX format.

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* There are other differences like perspective but no one pays attention.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Think of a crop sensor (smaller) as taking a portion of the field of view and "enlarging it" to fit the same size pallet. That gives you the 1.6x (or whatever) effective zoom.

BebuLamar

Now that you know how a 50mm lens would behave on your D3200 you can just go by that and forget about "35mm equivalent focal length" "Crop factor" and all that crap. You just need to know what kind of view a lens of certain focal length would be like on your D3200 that's all.
As for the battery for the Luna 6 (which I believe the same as Luna Pro) you can get Wein Cell which is expensive and doesn't last that long. You can actually get the real mercury battery from Russia. I had the link from the other website but I have to look up as I forget where it is now.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I see most of what you said differently, based on my experience. I started with a used Nikon D3100 and a handful of old film lenses, as they were all dirt cheap on ebay. The D3xxx series dslrs work in manual mode with all the film lenses, pre-ais and Ais, except the fish eyes. They don't meter, but that's what the lcd screen is for. You set your iso, and shutter speed in the camera and your manual focus and f-stop on the lens and you take a few pics in live view to check your settings. The additional thing you get in live view is the 6x magnifier, which lets you nail manual focus before taking the picture, and also magnify the pic you just took to check it out. Naturally if you want full metering and auto focus you need to buy up to date dslr lenses. I see by your follow up post you have come to the same conclusion.

Regarding the crop sensor cameras. What you see in the viewfinder or lcd screen of a crop sensor camera with a 50mm lens is the
same view you get in a ff camera viewfinder or lcd screen or a 35mm camera viewfinder with a 75mm lens. So the view is apparently magnified by the crop factor of 1.5x. That is why the 35mm equivalent focal length on the 50mm lens on a crop sensor is considered to be 75mm.

On smaller sensors the equivalent focal length is magnified by the crop factor. For example on a CX sensor like the Nikon1, the crop factor is 2.7x, so the field of view of a 50mm lens on a CX sensor would be 50x2.7=135mm. Instead of seeing a small target, you see a larger one. Some people say this is the same as cropping in post production, but I don't think it is. With a larger image I believe it's easier to get better autofocus, especially in live view where you are using contrast detection autofocus. If the target is larger, it makes sense that the autofocus can be more accurate. It's been my experience that the greater the equivalent focal length, the better chance I have of getting more detail on subjects like small birds at a distance.

In my experience there is magnification by the crop sensor, both in the viewfinder and in the finished picture. Since I often shoot small objects at a distance, I crop the image to near or at 100% resolution, which is the only way to judge the clarity and resolution of the lens on that camera. So I disagree with those that claim the crop sensor doesn't in fact get more clarity and resolution. If you want a true comparison, crop the center of the photos created on different size sensor cameras and the same lens to 100% resolution on your screen, to show the same cropped subject. Then downsize the cropped sensor image to have the same pixel width and height as the larger sensor camera. Compare the two images at 100% resolution for yourself.

BebuLamar

Speaking strictly about the image seen thru the viewfinder and strictly a comparison between the Nikkormat FT3 and the Nikon D3200. The image seen in the viewfinder of the D3200 not only shows a narrow view but the subject is also slightly smaller. By contrast the view in the D500 while showing the same image as that of the D3200 the subject would look larger and and somewhat larger than that seen thru the viewfinder of the FT3.

woodyd Loc: Israel

Thanks for all the input. Very much appreciate it. I'm going to do some "testing" with my various old Nikkor AI lenses.

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

EXCEPT since you're using a smaller portion of the image circle, vignetting will decrease along with corner sharpness being improved.

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

Let us know what you find out.