srt101fan

Good points. These kinds of posts should be very helpful to novices.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

At the other end of the rainbow is a full-frame camera with your name on it.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Short answer, I'd say yes to your initial question. Having also worked with 4x5" and larger View Cameras I am fairly familiar with fields of coverage or what is known as Image Circle. View camera large format lenses usually have huge image circles so you can move the front and/or back around (up-down-shift-tilt-side to side).

Since Pentax only put out a FF DSLR finally a few years ago the vast majority of Pentax "Digital" lenses were for Cropped Factor (APS-C) Sensor cameras and called "DA-series" lenses. They also had a few fancier high-end ones called DA*(star)-series. For a few years before the Pentax FF K-1 & K-1mkii cameras they were also putting out newer FF digital lenses called "D FA". And now they also seem to have some mainly in the Japanese market that are "DFA HD" FF High Definition or something that cost $$$!

But I have a couple DA and a DA* lenses, but mainly a huge number ~ 28 older/vintage Pentax "film" lenses that are all full frame in essence. These include manual focus manual exposure M-42 Takumar lenses, K-Mount(K-series), K(M-series) lenses; and AE K(A-series); and AF/AE K(FA-series) lenses. All can be mounted and used on a Pentax DSLR but the A-, FA-, and later digital models are most convenient to use. So I pretty much agree with your thesis about Nikon lenses as well, though as far as I can tell my sharpest lenses seems to be my Pentax DA 35mm 1:2.8 Macro Limited Lens. Not in keeping with our "bigger (image) is better" idea.

Odd factoid: I found that if mounting my Pentax DA* 16-50mm 1:2.8 (high-end) Zoom lens on a tele-extender it will then cover fully a 35mm film frame of 24-36mm (or a FF DSLR if I had one). Problem is the lens has no Click-stops as is the case with most "digital" lenses.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Somewhere, ....

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I have an older 16-35mm AF Nikkor. It is a serviceable lens on my D810 or D850. Probably somewhere between marginal and adequate. But it is a great lens on my D500. Most of its shortcomings are in the corners, and therefore they don't matter on the DX camera.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

THAT's different!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

GoofyNewfie, that's a rainbow of love, but alas, not the pot of full-frame gold you should be searching for.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Clown camera.
(no disrespect meant to Pentax owners)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

That's the Dr Timothy Leary model!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I have a friend who owns a Nikon D7100, and he uses the FX 28-300mm lens on it 90% of the time. He really loves that lens. I own a Nikon 24 megapixels DX camera. I own only one FX lens. One of my favorites is the inexpensive DX version 35mm f1.8. I have been told, that one of the sharpest DX zoom lens, is the Nikon 17-55mm f2.8. A lot better than my 18:55mm kit lens, that came with my camera. Unfortunately, I have never seen any photographer with a DX camera, who owned the DX 17-55mm f2.8 lens. I also discovered, it is not a cheap lens. Full frame lenses are likely better than crop sensor formatted lenses. Having a larger sensor on a full frame, has more positive points than negative points. I have seen professional photographers owning both full frame and crop sensor cameras. A Canon owner, can own a 5D Mark 4 and a 7D Mark 2. And a Nikon D850 owner can own a Nikon D500. The best of two worlds, with quality cameras.

Fotomacher Loc: Toronto

Excellent observation - that’s the reason they a good photographer NEVER crops an image EVER. Sheesh!!