Nikon Future (or FF vs. DX)

[Mariozi]

I had the idea of this thread after some emails on other thread.

Someone pointed (wisely I believe) in the direction of full-frame sensors in the future, and I believe this is the way things will go, for some reasons so I decided to list the here as food for thoughts for everyone to throw views and stones!

- The jewels of the DSLR market are full-frame bodies. And in most market economy niche, these jewels are a reflection of the future.
- Until now Canon and Nikon have been warring alone in the DSLR field. This will change from now on, and although they are not threatened as leaders there will be a change in market share and they will be pressed to present a new differential (full frames I believe).
- So for the next 2-4 years I believe we will see the effect of market economy on full-frame bodies, it is the same price-curve or pixel-per-dolar curve we had in the few past years.

This is one of the reasons I bought one D50 instead of the D200... maybe one other reason was my low volume of UW photos.
Also I think the 10.5mm is the only DX lens I will buy.
But there is a catch, as I do most of my work on the 105mm micro and the fisheyes 16mm abd 10.5mm I noticed the 1.5x crop is really fine (at least for us Nikonians that have the 10.5mm) on the 105mm end we now have a micro lens doing something that appear to the eye as a 1.1:1. On the wide mode the focusing abilities of the 10.5mm allows for better close-up winde angles than the wonderful 16mm...
So I think I will keep my D50 body, and add a full-frame DSLR for topside photos...

to be continued (wifes calling)
Best

 

[Mike Veitch]

Call me a cynic..

Why don't you sell your Nikon lenses and buy a Canon 5D?

 

[Mariozi]

I would call you a traitor!!! What are you doing here in the Nikon Niche???

 

[Mariozi]

Continuing...

I even think of buying an used (cheaper) D200 for UWP in the future... S&S's DX-D200 looks great!
So... even as I believe that full-frame is the future, I think DX is an advantage uw if you dont need oversized prints. Anyone share this feeling, I tend to read a lot on Kepplers SLR column on PopPhoto and ByThom... this is what I can foresee combining these two reliable sources.

answering Mike:
I don't go Canon for some reasons:
- I own a great deal of Nikon lenses/accessories AND I am very pleased with it, historically Nikon equipment have been known for more durability (not sure if there is any difference now but...).
- Canon's lens (in)compatibility system is something I am not used to, and dont wanna be.
- Due to this lack of constancy in Canon sensor size, it failed to produce a fisheye for its lower end bodies. And will not trade the Nikkor 10.5mm for a Canon/Sigma 15mm or even a Nikkor 16mm.
- I am a "lens guy" and I dont believe/like spending more than 500 bucks on a body.
- If I was to spend more money I would go for the D200 with its weather seal.
- On the macro side, Nikkors 60, 105 and 200(dream lens) go straight to 1:1 without life-size converters...
- Sea&Sea port system adds more flexibility to Nikonians through the NX port system (they are also adding more options to Canonians now) and I use some lenses not described in Sea&Sea catalog.

Best!

 

[Mike Veitch]

I only shoot nikon too....

But not too worried about a full frame being introduced.

I think it won't be for many years for Nikon to intro a full frame

 

[fdog]

Like all Nikon rumors, "I'll believe it when I see it".

Seriously though, I'm not that worried about it.

Yes, in the begining, it was tough to make the mental conversion from film lens length/perspective, but hey, I got over it. So If I had to switch back, it would be like riding a bicycle.

About the only thing I missed from film was wide angle; the 14mm we had to use was a behemoth. Now there's plenty of wide angle support.

So really, with those two big items gone, there would have to be a huge technical reason for me to switch back to "FF". Just megapixels isn't enough; I get more res than I need out of a D2H (a D2X would just slow me down), and FF seems to have it's own technical problems, anyway. Actually, they all have their little problems.

<shrugs> So my feelings are, who cares? If Nikon switches to a FF body, after I beat my current bodies to death, I'll replace them with the current standard. Just take the change en passant, as it were.

I worry more about when Quantum will stuff more juice into a Turbo!

All the best, James

 

[donnyb]

I'm still shooting transparencies, but have been following this dslr comparison between Canon & Nikon. My understanding was that sensor size caused the difference between FF & DX, resulting in the 1.5x factor, while pixel # remained the same. Canon's idea was your existing lenses gave you the same lens focal length as film, Nikon's gave you the longer effective lens.

I read an article on this that pointed out: the resulting image quality for the same size print was equal (for the same MP sensors), because the size & configuration of Canon's sensors were larger (spread out) and Nikons were smaller(packed tighter) so the only difference was the lens focal length DX / FF issue.

My concern then became the wide angle issue as well. New lenses with focal length of 10mm??? I thought, whoa, there must be some serious distortion of the images. But again I read an explanation that the DX chip only uses the central area of the glass, and the resulting images are actually similar to FF wide angle images, not distorted in the corners.

So my thought / question is, if all this is true, wouldn't it be an advantage to have the DX and the 1.5 lens factor? Your telephoto lenses are that much longer, meaning you don't need to spend $7K for a 600mm/f4 lens like you did with film. And with the new super wide lenses, you can still make an acceptable wide angle image...

Any thoughts? Am I missing something?

 

[garyfotodiver]

I rather like the idea of putting my 50mm f1.4 AI Nikkor lens on one of my Fuji S1 bodies and getting an effective 75mm perspective. My 200mm f4 is a 300mm? Wow!

The photos I have taken at about 2.2Mb per image have been excellent. I have no reason yet to consider buying a FF digital body.