FX or DX? – Decisions, decisions……..

FX (35mm size sensor) or DX (APS-C size sensor), I get that question a lot.  It’s not an easy question to answer, but I can give you some ideas that may help you sort out what is going to work best for you.  First before we get into what the advantages and disadvantages are of each, let’s define a photographer’s needs.  Let’s define two shooters and you can decide which you are:

The Working Pro:  Let’s say you shoot a lot of sports, and action and you use your gear day and night.  You probably make thousands of images a week.  You need a camera that can shoot in the pouring rain, and fire at a very high rate of up to 9 fps.  You often have to shoot at continuous high for extended periods of time, so you must have a very large buffer in the camera.  You also have to shoot in exceedingly low light requiring ISO’s of over 3200 on a regular basis.  You’re in good condition and carrying a heavy camera or two is not a big deal to you.  You shoot a lot of wide angle lenses and plan to buy one of the new fast lenses like the 35 f1.4 or 24 f1.4.  Cost is not as important to you as having the camera that can do what you need to do.

The Serious Photographer:  You don’t make a living with your camera, but you use it a lot.  If it’s pouring the rain, you’re catching some breakfast and waiting for it to slack up. 5 or 6 frames per second are plenty for your needs.  You seldom need to shoot over 2o frames in a row.  Size and weight of a camera matter to you and you prefer smaller to larger.  You don’t shoot a great deal in very low light and seldom need to shoot over 1600.  You shoot landscape, close-ups, travel, some people, but seldom action or sports.  You take good care of your equipment and don’t abuse it.  You have no real need for the new fast wide angles 24 f1.4 and 35 f1.4.  Cost is a factor in all you equipment decisions.

You’ve probably already figured it out.  If you’re the Working Pro the most advanced Pro camera like the D3 or D3s are what you want and need.  If you’re the serious photographer the D300s or D7000 are probably your best bet.  If you fall between the two categories the D700 may be just what you’re looking for.  Now if you win the lottery, or inherit a fortune,  you obviously can afford anything you want, at that point your only question might be do I mind carrying the heavier camera.

What about mega pixels?  That is another tricky one, first all modern camera that I’m familiar with, (which would be the current Nikon DSLRs), have more than enough mega pixels for  almost anything you might want to do.  Remember that the more mega pixels the bigger the files, which is both good and bad.  Good in that more file sized means richer files that can be blown up a great deal larger, bad in that storing very large files means bigger, faster cards and more hard drives.  I could not tell you how many you need, but one way to know is ask yourself if the mega pixels you’ve been using are holding you back from anything you have needed to do, if they are, you know what comes next!

Lenses?  Today most manufacturers provide a wealth of lens choices, I certainly know that Nikon does, there are very few choices you might want to make that are not provided.  If you must have super fast wide angles, then FX is the ticket, however if you simply need super wide the 10-24 gets you into super wide at a reasonable f4 maximum aperture.  Let’s take a practical lens comparison.  I happen to own the new Nikkor 24-120 AF-S VR f4 on the D3s or D700 it is a 24-120, on the D7000 it the equivalent angle of view of a 36-180.  On the D7000 I miss the 24mm end but love the 180 end.  If you think you would miss the 24 end more than you would  most likely live happier with the FX, if you like the long end being effectively longer you might just be a DX shooter.

One thing is for sure, I’ve seen and, made myself, wonderful images with both formats.  In an ideal world I would own one of each, then you would have all the advantages of both formats.  But, take heart, if your budget keeps you in the DX range, you’re still dealing with formidable picture making machines!  The best news is, you can’t make a bad decision!

Now get out and enjoy making images………..