{"id":3082,"date":"2011-09-28T17:27:13","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T17:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=3082"},"modified":"2011-09-28T17:41:06","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T17:41:06","slug":"fx-or-dx-decisions-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=3082","title":{"rendered":"FX or DX? – Decisions, decisions…….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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FX (35mm size sensor) or DX (APS-C size sensor), I get that question a lot. \u00a0It’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. \u00a0First before we get into what the advantages and disadvantages are of each, let’s define a photographer’s needs. \u00a0Let’s define two shooters and you can decide which you are:<\/p>\n

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The Working Pro: \u00a0Let’s say you shoot a lot of sports, and action and you use your gear day and night. \u00a0You probably make thousands of images a week. \u00a0You need a camera that can shoot in the pouring rain, and fire at a very high rate of up to 9 fps. \u00a0You often have to shoot at continuous high for extended periods of time, so you must have a very large buffer in the camera. \u00a0You also have to shoot in exceedingly low light requiring ISO’s of over 3200 on a regular basis. \u00a0You’re in good condition and carrying a heavy camera or two is not a big deal to you. \u00a0You 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. \u00a0Cost is not as important to you as having the camera that can do what you need to do.<\/p>\n

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The Serious Photographer: \u00a0You don’t make a living with your camera, but you use it a lot. \u00a0If 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. \u00a0You seldom need to shoot over 2o frames in a row. \u00a0Size and weight of a camera matter to you and you prefer smaller to larger. \u00a0You don’t shoot a great deal in very low light and seldom need to shoot over 1600. \u00a0You shoot landscape, close-ups, travel, some people, but seldom action or sports. \u00a0You take good care of your equipment and don’t abuse it. \u00a0You have no real need for the new fast wide angles 24 f1.4 and 35 f1.4. \u00a0Cost is a factor in all you equipment decisions.<\/p>\n

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You’ve probably already figured it out. \u00a0If you’re the Working Pro the most advanced Pro camera like the D3 or D3s are what you want and need. \u00a0If you’re the serious photographer the D300s or D7000 are probably your best bet. \u00a0If you fall between the two categories the D700 may be just what you’re looking for. \u00a0Now if you win the lottery, or inherit a fortune, \u00a0you obviously can afford anything you want, at that point your only question might be do I mind carrying the heavier camera.<\/p>\n

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What about mega pixels? \u00a0That 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 \u00a0almost anything you might want to do. \u00a0Remember that the more mega pixels the bigger the files, which is both good and bad. \u00a0Good 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. \u00a0I 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!<\/p>\n

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Lenses? \u00a0Today 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. \u00a0If 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. \u00a0Let’s take a practical lens comparison. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0On the D7000 I miss the 24mm end but love the 180 end. \u00a0If you think you would miss the 24 end more than you would \u00a0most likely live happier with the FX, if you like the long end being effectively longer you might just be a DX shooter.<\/p>\n

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One thing is for sure, I’ve seen and, made myself, wonderful images with both formats. \u00a0In an ideal world I would own one of each, then you would have all the advantages of both formats. \u00a0But, take heart, if your budget keeps you in the DX range, you’re still dealing with formidable picture making machines! \u00a0The best news is, you can’t make a bad decision!<\/p>\n

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Now get out and enjoy making images………..<\/p>\n

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FX (35mm size sensor) or DX (APS-C size sensor), I get that question a lot. \u00a0It’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. \u00a0First before we get into what the advantages and disadvantages are of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3082"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3085,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions\/3085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}