Tailgunner said:
So is there a comparison thread where people discuss the differences they experienced switching from DX to FX? I've been eye balling a refurbished D600 but just not sure I want to make the plunge.
One of the things you notice when moving to FX is that prime lenses suddenly regain the characteristics that they were designed to have; in other words, a good 24 or 28mm lens can actually BE a wide-angle lens, and NOT require expensive aspherical optical design to be a good lens. On the wide-angle end, I think the FX bodies are simply the best thing, since the wide lenses on FX do not require expensive,complicated, exotic designs to perform acceptably.
On the Nikon 24- and 36-MP sensors, the pixel count is very high, and even a decent lens produces a file that has a lot of information in it; a less-than-stellar lens on a 36-MP D800 produces higher resolution than a great lens on say a Canon 5D-III or a lower-res Nikon like the 12-MP D700. Not by a lot, but by a clearly noticeable amount; see Roger's tests at Lensrentals.com for a good article on this in his "Choosing a System" series of tests of multiple camera/lens combos.
On FX, a 28-70 f/2.8 is what is was DESIGNED to be...not some hybridized bastard lens. Same with a 50mm f/1.8. Restoring the angles of view of a prime lens kit makes FX worth it if you have even 3 or 4 good lenses that were originally designed for FX use.
It also works on telephotos; indoors, a 70-200 on DX is very "tight"at many,many venues; on FX, it's very useful. Same with a 300mm; on DX, often wayyyyy to narrow-angle. On FX, not too narrow, but it becomes what it was originally designed to be. All the old FL's: 24,28,35,50,60,85,90,105,135,180,200,300 are part of a logical kit. For example, the 135mm lens; on DX bodies, it is a VERY narrow-angle lens, not suited to many real-world locations...it's just too damned "narrow-angle", but on FX, 135mm becomes a moderately long lens that can actually be used in a church, or in a backyard, or in a gymnasium, from "
normal distances".
Same thing with the 35mm length; VERY useful indoors on FX.