Nikon film SLR - what to do now?

[Pablo]

Hello,

I have a Nikon SLR (can't even remember the model - I think a N70?) which I purchased prior to the whole digital revolution. I have two semi-decent lenses with it (24-85 and 70-300). I have basically abandoned this camera in favour of a cheap compact digital. This takes acceptable photos in bright conditions, but I'd like to take advantage of my nice SLR lenses if possible, by acquiring a new digital body. The problem I perceive is that the CCD size in the Nikon bodies is smaller than a frame of 35mm film, and I understand that this affects the focal length of the lens, such that wide angle lenses become less wide. I would imagine this is a Bad Thing, since you would then need to purchase an even wider angle lens to get back to your standard wide angle, and lenses seem to get more expensive as they get wider in angle. Is my thinking correct? Is there a solution or do I have to bite the bullet and accept the loss of wideness? Is Nikon planning to bring out a body with 35 mm CCD size?

Thanks,

Pablo

 

[clarinetJWD]

Nikon does not feel it needs a full frame sensor, because the quality of the DX size sensor is more than adequite. Even if they DO come out with one in the future, it will be first introduced in the upper echelon of cameras (>$5000) and the price difference of the body will be more than the cost of buying a new wide angle. If I were you, I'd go for a D80 right now, as the technology in it is spectacular, and (assuming your compact uses SD cards) you can use the same memory card.

The other reason it's not really a bad thing, is while wide angle becomes less wide, telephoto becomes longer as well, allowing you to get away with shorter focusing lenses. The crop factor is 1.5x, meaning that the mm value is multiplied by 1.5 for their digital sensor. I hope I'm making sense...let me know if I'm not!

 

[Pablo]

Thanks, clari. I'm with you right up to the crop factor part - can you explain that a bit more please?

 

[Don Simon]

Well in practice the crop factor of the digital sensor is the factor by which you can multiply the focal length of your existing lenses to find out what their 'effective' focal length will be on the digital sensor, as compared to 35mm.

Say you have a 50mm lens and a digital SLR with a 1.5x crop factor (as Nikon's have). You multiply 50 by 1.5 and get 75, so on that digital SLR your 50mm lens will actually be like a 75mm lens on a 35mm camera. Similarly a 28mm will be equivalent to 42mm, 200mm to 300mm etc.

There are of course disadvantages to this, especially with wide-angles. You could get a perfectly reasonable 19-35mm zoom for 35mm SLRs for very little money. To get something equivalent to that on a sensor with a 1.5x crop factor you'd need a 12-24mm, which, well they cost quite a bit more.
On the other hand, it can also be very good if you do a lot of portraits or otherwise use telephotos a lot.

 

[Pablo]

Ok, understood.

Thanks!