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  1. #1
    Junior Member
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    Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    I have a Nikon 300s and have just made the move to the digital realm. I have a prime Nikon 85mm 1.8 and it seems much more "close up" than I remember from when I was using it with my 8008 (it is not a new lens, not VR or IR or anything like that). Am I just imagining things??? Or, is this something that happens when going to digital?

  2. #2
    Senior Member OldClicker's Avatar
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    Is a 300s full frame or cropped sensor? - TF
    -----------------
    I am no better than you. I critique to teach myself to see.
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    Feel free to edit my photos or do anything else that will help me learn.
    -----------------
    Sony/Minolta - way more gear than talent.

  3. #3
    Junior Member
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    I have no idea. How do I find that out?

  4. #4
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    the 300s is a cropped sensor, relatively speaking it would be a 127mm field of view. The 300S uses an APS sensor which is smaller then film.

    You can get a full frame digital body, which won't crop the sensor - Nikon has a D700 and D3X current, each being $3k and $8k.

    Though - with APS, you only use the sweet spot of the lens, so border to border lens performance improves dramatically per lens. You lose the field of view though, of course.

  5. #5
    Powder River Imaging EOSThree's Avatar
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    This is something that happens when you go digital if you go with a camera body that has an APS-C sensor. Because the sensor is smaller than a frame of 35mm film the photograph is cropped out of what would be the normal field of view on a 35mm camera for a particular lens' focal length. This would make your lens seem more "close up" than what you are used to seeing on your film body.

    Your 85mm lens would have the field of view of a 127mm lens on your new digital body. People argue semantics on this phenomena all of the time, but effectively your 85mm lens is now like a 127mm lens. It's still an 85mm lens, but the image is cropped by the sensor rendering the image like that of a 127mm lens.

    Clear as mud?
    Rule books are paper they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal. --Ernie Gann--
    What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. --Oscar Wilde--

  6. #6
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    Yes, it is definitely clear as mud!!! Yikes! Is there a formula for the change over? I just got a Nikon zoom lens (18-55 I think), is that accurate with the focal length?

  7. #7
    Not-so-recent Nikon Convert livin4lax09's Avatar
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    every lens that is used on a nikon aps-c sensor is effectively 1.5x its focal length, because the sensor is 1.5x smaller than a normal 35mm sensor, which the focal length is measured off of.

    So a Nikon 18-55mm lens will be now be a 27-83mm lens. That's actually why they make the new zoom lenses on the digital packages 18-55s, because its the equivalent of your standard 28-80mm zoom.

  8. #8
    Senior Member freygr's Avatar
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    Re: Why does my Prime lens seem more close up?

    The Nikon D300 has a APS-C sensor which is smaller than a full frame of 35mm film. So do to the small size image area the angle of view is reduced. The 85mm lens will effectively have an angle of view of a 127 mm lens, which the factor is 1.5. Just remember that a film lens will always work with the smaller image area but a DX will not work on your film camera as the image circle is will not full the frame.

    Also before you use an older lens check out this link: http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/slr-lens.html
    As you can damage your new camera!
    GRF

    Panorama Madness:

    Nikon D800, 50mm F1.4D AF, 16-35mm, 28-200mm & 70-300mm

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