DX Lenses on Film Camera

[bikeracer4487]

Firstly, I'm aware that there are other threads on other forums dealing with this issue but I haven't been able ot get a straight answer. My sister and I both enjoy photography a great deal and both own Nikon digital SLR's and Nikkor lenses. Between the two of us we have a D70s, a D40, and Nikkor 18-55 AF-S, 18-135 AF-S, 55-200 AF-S VR, and a 70-300 AF lens.

However, she's also looking to get into a little film photography and will be taking a course in college on this very subject, which is where my dilemma comes in. I have an OLD Minolta Maxxum 7000 with a 70-210 and 28mm lens that I through I could sell on ebay and then buy a Nikon film camera that would work with all of our lenses...but then I remembered the DX format. Essentially my question is, would it be worth it? Obviously a 10.5mm fisheye is going to have terrible vignetting and I'm sure there would be vignetting with the lens wide open at 18mm, but I'm just wondering what the extent of it would be and if having a newer Nikon with more lenses and a little vignetting trumps an old Minolta with only a telephoto zoom and fixed wide angle with no vignetting. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[OsmosisStudios]

Well, lets start with the basics:
AF-S 18-55 G
AF-S 18-135 G
AF-S 55-200 G (VR)
AF 70-300 D

All DX lenses except for the last one (it's actually FX). It's also not a G-series lens, which means it has an aperture ring, which makes it more versatile.

The three G lenses will only work fully on a film body that can control aperture electronically from the body. This means that the aperture is set on the body, not the lens. If the aperture has to be set on the lens, G lenses will always default to their minimum aperture (f/22 or smaller). That's not great. The D lens doesn't have this problem, but obviously you wont get autofocus on the older MF bodies.

As for vignetting
All three DX lenses are going to vignette though the 18-135 and the 55-200 might not as much at the longer end. There are some DX lenses that can work on FX (the 10-24 and 12-24, both from about 18mm on), but again you need to be able to control the aperture electronically. You'll have to do some research and testing (more on that below), but generally speaking...

One thing to remember is that the focal length marked on the lenses will be the actual focal length, so that 18-55 becomes a VERY wide lens, if you can live with the vignetting.

If you do get a film body, especially one that can control aperture electronically, run a test roll through it testing out each lens at the marked focal lengths. This will give you a good idea of how the lenses can be used. If nothing is to your satisfaction, you've got a few options. Im a particular sucker for getting a nice 3-prime kit: 24mm, 50mm and 85mm. Older MF lenses are cheap and still very good, and they're ALL FX.

If you want my opinion:
I shoot film in APS, 35mm and 120 format. The APS is a joke: it's fun to play with, but for just about anything it's totally useless. For 35mm I shoot black and white film on a manual focus film body with a 50mm lens. That's it. It means I can go out for an afternoon wearing a pair of cargo shorts and can have half a dozen rolls of film, the camera and lens and you cant really tell. For 120 it's generally black and white or very selective colour film.

I do all this in conjunction with my digital equipment which I use for most commercial and personal work: film is a sort of side hobby, and I treat it as such. If you're looking for good films to try out at first, pick up some Ilford XP2. It's black and white but can be processed at any standard C-41 lab (any place that does colour). Its fast (400) so you can get a more varied use out of it. Note, though, that it benefits from +1/3 to +2/3 exposure compensation for best results.

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me directly.