DX lens (Nikon 17-55) on an FX body (D700)
How well does it work? The above is shot at 17mm on my D700 using my Nikon 17-55/2.8 DX lens. Obviously, the image circle doesn’t cover the FX frame. No surprises there. I’ve been told that the Nikon 17-55 is usable on FX bodies (D3x, D3, D700) at 28mm onwards. I did a few very quick and unscientific test shots to see for myself. Results after the jump. You can click through to each photo on Flickr to view the full-size 12 megapixel image, if you really want to.
No lens hood and no filter mounted on the lens (using the hood results in much more severe vignetting). Settings: manual exposure at ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/40 sec. Manual white balance at 4,917 Kelvins. D2XMODE3 picture control. None of this stuff changed from shot to shot, the only thing I changed was the focal length. But, I didn’t use a tripod, and note that at f/5.6 the darkening in the corners will be slightly milder than if I had shot wide open at f/2.8. So take this all with a grain of salt.
At 20mm, still obvious dark corners:
At 24mm, still obvious dark corners:
At 28mm, still dark corners, but would only require minor cropping to avoid. Still, I had hoped there would only be normal vignetting by this point.
At 35mm, we’re pretty much in the clear, maybe with some normal vignetting, and the corners are a bit soft of course.
At 55mm, no worries (hard to tell with this subject though, sorry - I guess I should have just taken photos of a blank wall instead).
Verdict: the 17-55/2.8 is not all that useful on an FX body. I wouldn’t really want to take it any wider than 35mm on a regular basis, unless I was prepared to do some serious cropping and I didn’t need any great level of acuity in the corners.