Thinking of making the transition to full frame Nikon, then this is for you.

Skip to my conclusion if you want the bottom line and don't want to read my long winded commentary.

I'm a commercial photographer (www.ratracestudios.com) and have been using Nikon DSLR gear as our studio's main camera gear since the D1. We have shot with may other cameras, digital and film but this guide is about moving from the Nikon DX format DSLRs to the FX full frame.

Lenses
Some very obvious observations to speak about first. You will need to consider how your current lens collection will be impacted by the move. I have recently run into a , newer to the business, professionals and they started out by buying a basic kit including 14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm. That's a great start. It follow that perseption that covering the mm lengths it important. Not that it isn't (I'm not being sarcastic) but I don't pick out lenses to cover mm ranges exactly. Lenses serve special shooting circumstances or needs. The point to be made here is that if you have invested in particular lenses you will obviously need to examine how you will achieve your same goals with the full frame format. Yes this is just too obvious to write about, so I'll move on.

Image Quality
Here we are finding a big difference between our D300 models and the D700, D3 and D3x. We have all of these cameras in our studio and use them for different purposes. Occational we are asked to shoot editorial assigments and this can include concerts or other events that are low light, no flash situations. The FX cameras without a doubt beat the D300 for low light shooting. This may seem an unfair comparison but we don't hold our camera models as a badge of status, they are just model number. Lower models have some of the same technology in them as higher end models and can record equaly good images. There have been test comparing the D300 and D3 at equal magnifications (in other words different focal lengths so the image appears the same size) and using ISO 200-400 the images are identical. This is my experience as well.

So, considering the type of shooting you are doing, the FX models may not be offering you anything the you don't already have in a DX model. I'm not saying the all DX models will record an image equal to a D3 but in the case of the D300/D3 test that is the case.

Back to a few more works on low light. Many photographer are faced with low light shooting. The FX models all differ at high ISOs. The D700 and D3 are very similar. So similar I have a difficult time telling them apart. Therefore the D700 is a far better buy if you don't require extremely fast frame rates. I would compare the image quality (in general terms) of the D3 and D700 at ISO 6400 to a D300 at ISO 1600-3200 and the D200 and D2x at ISO 800. That's my general rule of thumb.

Image Magnification
This topic just doesn't seem to be covered in the articles I've read. It's clear to me that the advantage of the DX format is focal length. Some of you will take issue with the way I frame this, no pun intended, because I've never been one to talk from a highly technical or acedemic perspective, I rather just put things in general terms as a photographer who has experience. A DX camera obviously adds magnification by it's "cropped" nature. I think of it as pixel density. The density of pixels is greater on my D300 than on my FX models. This helps me achieve a 12mp image with 200mm that is equal in magnification to an FX 12mp camera using a 300mm. There is a huge difference between using a 200mm f2.8 and a 300mm f2.8. namely you really can't hand hold a 300mm 2.8, nor can you stow in in your camera bag. So I would say that if you are shooting a lot of telephoto images you may get more bang out of the DX. Also, if you are shooting extreme close-ups the DX will help in the same way.

We afix a D300 to a Leica microscope to do micro product photography, which you can see examples of on our website. My excitement for the long awaited D3x was because of this point. I see telephoto lenses as a cumbersome neccesity. I found it fun the first few times I was carrying around a large lens that people would comment. It got old quick. Carrying a large lens also gets tiresome quickly. The idea of more pixels will translate into less telephoto lens. I bought the D3 and D700 before the D3x (they were release ealier of course) and I lost focal length, so I kept my D300 around for some of that shooting. With the D3x I have gained some fo the length back. If that sounds elementary, well it is, but it is how it works in the real world as well.

Of course there is one caveat here and it's a big one. You can't just crop in endlessly even if you had say 100mp camera. The lens will show it's limitations soon enough. If you shoot ultra close-ups with bellows you have experience this. And with the D3x I can see the quality of different lenses much more evident.

Shooting with both DX and FX cameras
It sounds like the perfect solution. You have a D300 and a D90 and you want to move to a D700 and keep that D300. You can do it and you don't have to listen to me but I would recomend a clean break if you are shooting in the field a lot and without an assistant. I have found that to get a shot quickly you can't firgure out what camera you have in your hands and do a focal length, DX/FX conversion. I have hated having a D200 and D2x at the same time just because the bodies are of a different design. I had to get two D2x camers as soon as I could for fail to get shots in those quick shooting situations. A D300 and D700 or worse a D300 and D3 (or D3x) presents way too many differences to manage. A camera should be an intuative tool you don't have to think about. With that said, you will have a greater variety of shooting choices with both the DX and FX formats at your disposal so if you don't find yourself in pressure situations or with just one camera at a time in your hands then by all means transition slowly and kept both formats as we have in our studio.

Conclusion
I haven't shot a Nikon camera I didn't like (well accept for the Kodak/Nikon 420 back in the days of early, subpar DSLR photography, but still it was fun). I look at the positive attributes of a camera because I'm always thinking "what tool do I want for this situation." The negatives don't enter the picture because I look to another tool if it's available or work around the situation. Like stitching images to make a higher resolution image. Because the tool was available I didn't say my camera sucks because it's only 6mp. I stitched or rented a camera back for the 4x5. The positives are DX offers great images quality up to ISO 1600 and also offers greater telephoto and close-up capability. Whereas, the FX format offers amazing resolution and great ISO 6400 images.

Happy shooting, I hope this helps.
Ken Friberg

p.s. Please comment and/or vote on my posting. Your input, comments, and even contratictions to what I've posted is very helpful to others. Cheers.