I have been wondering for some time why, whenever someone with a DX camera asks a question about lenses, people start telling them about the 1.5x 'crop factor', and telling them their 50mm lens will have the field of view of a 75mm lens on an FX camera. I know technically this is so, but for someone who has just progressed from a P&S camera, it is just confusing. The field of view is what it is.. just look throught the viewfinder and you will see what it is. How that would differ if you had a 35mm film camera or FX camera is really not relevant. There may be some people who have had many years shooting film, and who have a picture in their minds of what the field of view should be with a film camera, and for them the information may be important, as they will need to learn what to expect with the DX format, but for the majority, it is completely unimportant.

I used a film camera for many years before buying my first DX digital, and the first thing I noticed was that the viewfinder was smaller, and that the lenses gave a different field of view, but I soon adapted. I never had a pre-conceived idea of what I would see with any lens, I just looked through the viewfinder to see what I could fit in the view, and zoomed in or out to get what I wanted.

The other factor that comes into this is the misinformation that people keep giving, about DX and FX lenses of the same focal length giving different views. I have seen it stated many times that for instance if you get a 50mm DX lens, it will look like a 50mm lens, but if you get a 50mm FX lens it will look like a 75mm lens. This totally confuses newcomers, and is incorrect. The lenses give the same field of view, the 'crop factor' is a characteristic of the body, not the lens.

I am sure others might disagree, but I say, keep it simple, and don't confuse people with comparisons that are irrelevant.

David

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