The Nikon DX format is an alternative name used by

Nikon (, ; ) is a Japanese optics and photographic equipment manufacturer. Nikon's products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and equipment related to S ...

corporation for

APS-C Advanced Photo System type-C (APS-C) is an image sensor format approximately equivalent in size to the Advanced Photo System film negative in its C ("Classic") format, of 25.1×16.7 mm, an aspect ratio of 3:2 and Ø 30.15 mm field d ...

image sensor format In digital photography, the image sensor format is the shape and size of the image sensor. The image sensor format of a digital camera determines the angle of view of a particular lens when used with a particular sensor. Because the image se ...

being approximately 24x16 mm. Its dimensions are about (29 mm vs 43 mm diagonal, approx.) those of the

35mm format file:135film.jpg, 135 film. The film is wide. Each image is 24×36 mm in the most common "small film" format (sometimes called "double-frame" for its relationship to the "single-frame" 35 mm movie format or full frame after the introduc ...

. The format was created by

for its digital SLR cameras, many of which are equipped with DX-sized sensors. DX format is very similar in size to sensors from

Pentax was a Japanese camera and optical equipment manufacturer. Currently, it exists as the Pentax Life Care Business Division of Hoya's medical endoscope business, as well as the digital camera brand of Ricoh Imaging, a subsidiary of Ricoh. Penta ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and other camera manufacturers. All are referred to as

, including the

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

cameras with a slightly smaller sensor. Nikon has produced 23 lenses for the DX format, from macro to

telephoto A telephoto lens, also known as telelens, is a specific type of a long-focus lens used in photography and cinematography, in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens ...

lenses.

lenses can also be used with DX format cameras, with additional advantages: less

vignetting In photography and optics, vignetting ( ) is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center. The word '' vignette'', from the same root as ''vine'', originally referred to a decorative b ...

, less

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

and often better border sharpness. Disadvantages of 35mm lenses include generally higher weight and incompatible features such as autofocus with some lower-end DX cameras. Nikon has also produced digital SLRs that feature the larger

Nikon FX format A full-frame DSLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 35 mm image sensor format (). Historically, 35 mm was one of the standard film formats, alongside larger ones, such as medium format and large format. Many digital ...

sensor that is the size of the

135 film file:135film.jpg, 135 film. The film is wide. Each image is 24×36 mm in the most common "small film" format (sometimes called "double-frame" for its relationship to the "single-frame" 35 mm movie format or full frame after the introduc ...

format. In 2013, Nikon introduced a high-end compact camera with a DX-sized sensor, the Nikon Coolpix A, featuring an 18.5 mm lens.

Implications

The smaller diagonal size of the DX format amounts to a narrower

angle of view In photography, angle of view (AOV) describes the angular extent of a given scene that is imaged by a camera. It is used interchangeably with the more general term '' field of view''. It is important to distinguish the angle of view from the ...

than would be achieved with the 135 film format (35 mm film or FX format), using a lens of the same focal length. Strictly in angle-of-view terms, the effect is equivalent to increasing focal length by 50% on a 135 film camera, and so is often described as a 1.5x focal length multiplier. This effect can be advantageous for

and

macro photography Macro photography (or photomacrography or macrography, and sometimes macrophotography) is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is g ...

as it produces a tighter crop without the need to increase actual focal length. However it becomes disadvantageous for wide-angle photography as a

wide-angle lens In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens is a Photographic lens, lens covering a large angle of view. Conversely, its focal length is substantially smaller than that of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows mo ...

for 135 film effectively becomes a

normal lens In photography and cinematography, a normal lens is a lens that reproduces a field of view that appears "natural" to a human observer. In contrast, depth compression and expansion with shorter or longer focal lengths introduces noticeable, and som ...

for the DX format (e.g. 28 mm x 1.5 = 42 mm 135 film equiv.). This has led to the increased development of the DX format-specific lenses for the

Nikon F-mount The Nikon F-mount is a type of interchangeable lens mount developed by Nikon for its 35mm format single-lens reflex cameras. The F-mount was first introduced on the Nikon F camera in 1959, and features a three-lug bayonet mount with a 44mm thro ...

. Since these lenses do not need to cover the 135 film area, they are smaller and lighter than their 135 format counterparts of equal angle-of-view. The production of DX-specific lenses has also enabled the production of affordable wide-angle lenses for the format (e.g., 12 mm), whereas costly ultra-wide-angle lenses from the 135 format were formerly required. When DX format lenses are used on 135 format cameras,

often occurs, as the

image circle The image circle is the cross section of the cone of light transmitted by a lens or series of lenses onto the image plane. When this light strikes a perpendicular target such as photographic film or a digital camera sensor, it forms a circle o ...

does not cover the entire area of the 135 format. DX Lens On 35mmFilm Vignetting

Active sensor size

Nikon uses DX format sensors with slightly different active areas, which is the area where the image is captured, although all of them are classified as APS-C. Image sensors always have additional pixels around the active pixels, called dummy pixels (unmasked, working pixels) and optical black pixels (pixels which are covered by a mask used as a black-level reference). The size differences are minuscule and not noticeable in practice: * Coolpix A is a fixed-lens,

compact camera A point-and-shoot camera, also known as a compact camera and sometimes abbreviated to P&S, is a still camera (either film or digital) designed primarily for simple operation. Most use focus free lenses or autofocus for focusing, automatic syste ...

Lenses

Lenses for Nikon DX format

* 10.5mm 2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye * 35mm 1.8G AF-S DX * 40mm 2.8G DX Micro-Nikkor * 10-24mm 3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX * 12-24mm 4G ED-IF AF-S DX * 16-85mm 3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX * 17-55mm 2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX * 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX * 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G ED AF-S II DX * 18 -55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-P DX * 18-70mm 3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX * 18-135mm 3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX * 55-200mm 4-5.6G ED AF-S DX *55-300mm 4.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX * 70-300mm 4.5-6.3G ED AF-P DX

Current Vibration Reduction (VR) lenses in DX format

* AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm 4.5-5.6G VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80mm 2.8-4E ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm 3.5-5.6G ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G VR II * AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm 3.5-5.6G ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm 3.5-5.6G ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm 3.5-5.6G ED VR II * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm 3.5-5.6G ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm 3.5-6.3G ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED-IF VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm 4-5.6G ED VR II * AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm 4-5.6G ED VR * AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm 4.5-5.6G ED VR * AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm 4.5-6.3G ED VR * AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 85mm 3.5G ED VR

References