3

I have a Nikon D800 and am using a Nikon 12-24mm lens with it. When completely zoomed out it produces a vignette that I don't particularly care for. I've never seen this with my other Nikon DSLRs and this wasn't added as an effect using editing software. Any idea as to why this happens?

sample

mattdm
  • 143,140
  • 52
  • 417
  • 741
Raj
  • 133
  • 1
  • 3

3 Answers3

10

That is the wrong lens for your camera. The Nikon 12-24mm F/4 is an excellent lens but it is designed for a crop sensor. Nikon calls those DX lenses.

Luckily, Nikon makes an even more fantastic lens for your camera, the Nikkor 14-24mm F/2.8 which they call an FX lens. It will give you a wider angle of view, brighter aperture and is very sharp.

If you enable DX crop mode on the D800, then the vignette will disappear because the camera will crop the image for you which results in an obviously reduced resolution and angle-of-view, pretty much wasting a good part of what you probably paid for the D800.

Itai
  • 102,570
  • 12
  • 191
  • 423
5

Is that not a DX lens? A quick Google search only turns up the crop sensor optimized lens, so that would be a strong indicator to me that it's why it vignettes on the full frame D800.

Joanne C
  • 33,138
  • 4
  • 72
  • 132
  • 4
    Its definitely a DX lens. It should be noted that the D800 offers a DX crop mode. If enabled, the 12-24mm DX should perform quite well, albeit at a lower resolution output and longer effective focal length. – jrista Jun 29 '12 at 00:31
2

All the lenses on this list labeled FX are for your camera. DX is for cropped sensor cameras, your D800 is full frame camera. Some DX lenses can be used in DX mode but reduce your resolution. I suggest you buy FX lens, D800 has very large resolution sensor, in order to resolve all the detail you need top of the line lens; not DX.

Alen
  • 1,049
  • 5
  • 14
  • 3
    Just a quick note here: the D800 acually has lower linear resolution at the sensor than the current DX models (D3200, D5100 and D7000). No you can't get the full 36.3MP image with a DX lens, but DX lenses aren't necessarily of lower optical quality, they just have a smaller image circle. –  Jun 29 '12 at 09:03
  • I'm not suggesting DX lenses have bad quality. We all know 17-55/2.8 DX is great lens. My overall point is to get FX lenses since D800 is FX. – Alen Jun 29 '12 at 19:26