DX and FX- format can be seen in lenses and camera bodies from Nikon. So, what are these DX and FX format means?? Everyone must be wondering about it before buying it. So here we are trying to explain it as much as we can.
First of all let’s know what is a camera format, In DSLR camera format refers to the size of the sensor. As here we are talking about DX and FX-format we are only going to talk about Nikon camera format and the meaning of DX and FX.
So for that first let’s know what the camera sensor is; Dave morrow photography explains; also known as an image sensor, a camera sensor is an electronic device that collects light information, consisting of color & intensity after it passes through the lens opening, known as the aperture. Shutter speed defines the length of time this light information is collected by the camera sensor and ISO determines the amplification the light information receives as it’s conveyed into the digital world, where it’s stored on a memory card as a picture file.
Now, DX-format is the sensor formats from Nikon Company that is smaller in size to be precise its 24x16mm. And the FX format is the larger full frame format with the sensor size of 26x24mm which is approximately the same size as 35mm film. Sometime one might get confused between what is full format and what is crop sensor camera in Nikon. Hence, FX camera bodies and lenses are the full frame and DX are the crop sensor.
There are positive and negative aspects of both the FX format and DX format on their own way.
Major difference in different aspects of FX and DX format cameras are given below:
| S.No. | Aspect | FX-format | DX-format |
| 1. | Price | High price | Low price |
| 2. | Performance in Light | Better lowlight performance and the image quality | Low-light performance is not good as compared to FX |
| 3. | Size and weight | Larger and heavy | Smaller and lighter |
| 4. | Dynamic range | Higher | Smaller |
| 5. | Lenses | They have high varieties with super wide lenses* | They have less varieties with generally lacking “super-wide “lenses* |
*Lenses can be interchanged between two different formats but the image quality and the crop factor might vary.
These are the major differences to be known there are many other technical aspects that are not covered. Hence the differences can be taken as pros for one and cons for the other according to need.
A part taken from Dave Morrow Photography and Nikon USA
