After upgrading to an FX body (D610) a while back, I was left with several DX-only lenses that aren’t designed for larger sensors. Numerous people online have discussed trying DX lenses on FX bodies, but I haven’t seen too many examples. So I decided to test a few of them: the Nikon 18-55mm kit lens, Nikon 55-200mm kit zoom lens, Nikon 35mm f/1.8 G DX, and the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. Today I’ll share some examples of the Nikon 18-55mm.
Just about everyone shooting with a Nikon DX body has this lens. The 18-55mm has been the kit lens for most DX bodies for years. It’s not a bad lens to start with and I used it a lot when I first moved from Olympus over to Nikon. I can’t say that I will plan on using it much anymore though, as it has heavy vignetting and other problems with the corners.
The vignetting is visible throughout the focal range of the lens. It’s usable from 24mm to 55mm if you’re okay cropping slightly. You’re going to want to crop the image anyway with some of the other issues.
There’s a lot going on in those corners. Everything is drastically softer. Chromatic and spherical aberrations are noticeable and annoying.
The only sufficiently sharp part of the image is right in the center, where a crop sensor would be using the lens. I say “sufficiently” because this lens isn’t particularly sharp in the first place.
You could certainly crop and work around these issues if you want to keep using this lens. Out of all the quick snaps I took while testing the lens/body combination, I picked out one and edited it. Here are the original and the edited version of the same image.
Honestly, if you want to upgrade to full frame without spending a ton of money on lenses, there are better options. I recommend the Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6 G. It’s dirt cheap (sub $100 in great quality) and is easy to find since it was a kit lens on some of the last Nikon film SLRs. While it’s a little slower to focus and it’s a bit noisier, it’s a great budget lens.
I don’t know what I plan on doing with this lens anymore. Maybe I’ll sell it with my old crop bodies. It’s not worth much though, so that may be more trouble than it’s worth. l might just keep it around to use with my older D70 next time someone wants to borrow a camera.
