Products You've Viewed
We’ll keep track of the products you view here.
Articles You've Viewed
We'll track the last 7 articles you've viewed so you can quickly return to them.

FX, DX Format Sensor

Nikon digital SLRs have either an FX or a DX sensor. The FX sensor, measuring 23.9 x 36mm, is roughly equivalent to the size of the 35mm film frame. The DX sensor is smaller, measuring 15.8 x 23.6mm.

The DX sensor makes possible the production of lighter, smaller cameras, but because it covers a smaller portion of the image projected by the lens, a 1.5x crop factor (so called because the smaller sensor crops the image compared to an image from a 35mm film frame) is introduced. This means, for example, a 24mm lens on a DX sensor camera will provide an approximate 36mm view.

The FX sensor, with more "light gathering" area, offers higher sensitivity and, generally, lower noise. There is, of course, no crop factor present with the FX sensor.

Nikon USA
©2010 Nikon Inc.