Selecting a Nikon DSLR Camera

What camera shall I buy?

This is a very commonly asked question and to assist in selecting a camera I will briefly summarize the range of Nikon, Digital SLR cameras available and provide links to reviews, together with a brief summary of the main differences between the cameras. I will cover the main differences between the cameras and their main applications. I am only covering cameras which will give you exceptional image quality and this includes mainly DSLR cameras.

There are two distinct types of Nikon DSLR cameras as follows:

  • DX format (also known as APS-C or cropped format) with a  16 x 24mm sensor size. These cameras can be used with both DX and FX lenses. The DX cameras cameras have a crop factor compared to the FX sensor cameras. Due to the crop factor these cameras give an effective extension factor to lenses of 1.5 times, thus a 300mm lens becomes effectively a 450mm lens which can be a big advantage for photography of subjects such as birds. DX lenses are generally smaller and cheaper than the equivalent FX lenses.
  • FX format (also known as full frame format) with a 24 x 36mm sensor size, these cameras offer better noise performance since they have larger pixels for a similar DX camera with the same pixel count. These cameras require FX lenses which are generally more expensive and larger than the DX equivalent lenses.

Full details and reviews of the range of Nikon cameras are given in the individual reviews in this link.