topic Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

peteck18 — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 15:55:26 GMT

Hi all,

I shoot with a d90. I upgraded from a rebel, so most fo my lenses are EF-S. I want to get better glass and am a little confused about the issue of using an EF lens on my camera. I understand that there is a 1.6x crop factor, so a 50mm would really be closer to an 80mm on my camera (right?). So here's my question. Eventually I'll want to upgrade to a full frame, so I figure I should start upgrading my lenses to EF level so that when I buy the next camera, I'll have the lenses, spreading out the financial pain, as it were. Does this make sense? On the other hand, I've read that using EF lenses on an APS-C is less than ideal. What do you all think?

Thanks!

Peter

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

kvbarkley — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 16:03:51 GMT

A 50mm EF-S lens will have the same field of view as a 50 mm EF lens.

There is no reason not to use an EF lens on an EF-S mount. I have several.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

cicopo — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 16:04:41 GMT

So you know you should have a 90D because a D90 is a Nikon camera and there is absolutely no reasons that an EF lens won't perform properly on your 90D. The most important rule of this is you get what you pay for meaning there are low end consumer grade lenses & there are high end pro level lenses (L series usually quality as pro level) so when shopping & pick what fits your needs but not just by price.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

peteck18 — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 16:10:04 GMT

Oops! Meant 90D. Sorry about that!!!!!

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

peteck18 — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 16:16:30 GMT

So...I'm now more than a little confused. I've read that a 100 mm would behave like a 160mm. Please help me understand. I've been searching for explanations of how this works.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

cicopo — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 16:28:28 GMT

That has nothing to do with the lens. It's because the sensor in the camera is smaller so there is a magnification factor due to that. The same lens performs the same on a crop body & full frame body but the smaller sensor changes the field of view to look like you've zoomed in tighter.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

rs-eos — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 17:35:06 GMT

Here's an image taken with a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera. I then applied the 1.6 crop on what would happen if using that same 50mm on a crop-sensor camera (same shooting location). I lightened the areas around the crop.

As stated above, the lens is still the same focal length. It would have the same distortions/compression effects*

* On a crop-sensor camera with an EF lens, the outer edges of the lens would not contribute at all; you're using just the center area. So any distortions or other effects around the edges of such a lens (e.g. softness) on a full-frame would not be there (or be far less) when on a crop-sensor camera.

Other notes:

This 50mm would have the field of view of an 80mm lens on the crop-sensor. With full-frame gear, I could of course crop my images in post to achieve the same 80mm angle-of-view. However, the images in my case would go from 30 MP down to 12 MP due to the crop. One advantage of the crop-camera bodies is that you often get 20 MP plus. Thus, even though you're not zoomed in any more than what the 50mm gives you, you'd end up with more pixels on the crop-camera for this particular example.

There's a downside though too... if you want to have extremely wide angles of view, you're better off with a full-frame camera with those wide EF lenses as you get no cropping. So a 14mm gives a 14mm angle of view. On a crop-sensor camera, that lens would be less field of view of around 22mm.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

Waddizzle — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 17:40:42 GMT

@peteck18 wrote:
So...I'm now more than a little confused. I've read that a 100 mm would behave like a 160mm. Please help me understand. I've been searching for explanations of how this works.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

Lotus7 — Sun, 31 Jan 2021 18:27:38 GMT

To expand a little on the Image Circle graphic Waddizzle posted you might read this basic article on angle of view:

https://www.thephotovideoguy.ca/blog/focal-length-and-angle-of-view

The simple explanation is that a smaller sensor size provides a narrower angle of view for any given focal length lens. That narrower angle of view is equivalent to a longer focal length lens. That equivalent focal length ratio is commonly called the "crop factor". That's why an iPhone [tiny image sensor] with a 4 mm lens can have the same angle of view as a full frame camera with a 26 mm lens. It has an "crop factor" of about 6.5.

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

Tronhard — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 04:57:14 GMT

Try this article:
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2666934640/what-is-equivalence-and-why-should-i-care

or my own article on this, shared via a MS OneDrive link:

Equivalence

Re: Upgrading lenses on a D90 to EF level

ebiggs1 — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 16:47:41 GMT

"Eventually I'll want to upgrade to a full frame, so I figure I should start upgrading my lenses to EF level so that when I buy the next camera, I'll have the lenses, spreading out the financial pain, as it were."

I don't know that this is a good plan. How long in the future do you expect it will be until the FF upgrade comes? Also, will the FF upgrade be a new or used camera?

Another point because it seems you like almost everyone is stumbling over the ridiculous "crop factor". Did you get the ef-s 18-55mm kit lens zoom with your 90D? If you set it to 50mm and look through the viewfinder you will see exactly the same thing as the ef 50mm f1.8 lens will get. EF or EF-S makes no difference.

But let's rethink the upgrade goal. A far better way to go is mirrorless and that means R series lenses. They will not work on your 90D but that is the future, not EF. If on the other hand, upgrade is near or you are buying used I suppose EF will last you quit a long time. Unfortunately we are in that twilight zone between a new format and the old.

IMHO, if I had a 90D, I would never buy EF-S lenses at all. What do you think a FF camera will give you that your 90D doesn't? The 90D is a very capable camera. It is one of the best cameras ever made. It is going to be difficult to buy better particularly if you pare it with top of the line "L" lenses.