Optically open-minded

There’s more to choosing a ‘best-buy’ lens than quality alone…

Buy a Nikon camera body and it’s only natural to assume you’ll get the best performance out of it by using own-brand Nikon lenses. But that’s not strictly true. In some cases, an independently designed and manufactured lens from the likes of Sigma and Tamron can match or even beat Nikon glass across the board, while saving you a tidy sum of money.

That said, three out of four of our favourites for DX format cameras are Nikon lenses. Things are very different in the FX category, with Sigma winning out across the board. For us, the only niggle is that the zoom ring of Sigma lenses operates in the opposite direction as in Nikon cameras but, if you can get used to that, you’ll be assured of spectacular image quality, fabulous all-round performance and excellent build quality, all at really great prices.

It probably won’t escape your attention that one of our DX winners is actually an FX format lens. That’s simply because the compact and lightweight build of the Nikon AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6e ED VR, coupled with its premium performance and affordable price tag, makes it our favourite telephoto zoom for shooting with DX format DSLRS.

There’s actually a lot to be said for using any FX format lens on a DX body. For one thing, you’ll only be using the central region of the image circle produced by the lens, where image quality is at its best. The 1.5x crop factor of Nikon’s APS-C format image sensors naturally restricts wide-angle potential, but the boost in telephoto range can be a major bonus for the likes of sport and wildlife photography.

Future-proofing can be another concern. If you buy an FX lens for your DX format DSLR, you’ll be able to keep using it if you trade up to an FX DSLR, without having to resort to using your new camera in DX crop mode. Naturally, you can also use your F-mount, Dslr-style lenses if you later swap to a mirrorless camera further down the line, thanks to Nikon’s FTZ mount adapter. However, there can be incompatibility issues, mostly with some Tamron lenses, so it pays to check carefully if you think you might buy a Z-mount camera at some point in the future.