Nikon is the company that makes the greatest variety of lenses available to all those who prefer it over its competitors. It currently has more than 200 lenses available for all types of photographers, both beginners and the most experienced professionals.
Today, with the wide variety of goals available, it is very difficult to decide which goal to invest your savings in. Whether because of the price, the quality, the focal length or the anxiety that can cloud your judgment, acquiring a new lens is not easy at all, and even less so if you are still starting out in the SLR world.
In this article I will show you how to use the lens simulator that Nikon makes available to make your life easier.
Previous clarifications
In recent years, SLR camera lenses have been reducing their price while increasing their quality, allowing them to be increasingly accessible to those photographers who are just starting out. Even so, the lenses are still as expensive or more expensive than the camera body itself.
If you have already started in the world of SLR photography, or are thinking of doing so, you will notice that choosing a lens that allows you to take the photos you are looking for is the same or almost more difficult than choosing a camera. That is why before starting to use the Nikorr lens simulator it is necessary to refresh some concepts:
The lens of your camera is where the magic really happens. The body, although essential, is not as important as good optics. If you are thinking of changing your objective, I recommend that you read this article.
The numbers, symbols and letters with which manufacturers identify their lenses, the uses that you can give them and their characteristics, are usually very confusing for those photographers who are starting out in this new world, so if this is your situation I recommend you read the following articles:
What does the simulator consist of?
It is a free and very easy-to-use simulator that will allow you, through sample images, to test the vast majority of Nikkor lenses available virtually. Nikon has developed this application with the intention of guiding you when purchasing your next lens. So if you are about to buy a lens or you are starting to save to be able to do so, I recommend that you take a look at this application that Nikon makes available to you.
To access it, go to the following link: Nikon Lens Simulator.
Advantages of the simulator
- It allows you to evaluate the various objectives of the brand in an easy and fast way.
- You don’t have to go crazy trying to get each of the lenses you have in view to acquire.
- You can combine many lenses with different reflex cameras to see how they behave with each one, whether they are Full Frame or not.
- It allows you to vary the focal length and see how the zoom and angle of view vary.
Simulator Disadvantages
- It has a small variety of cameras available to use in the application considering the large number of SLR cameras currently available for sale.
- Only currently marketed lenses are available in the simulator.
- Despite being a very useful tool, it is still a simulator, so the available lens and camera combinations may vary in practice.
This is not the only tool available online to determine the angle of view based on the focal length, but I think it is the only one that allows you to see the result not only in numbers, but also through photographs.
How is the simulator used?
Below you will see that I have referenced each of the parts of the simulator so that you understand what each of them is for:
Display (1): in it you can see how the scene would look through the viewfinder of your SLR camera, if you were using a lens at the selected focal length. If you move the slider indicated by the number 3 from left to right, you can see how the image is zoomed in or out just as if you were doing it from the lens mounted on your camera.
Scenes (2): Nikon has put three different scenes at your disposal so you can put its virtual lenses to the test. You can select any of them to your liking and start evaluating what your next lens will be according to the use you intend to give it.
Objectives (3): here you can select a target to test or zoom in or out of the scene using the horizontal scroll bar. Initially, by not having a specific lens selected, you will be able to scroll through all the possible focal lengths that Nikkor lenses offer, but if you select a particular lens, you will see that travel shorten depending on the focal range of the selected lens. .
If you are not very familiar with the concept of focal length, I recommend that you take a look at the following article: Focal length of objectives and lenses.
View Angle (4): each focal length range corresponds to an angle of view. Quoting Mario in the article: What do so many numbers mean? , “The smaller the number (18mm for example), the greater the angle of view that we can capture with that lens. On the other hand, a large focal length (say 200mm) will capture a smaller angle of view although it will allow you to achieve greater zoom.”
Sensor and Lens Format (5): Nikon incorporates two different sizes of sensors into its equipment, the well-known Full Frame and APS-C, which are significantly smaller. APS-C sensors are 1.5 times smaller than Full Frame.
This value is known as the focal length multiplication factor and is by which you must multiply the focal length of a lens used in an APS-C sensor, to determine the focal length equivalent to a Full Frame format, which is the one used as manufacturers reference.
If you use a 300mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera, the true focal length for that lens mounted on that camera is actually equivalent to a 450mm focal length lens.
It is possible to use lenses prepared for Full Frame format on APS-C cameras without any problem, if it is compatible with it, in fact, better results and fewer aberrations are obtained than if the same is used, in an FF format. Now, using a DX lens, i.e. made for APS-C sensors, on a Full Frame camera will produce vignetting. In the most modern Full Frame cameras, Nikon incorporated the “crop” option that allows you to use both lenses designed for full frame and APS-C without any problem.
If you don’t know what type of sensor your camera comes with, you can select it directly from the drop-down list below the Indicator (5) of the simulator’s reference image.
Save combination (6): You can save each combination of camera and lens that you try with the simulator in case you want to review it later, without having to select each component again. This allows you to try different combinations and compare them with each other quickly.
Combinations (7): You will be able to select between each one of the combinations that you have saved in a very simple way from this simulator option.
As you can see, there is not much mystery. The Nikkor lens simulator is a very easy-to-use and extremely useful tool. Be sure to use it every time you think of giving your Nikon camera a new lens.
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