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How do I tell whether a Nikon DSLR or lens is full or cropped frame?

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Let's start with some Nikon terminology. Nikon refers to their full frame cameras and lenses as “FX” and their cropped frame cameras and lenses as “DX”. The crop factor for Nikon cameras is approximately 1.5x.

Identifying an FX camera is extremely easy. Face the lens and look in the bottom right corner of the camera. If you see a yellow box with the letters “FX” in it (see example below), the camera is FX. If this box is not visible, it is a DX camera.

Identifying an FX lens is a little bit harder. Instead of looking for what is there, you have to look for what isn’t. All Nikon cropped frame lenses are marked “DX” (see example below). If a lens does NOT have this marking, the lens is an FX lens.

Nikon D5 FX Nikon 55-300 DX

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Is there any systematic way to identify cropped-frame cameras without looking at the physical camera? For example, with Canon, any camera with a two-, three- or four-digit model number is crop-frame and anything with a one-digit model number is full-frame, except the 7D and some cameras released before 2011 that are no longer available. \$\endgroup\$
    – David Richerby
    Apr 2, 2017 at 10:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ This answer is incomplete and incorrect. There exist Nikon lenses that are not marked DX but which are not FX. For example all the 1-series lenses. These are marked "1 NIKKOR" \$\endgroup\$
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Apr 2, 2017 at 13:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ @RedGrittyBrick I specifically mention in the question that I'm only talking about DSLRs and their lenses \$\endgroup\$
    – NoahL
    Apr 2, 2017 at 14:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DavidRicherby not really because of Nikon's lack of a convention for names. As it currently stands, any new Nikon with an MSRP more than $1400 body only except the D500 is full-frame (I believe). \$\endgroup\$
    – NoahL
    Apr 2, 2017 at 14:20

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