
Sony a6700 with the Sony 200-600mm G OSS super telephoto lens
The three main camera manufacturers Nikon, Canon and Sony all sell APS-C crop sensor camera bodies. They also sell lenses designed for use on those crop sensor bodies, as do third parties Sigma, Tamron, Rokinon and others. If you read the photography press on the Internet, you’ll often hear complaints that there aren’t enough lenses made for the APS-C cameras. Thom Hogan, a well known Internet presence, wrote about this matter recently, and complains about the lack of APS-C lenses often. He’s not the only one though. You’ll find this same complaint voiced on PetaPixel, DP Review, F-stopper and other photography review sites. It frequently raises it’s head.
I’m going to explain why the lack of APS-C lenses isn’t really a lack of APS-C lenses, and it comes down to the fact that all of these camera manufacturers sell full frame lenses that will work just fine on the APS-C crop sensor bodies. We don’t really have a shortage APS-C compatible lenses in any focal length or aperture with any brand of camera. All this complaining sounds like content manufacturing for the sake of having something to write about. So, I’m going to write about it too, only against the popular grain.
Firstly, full frame lenses are also crop sensor lenses (in the same mount.) The focal lengths aren’t different, the apertures aren’t different, the mounts are the same mount. I’ve owned APS-C bodes from Canon, Nikon and Sony. In every instance, I’ve used full frame lenses on these bodies and never had an issue. The beauty is, I can keep an APS-C body in my kit and a full frame body in my kit and have only one set of lenses. I’ll explain.
Since, my current APS-C body is a Sony a6700, I will use this body as an example.
Sony makes E and FE mount lenses. The E lenses are designed for use on APS-C cameras. They will work on the full frame cameras, only they are limited with a field of view crop on the full frame body, thus giving a smaller image circle. Not optimal. Not even desirable. FE lenses though, will work on the full frame A7IV and others and will also work on the APS-C a6700, with a 1.5x crop, giving a narrower field of view on the smaller a6700.
For my full frame kit, I normally try to maintain a minimum collection of lenses that give me a effective range of focal lengths from 24mm to 500mm. That overall range covers most of my general photographic needs for landscape and wildlife photography. A typical setup would be a 24-70mm lens, a 70-200mm lens and a 200-500mm lens (or something close to that) All my lenses here are for my Nikon D850 and are designed to work well on the full frame body. One body, three lenses, I have pretty much everything I want to do covered. But I have other lenses at my disposal too. Two macro lenses, another wide-angle prime lens. Lenses with apertures that open to at least f/2.8 or more. Quite effective.
I bought my Sony a6700 to use mainly as a travel camera. It’s small, lightweight, and has excellent image quality. I have three lenses to use on my a6700. These lenses are…
The Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS APS-C Telephoto Zoom Lens with Optical SteadyShot. This lens is designed for use on the APS-C body. It gives me an effective focal length of 27mm-202.5mm. Not a bad focal range for a small camera and lens and it is small in size and low in weight. I’m losing a little wide-angle focal length using this lens, but not much at all compared to my Nikon full frame kit.
The Sony Sony E 70-350mm F4.5-6.3 G OSS. This lens give me an effective focal range of 105mm-525mm. This lens is fairly compact when compared to the full frame super-telephoto lenses, but it’s perfectly suitable as a small super-telephoto zoom for my travel kit. It also gives me plenty of reach for almost all wildlife work I may want to do and the image quality is very good. (I plan to do a comparison between this lens and my Nikon 200-500mm F mount lens in the future), which is a staple lens on my full frame kit. On paper the 70-350mm gives me more flexibility than the Nikon full frame lens. Aperture ranges are roughly the same and the Sony lens is much easier to travel with.
My third Sony lens is the Sony FE 200–600 mm F5.6–6.3 G OSS Full-frame Telephoto Zoom G Lens with Optical SteadyShot. Now, this lens is pretty big and heavy. I really only use it when I’m working from my vehicle and I don’t fly with it. I don’t need to fly with it. It gives me an effective focal length of 300mm-900mm on the a6700 and the image quality is exceptional. Plus, it’s a full frame lens, so if I decide to add a full frame Sony body to the kit later on, it will work on that body with great results. If I’m out photographing wildlife, this lens is generally on the Sony a6700 and I use my Nikon D850 with a 24-70 or 70-200 for wider focal lengths in the field. I normally don’t even bring my Nikon 200-500 with me these days. I simply don’t need it.
So, the only real hole I have in focal length with my full frame and crop sensor kit are focal lengths below 24mm. I can fill that hole on the Sony a6700 with a lens designed for full frame sensors. Possible choices include…
Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G. This lens will give me an effective focal length of 15mm – 30mm on the crop sensor body. Not bad, totally in range of a super wide zoom and if I ever add a full frame body to my kit it wouldn’t work well as it will have the crop sensor image circle and won’t really work well on a full frame sensor body. But, it isn’t that expensive, at about $750 new at the time of this writing. I can use use this lens to fill my wide angle hole on my crop sensor body.
Sony FE 16-35 f/2.8 FMII, which will get me an effective focal length of 24mm – 52.5mm. But this lens doesn’t really solve my problem.
The Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 Full-frame Ultra-wide Prime G, is another option. This lens would give me a 21mm focal length on the a6700 with a wide aperture and would also work well on a full frame camera. A little more pricey though at $1,600 new. Not what I would choose for my needs, but if my circumstances changed, I may consider picking one up.
Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Full-frame Ultra-wide Zoom. Another solution to the wide-angle on a crop sensor body, it would give me a 18mm – 36mm effective focal length. A pricy option as well, as this is a top notch professional grade lens that sells for about $3,000. Again, not needed in my kit, but if I were doing more architectural work, it would be a lens to consider.
Sony FE 12-24mm F4 G Full-frame Ultra-wide Zoom G. Same focal length as my previous lens selection, with a little less aperture and a far lower price at about $1,775 new. I’d probably get this lens before I got the f/2.8 version. But, once again, full frame lens that will give you a good wide angle option on the crop sensor body.
So, the point is, you can look at the selection of full frame lenses and find just about any focal length you need to cover using a APS-C body, and many of them are reasonably priced. And I’m not even talking about looking at Tamron or Sigma lenses in the same focal lengths.
So, I don’t really understand the complaining about a lack of APS-C lenses. If you own an APS-C camera body, you don’t have to buy APS-C designed lenses for that camera. The full frame lenses that are available will work just fine. You just have to do a little quick math to determine the focal length needed for the 1.5 crop factor. It’s that simple. This same fact holds true for Nikon and Canon full frame mirrorless or DSLR bodies. We don’t really need more APS-C lenses on the market. It’s an imaginary problem that is more for having something to talk about than an actual problem with lens selections that needs to be solved. As for Thom Hogan, he’s a pretty smart guy, but sometimes he goes off on a tangent and hasn’t really checked his six on some of these issues he likes to write about. Give it a rest Thom.
Cameras and lenses are mostly just tools to be used to fill the needs of the photographer. Who cares if you have a set of tools that don’t fit in a specific compartment in the market. Full frame lenses will work on APS-C bodies and can fill most of your needs. A full frame lens on an APS-C body isn’t a problem in and of itself. It may also be a better long-term solution for those who want to have a full frame body and a crop sensor body in their kit. The lack of APS-C lenses in the marketplace isn’t really a problem at all. In fact, when you look at the full frame lenses available in the same mounts, you have more choices than you would have if you only used full frame bodies. If it’s a question of costs, there are bargain lenses in both full frame and crop sensor formats. You can also consider buying used lenses at a reduced price. The perception that something is lacking here is a mirage. You have choices, and they are good choices.
(revised 1/17/25)