35mm (film body) 70-300mm lens on DX format DSLR?

So I have a Nikon AF 70-300mm lens that I bought back in my film days. If I buy a D90 or D7000, I know it will "work" with the body, but what about the fact that the lens was originally for a 35mm format versus the smaller DX sensor? I have no been able to figure out what it means for the lens in terms of its equivalent zoom range? Does it mean that the image the lens captures will be larger than the sensor, so that what I see through the view finder is not really what I will capture, but instead will be a cropped version of what I see?

Just trying to see if any attempt to maintain backward compatibility with that lens is even worth the effort versus just using something like the newer AF-S 18-200mm VR

If I understand correctly, the glass will still be the glass at 70-300. Yet if you have a crop body, effectively you'll have a 105-450 since the sensor is a smaller area and will crop the outer edges. ie: what you see in the viewfinder will be what your image is (short of 1 or 2% at the edges).

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M38A1 said:

If I understand correctly, the glass will still be the glass at 70-300. Yet if you have a crop body, effectively you'll have a 105-450 since the sensor is a smaller area and will crop the outer edges. ie: what you see in the viewfinder will be what your image is (short of 1 or 2% at the edges).

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Bingo. It was auto fous on a D90 or D7000 and what you see through the viewfinder is what you will get. You're going to have a 70-300 x 1.5, effectively.

If you put a 50mm prime lens made for a FX camera on a DX body, it will be the equivellent of a 75mm.

klb1122 said:

If you put a 50mm prime lens made for a FX camera on a DX body, it will be the equivellent of a 75mm.

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....and that's why their 35mm DX sells like hotcakes. 35mm x 1.5 = 52.5mm

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M38A1 said:

....and that's why their 35mm DX sells like hotcakes. 35mm x 1.5 = 52.5mm

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And that is why I have one... for sub $200 you just can't beat it.