You get that with some lenses specifically designed for crop sensors, to cut down on the manufacturing costs I presume. The lens doesnt project enough light onto the sensor to fill it and you get vignetting on it and there aint a lot you can do about it, which sucks as most of my lenses are crop (DX) lenses.
it also cuts down on the size and weight of the lens, particularly with wide angles. Take a look at an 18mm ultra-wide designed for 35mm if you want to see what I mean. Theyre monsters!
Just had a look at the nikon 14-24 f2.8 and it is gigantic, ken rockwell has a picture of one cut in half and it looks big, then you look further down the page and its huge compared to a D300 which isnt exactly a small camera. Id still have a 14-24 though, anyone got a spare grand they can lend me -)