Anyone shooting older lenses on digital bodies?

[BeauJangles]

Been thinking about picking up some other older Nikon lenses to go with my old Nikon E Series 50 mm. My biggest concern about using these lenses more regularly is that my camera can't auto-focus them and I can't meter through them. Obviously I can just pick up a light meter, but I was wondering if anybody has gone down this route and has and feedback or thoughts about the idea.

 

[shocksyde]

I've been using some older Nikon lenses on my D300 and like them. One's the 35-70 2.8 and the other is the 105 2.5. The 35-70 autofocuses, but the 105 2.5 just meters.

 

[BeauJangles]

I've been using some older Nikon lenses on my D300 and like them. One's the 35-70 2.8 and the other is the 105 2.5. The 35-70 autofocuses, but the 105 2.5 just meters.

Hmm.. I shoot on a D80 and I'm pretty sure that none of these older lenses will AF or meter with that body. I guess my issue is that I don't have a ton of money to spend and I can stretch it much further with older lenses. It'd be nice to have all bright, shiny, and new stuff but I just can't afford to drop $2,000+ on the stuff I want. Ugh. Sometimes I miss all my old 35 mm gear 🙁

 

[alfa147x]

kaido for sure is! He just recently got a nice zeiss lens from somewhere in eastern europe

 

[angry hampster]

I've used digital-crop lenses on my film cameras, if it counts. 😉

 

[virtuamike]

I shoot with an old 20/2.8 AIS. Focus ring is loose so I'll probably send it into the shop someday to tighten it back up but it works fine and it doesn't flare like modern zooms do.

Also shoot with an old 55/3.5 AI. It doesn't have the bite of some of the other lenses out there (would love to try the Zeiss macros) but it's a great value buy, goes down to 1:2 by itself (1:1 with PK-13).

Used to run around with a 35/1.4 AIS but I replaced it with a ZF 35/2. That was a classic, very smooth. Also used to shoot with a 105/1.8 AIS that got replaced with a 105/2 DC, but now I don't have either one (sold both, waiting for something in the 135 range instead).

 

[cparker]

With a d80 just be sure not to use pre ai or non ai lenses. They can damage your d80 while mounting. There's lots of stuff on the internet on this incompatibility. These non ai lenses will work, however, on the d40/d60 series. Ai lenses and ais lenses should be fine, though. None of these lenses have af and I'm not sure how the metering would work with the d80 although I'm sure there's lots of info on this subject on places like flickr. You really don't need metering, though. Just do some chimping and you'll come up with the right exposure. And you'll get the knack of metering manually. Personally, I use my old pre-ai lenses on older Nikon bodies that they were designed for and stick with lenses with af/metering on my d40/rebel XT. But one of these days I'm planning to mount my 105mm 2.5 nikkor on the d40 and play with it.

 

[soydios]

With a d80 just be sure not to use pre ai or non ai lenses. They can damage your d80 while mounting. There's lots of stuff on the internet on this incompatibility. These non ai lenses will work, however, on the d40/d60 series. Ai lenses and ais lenses should be fine, though. None of these lenses have af and I'm not sure how the metering would work with the d80 although I'm sure there's lots of info on this subject on places like flickr. You really don't need metering, though. Just do some chimping and you'll come up with the right exposure. And you'll get the knack of metering manually. Personally, I use my old pre-ai lenses on older Nikon bodies that they were designed for and stick with lenses with af/metering on my d40/rebel XT. But one of these days I'm planning to mount my 105mm 2.5 nikkor on the d40 and play with it.

everybody goes on and on about this and I don't know why. my pre-AI Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 and pre-AI Nikkor-Q 135mm f/3.5 both work perfectly fine on my D50 and D90.

 

[jpeyton]

If your pre-AI/non-AI lens has NOT been converted to AI, then you MIGHT be able to CAREFULLY mount the lens on a Nikon DSLR body that has an AF motor (which is everything but the D40/x, D60, D3000/5000).

The reason being that pre-AI/non-AI lenses have an aperture ring that does not have cutouts for the plastic max-aperture tab on said Nikon DSLR bodies. If forced on, the aperture ring can bend/break that tab. But it varies from lens to lens; some pre-AI/non-AI aperture rings have enough clearance, some don't.

However, all AI/AI-S and newer lenses have cutouts on their aperture rings that don't interfere with that tab.

To answer the OP, I shoot with old Nikon glass all the time. I currently have a Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4 non-AI on my D60, and I like shooting with my Lester-Dine 105mm f/2.8 Macro on my D700. I also have an older Sigma 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens that is fun to play with (although I prefer my rectilinear wide-angle lens for most subjects). Past lenses in my stable have included the Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 and f/3.5, the 50mm f/1.4 AI, 55mm f/1.2, 50mm f/1.8 AI-S, 35mm f/2.5 AI-S...I'm forgetting a few.

 

[ElFenix]

i have a micro nikkor 55/3.5 (pre-ai) and an ai 50/1.4 that i shoot with my 40D. it meters them 😀 (yes, i could chimp if i had a inexpensive nikon and i'd probably learn a lot more about exposure that way)


i may adapt some old minolta or even canon FD stuff one of these days, but that takes so much effort you pretty much need a mirror-shaved 5D to be worthwhile.

 

[troytime]

i have a vivitar 70-210 f/4 that i use on my d80

it doesn't auto focus or meter, but the slide zoom and 6 inch focus ring/barrel make manual focus a breeze.

and no metering..big deal.

 

[BeauJangles]

i have a micro nikkor 55/3.5 (pre-ai) and an ai 50/1.4 that i shoot with my 40D. it meters them 😀 (yes, i could chimp if i had a inexpensive nikon and i'd probably learn a lot more about exposure that way)


i may adapt some old minolta or even canon FD stuff one of these days, but that takes so much effort you pretty much need a mirror-shaved 5D to be worthwhile.

Well I was mostly considering it for a cheap macro lens. I can get a pretty solid performer for less than 1/4 the price and, considering I don't shoot macro that often, I thought it would be a good way to get my foot in the door. If I liked it and decided to pursue it, I'd upgrade to digital lenses.