Advice wanted on AF Nikkor

David H. Bebbington · Nov 21, 2007

I have used manual focus 35 mm Nikon equipment for 30+ years but have no experience of autofocus (and no AF body). I recently bought a lot of Nikon gear which included a 50 mm AF Nikkor. This focuses cleanly by manual means. It has a small slider switch just to the right of the marking "50mm 1:1.8" on the barrel. This switch is stuck in its lower position opposite a red line and will not move upwards. I presume this switch is an AF/MF selector. Am I right in thinking this means the AF function on this lens is unusable, or is there some weird interlock, for example the lens can be switched to AF only when on an AF body? Advice appreciated!

Regards,

David

Mike Kennedy · Nov 21, 2007

Hi David. Try rotating the aperture ring fully to the right (try switch) then fully to the left (try switch). Might work.

Mike

Stan160 · Nov 21, 2007

The switch might be the minimum aperture lock. It only operates when the aperture ring is stopped down fully, and prevents the ring from being turned. The idea is that on an AF body, the aperture is controlled by a command dial but the lens must be fully stopped down to allow the full range to be set from the body.

I have the latest version of the 50/1.8 AF-D and mine has no AF/MF selection on the lens. On an MF body, treat it just like an MF lens. On an AF body you won't be able to turn the lens focus ring without a lot of effort because the "screwdriver" of the body AF mechanism will be engaged with the lens.

Ian

David H. Bebbington · Nov 21, 2007

Stan160 said:
The switch might be the minimum aperture lock. It only operates when the aperture ring is stopped down fully, and prevents the ring from being turned. ...

Spot on - it is!

Stan160 said:
I have the latest version of the 50/1.8 AF-D and mine has no AF/MF selection on the lens. On an MF body, treat it just like an MF lens. On an AF body you won't be able to turn the lens focus ring without a lot of effort because the "screwdriver" of the body AF mechanism will be engaged with the lens.

Ian

This explains it - the only AF system I have is Pentax, and so I expect to hear a whirring noise when I focus an AF lens manually with the AF engaged. If Nikon AF lens have no motors in them, obviously I won't hear anything!

Thanks to both respondents for info!

Regards,

David

Photo Engineer · Nov 21, 2007

David;

The newest Nikon AF lenses have a motor in them, not in the body. So, under some circumstances such as old body and new lens, you can have 2 motors. It causes no problem except that there are now 3 different contact arrangements on Nikon AF cameras. I forget the number of contact points on the top arc of the lenses. If the contact arc is all filled then it is the newest type of lens, but if there are gaps, then the lens is older.

The newest ones are the fastest and most quiet. Some of the very old ones will cause some auto functions to freeze and you have to go into a specific mode such as "P". Then it works. It depends on mode and lens type.

Enjoy your new stuff.

PE

PhotoJim · Nov 21, 2007

Go get yourself an AF Nikon body now. I love the intercompatibility of Nikon gear. Sure, there are some wrinkles and exceptions one needs to learn about, but I use gear interchangeably all the time. My AI 105/2.5 is often on my F5 and my AF-S 17-35/2.8D and AF 50/1.4D are often on my F3HP.

A few AF Nikkors have an AF/MF switch on them. All of the AF-S lenses with built-in AF motors do. The odd non-motor lens (e.g. AF 20-35/2.8D, AF 80-200/2.8) also have switches. On these latter lenses, you have to disable AF on the lens in order to be able to focus manually. (On the 80-200 the focus ring spins freely if you don't, doing nothing, and on the 20-35 the focus ring is locked if you don't).

simulatordan · Nov 21, 2007

hello David,

The later Nikon cameras e.g F65/N65 uses control wheel to set fstops from the camera; the 'G' generation of lenses do not have fstop control on the lens itself. non 'G' type lenses have the little switch on them so that they can be used on earlier cameras e.g F5, F50, F501 as you would expect by setting the fstop from the lens. On the later cameras you set the lens to f22 select the switch to lock the rotation of the aperture ring and set the fstop using the on camera controls.

I use a 50mm AFD f1.8, 28mm - 70mm zoom AFD f 3.5 - 4.5, and a 80mm - 300mm zoom AFD F 4.0 - 5.3 with this switch arrangement on a F501 and a F65 in this way a so save having to have lots of different generation lenses

Regards Daniel

Lee L · Nov 21, 2007

simulatordan said:
On the later cameras you set the lens to f22 select the switch to lock the rotation of the aperture ring and set the fstop using the on camera controls.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there might be inexperienced folks reading this thread. It's not always f:22, but as Stan160 has mentioned, the smallest aperture on the given lens that has the locking position.

Lee

mawz · Nov 21, 2007

@Photo Engineer: It's the newest 'G' lenses, not the old ones that have mode requirements. The G lenses only work with P and S modes on some older bodies (the ones that require you to use the aperture ring in A and M modes to set aperture). All Nikon AF film cameras support in-body AF motors except the rare F3AF (Which you'll likely never see). The lens-motor equipped lenses are AF-I or AF-S with the latter being the most common (there's also two lenses for the F3AF that once again, you'll never see). only some bodies support AF with these lenses (F4, F5, F6,F90/F90x, F100, F80, F75, F65 and IIRC F60). The AF system is for the most part similar to Pentax's from an operators point of view. The Nikons will be faster and work better in low light as Pentax AF is slow apart from the MZ-S which is middling.

Photo Engineer · Nov 21, 2007

Well, I cannot go into all the detail you have, but some of my cameras lock up with the 2x telextender from Nikon, but others don't and etc and etc. It is a mix and match condition there where one has to look at the contact arc of about 5, 7 and 12 contacts and match with the body.

I have 3 bodies that are mutually incompatible and I have to select my lenses carefully.

PE

mawz · Nov 21, 2007

Photo Engineer said:
Well, I cannot go into all the detail you have, but some of my cameras lock up with the 2x telextender from Nikon, but others don't and etc and etc. It is a mix and match condition there where one has to look at the contact arc of about 5, 7 and 12 contacts and match with the body.

I have 3 bodies that are mutually incompatible and I have to select my lenses carefully.

PE

Interesting, That's most likely due to flaky contacts than anything else, it's a regular issue with extenders and AF extension tubes, as well as older lenses. And of course some 3rd party glass has firmware issues on newer bodies. The number of contacts only denotes what features a lens has, 5 contacts is general AF, AF-S and VR add contacts.The only major body incompatibility in the AF system is the F601/N6006 which is incompatible with G lenses for some reason (Oddly, the almost identical F601m/N6000 works just fine with G lenses in P and S modes, and is in fact the only manual focus body to support those lenses)

I regularly used to mix and match glass and body era when I was still shooting Nikon AF kit (Heck my current kit is 1 AF lens, 1 AI-S lens and one pre-AI lens that has been AI-Converted, all on a body which can be AI or pre-AI depending on finder)

Photo Engineer · Nov 21, 2007

I appreciate what you are saying, but the problems are all with Nikon equipment. I cannot put a 2x telexender (Nikon) on anything but my 2020. It makes my newer bodies go crazy and cannot focus. My Pronea goes bonkers with some lenses, but not with others. My D70 (leaving out the fact that it is digital) behaves 3 different ways depending on what generation lens I use as denoted by the contacts.

All contacts are clean and of course, gold.

There are other examples but this serves. My Micronikor AF (old) and my new Micronicor behave quite differently on my various camera bodies, and of course the lack of the small metal interlock or the plastic tab on the lens further complicates things. I leave those out of this discusstion.

PE

PhotoJim · Nov 22, 2007

mawz said:
The lens-motor equipped lenses are AF-I or AF-S with the latter being the most common (there's also two lenses for the F3AF that once again, you'll never see). only some bodies support AF with these lenses (F4, F5, F6,F90/F90x, F100, F80, F75, F65 and IIRC F60).

I think the AF-I and AF-S lenses autofocus with:

F4, F5, F6
F70, F80, F90, F90x, F100 (and US equivalents)

I'm not sure about the F75.

I'm reasonably sure the F65 and F60 won't, but not positive.

I am sure about the F70. I own one and it definitely drives my two AF-S lenses.

The F4 is the big surprise. It was released years before the AF-I lenses were released. Works just fine though.

Richard Mendales · Nov 22, 2007

The switch is a minimum aperture lock, which you will find on all AF Nikkors other than the G series (which will work only on your F5 because they lack any aperture ring at all). They keep your aperture at F16 (or the minimum on other AF Nikkors) to permit Nikon AF cameras to employ shutter-priority or matrix metering. If your lens is working correctly, you should be able to unlock it by turning it to F16, pushing the black switch next to the red mark up, and then opening up the lens by one or more stops. The lens, by the way, is extremely sharp and should give you good pictures.
Best wishes and happy Thanksgiving! Richard

Advice wanted on AF Nikkor

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