Nikon F100, F5, F6 Lens Compatibility Issues

[William D]

I am new to this Forum. I have been shooting digital Nikons for many years and had taken a break from film for the past couple decades. In that time I have collected over 50 film cameras (about half are working) and have been getting back into film photography. I mainly shoot Nikon and have many older and newer F-Mount lenses. I have found an issue while doing some experimenting with testing film versus G lens combinations. I recently put my Nikon 500mm PF f/5.6 lens on my F5 and F100 cameras and neither camera would allow me to change the aperture (tried in Manual and Aperture priority). All other functions seemed to function properly. After checking various other G lenses including 24-70 f/2.8, 105 f/2.8, Sigma 50 and 35 f/1.4 and many others I found that the Nikon PF 300 f/4, 200-500 f/5.6, and 70-200 f/2.8 FL lens do not allow any aperture adjustment and seem to be stuck at a stopped down position. Has anyone else experienced this and are there any suggestions. Thank you for any answers.

 

[mshchem]

Not sure but I suspect that has a electronic aperture. Film Cameras are still purely mechanical aperture actuation. This is to allow the aperture to operate at the crazy fast frame rates of digital bodies.

I'm no expert but I think that may be the answer.

Welcome to Photrio!

 

[Nitroplait]

Don’t own any of the lenses you are referring to, but isn’t it because those with the problem are E lenses? The aperture is not changeable on cameras produced prior to the introduction of that technology.

 

[William D]

Not sure but I suspect that has a electronic aperture. Film Cameras are still purely mechanical aperture actuation. This is to allow the aperture to operate at the crazy fast frame rates of digital bodies.

I'm no expert but I think that may be the answer.

Welcome to Photrio!

That was my suspicion.

 

[William D]

Don’t own any of the lenses you are referring to, but isn’t it because those with the problem are E lenses? The aperture is not changeable on cameras produced prior to the introduction of that technology.

Logically I was thinking that, also. I was just hoping there was a fix.

 

[William D]

I guess I will have to find the heavier older lenses for my wildlife shots.

 

[250swb]

https://www.nikonians.org/reviews/nikon-slr-camera-and-lens-compatibility

Here is a lens compatibility chart.

 

[bdial]

I’m only recently learning about the E aperture lenses also. My understanding is that the fix is to use them wide open.
Not really a “fix”, since it’s the only choice.

 

[grain elevator]

I think I've read about a trick of mounting them to a compatible camera and removing them in some state that leaves the aperture set to something else, this at least allows you to use them at a single aperture of your choice.

 

[benveniste]

I am new to this Forum. I have been shooting digital Nikons for many years and had taken a break from film for the past couple decades. In that time I have collected over 50 film cameras (about half are working) and have been getting back into film photography. I mainly shoot Nikon and have many older and newer F-Mount lenses. I have found an issue while doing some experimenting with testing film versus G lens combinations. I recently put my Nikon 500mm PF f/5.6 lens on my F5 and F100 cameras and neither camera would allow me to change the aperture (tried in Manual and Aperture priority). All other functions seemed to function properly. After checking various other G lenses including 24-70 f/2.8, 105 f/2.8, Sigma 50 and 35 f/1.4 and many others I found that the Nikon PF 300 f/4, 200-500 f/5.6, and 70-200 f/2.8 FL lens do not allow any aperture adjustment and seem to be stuck at a stopped down position. Has anyone else experienced this and are there any suggestions. Thank you for any answers.

Nikon "compatibility" is a quagmire of special cases and exceptions. I'm afraid you've run into one of them. All four of the lenses you mention are "E" lenses, meaning the aperture closes in response to an electrical signal from the camera. They can only be used wide open with on all Nikon film cameras and on digital bodies introduced after about 2007.

My "solution" is the obvious one. I keep around older lenses to use with my film cameras. So, for example, my 24-70mm f/2.8 is a pre-G2 Tamron, which works on my F100, D800, D7200, V2, and (to my pleasant surprise) on my Z8.

 

[mshchem]

F mount older Nikon auto focus lenses are dropping in price as people are switching to Z mount and other mirrorless systems. This stuff isn't a great "investment" but I have splurged on a couple nice examples, work perfectly with the D cameras, (except the super cheap cropped sensor versions)

 

[Chan Tran]

I think I've read about a trick of mounting them to a compatible camera and removing them in some state that leaves the aperture set to something else, this at least allows you to use them at a single aperture of your choice.

I don't think that trick works. It does work for Canon EF lenses though. But I agree that the solution is to buy old lenses. There are many of them around and not very expensive. The type E lenses are only compatible with cameras 1 generation after the F6 that is the D3, D300 etc.. They are not compatible to the D2 which was released about the same time as the F6.