Transition from Nikon film to DSLR - help required

[kybo]

Hi,

A lady friend at work wanted some help/advice in going from Nikon film to DSLR. I'm a Canon man so know next to nothing about Nikon.

Am I correct in thinking that not all lenses will fit a particular Nikon body - is it something to do with AP-S and AP-C?

I don't want to get this wrong I want to be able to explain this in more detail. If it helps she will probably be looking at buying a budget Nikon (D40/D60). Any advice on which of these is best would also be welcomed.

thx for your help,
Scott

[andy-xr]

Nikon mount wont be the issue, it's whether the lenses will have AF inbuilt.

Chances are they might not, so options I think would be

- dont waste time worrying about trying to use the film lenses on a D40/D60 and just use the digital kit one.
- Buy new lenses
- look at the D80/D90 with or without a bundled lens

[kybo]

Thanks for that Andy.

andy-xr said:

Nikon mount wont be the issue, it's whether the lenses will have AF inbuilt.

How am I going to tell? I've had a look at a list of Nikon lenses - what is the difference between AF, AF-S and AF-C? And how will I know which lenses have inbuilt AF? Does those 3 all mean inbuilt AF? Sorry for tons of Q's.

I think I may persuade her to go Canon - more inside my comfort zone

Thanks,
Scott

[kybo]

Just googled for the answer (stopped being lazy) so AF-S is for static shots and AF-C is servo assisted. But if option to select these focus modes are on the camera why are they also listed per lens? Does this mean an AF-S lense will not work in continuous focus mode?

I'm more confused, now.

thx,
Scott

[CVP]

Difference here between the lens and the focussing mode

A Nikon AFS lens has the focussing motor built into the lens as with Canon lenses. The AF lenses do not have a motor in the lens and still use a screw driven motor located in the body of the camera. The only wrinkle on top of this is the EFS lenses which can only be used on certain digital cameras as they give a small image circle and so do not cover the frame on a full size sensor, but they are lighter and smaller.

With regard to bodies, if you want to use AF lenses then you need one with the motor in the body, otherwise all will work with AFS lenses.

The AF-S = single shot autofocusing mode for picture taking and AF-C = continuous focusing mode. This is indepedent of lens spec

As a small histopry lesson, when AF first came out Nikon insisted in backwards compatability and hence went with their old lens mount adjusted for the new technology as they thought lots of pros had money invested in top quality glass (the low risk option). Canon decided to start with a blank piece of paper and went from the old FD mount to the EF mount and take the risk that the Pros would make the investment to change (the more risky option). In my personal opinion it took a long time for Nikon to catch up

Chris

[andy-xr]

It is worth looking at what options Canon have, definately.

The issue is auto focus motors, not necessarily focussing modes, the D40/D60 dont have a focus motor in the body so need one in the lens. AFS lenses have that feature.

a website said:

It lacks an integral AF motor, limiting autofocus compatibility to AF-S lenses and excluding a large number of past and current lenses. Further, the D40 has just three horizontally placed AF points. Although these cover a large area, they're less useful for off-centre subjects with the camera held vertically than the five-point AF system found on the old D50, and they're disappointing when compared with the nine-point system found on the pricier 400D.

http://www.macuser.co.uk/reviews/101313/nikon-d40....

AF-S, AF-C and AF-A are focus modes in the body, so Continuous for example is best for motorsport/moving objects, AF-S for statics. AF-A is auto'ish

[SamHH]

CVP said:

The only wrinkle on top of this is the EFS lenses which can only be used on certain digital cameras as they give a small image circle and so do not cover the frame on a full size sensor, but they are lighter and smaller.

Just to clarify slightly: EF-S is a Canon thing that you won't find on Nikon lenses. The Nikon equivalent of EF-S is DX.

[CVP]

SamHH said:

Just to clarify slightly: EF-S is a Canon thing that you won't find on Nikon lenses. The Nikon equivalent of EF-S is DX.

Good point, thanks for the correction

[Ravell]

Any Nikon lens will work on pretty much any Nikon camera, with a couple of provisos. Nikon F-mount lenses up to 1977 used a mechanical method to tell the camera what apeture was set, since then they have done it electronically which is called Automatic Indexing or AI. Moderns SLR camaras won't work with pre-AI lenses, although these lenses can be 'converted' to AI. Anything after 1977 will work without a problem if used as a manual focus lens.

If you want Auto Focus, you need a AF, AF-D, AF-I, or AF-S lens. Each has a different method to focus. AF lenses don't have their own focus motor and need a focus motor in the camera body, only the Nikon D40, D40x, D60 and D5000 lack this motor as far as I'm aware. AF-D lenses give the camera focal distance information, but otherwise use the same system as AF lenses. Both of these types CAN be used on the D40, D40x, etc but they will become manual focus lenses. AF-I lenses use an internal stepper motor to focus, but only a few slightly older long Telephotos have this. AF-S lenses have a focus motor surrounding the focus lens group (Called a Silent Wave Motor, hence the S) pretty much all new lenses have this these days. These last two AF types will work with any modern Nikon SLR.

One thing to keep in mind if you want to use modern Nikon Lenses on old Film cameras. Generally there is no problem, however if the lens lacks an apeture ring (G type lenses) Nikon manual focus cameras from 20 years ago won't be able to set the apeture and will always shoot at the smallest setting. Metering will be miles off as well so it's pretty much useless. Still, it's only an issue if you're using cameras from before 1986.

And finally, if the lens has DX in it's name, it's meant for DX format DSLR's which is all except the D700, D3 and D3x. It will work on those cameras and 35mm film cameras, but as the image circle is smaller than full frame lenses, the pictures will show rather bad vignetting.

Edited by Ravell on Monday 29th June 17:25

[Simpo Two]

I think it's all been said. CVP has explained the rather unfortunate use of 'AF-S' in two different places to mean two quite different things!

I went from an F70 to a D70 in 2004, and as I'd been using SLRs for 15 years at the time I stepped straight into it control-wise, no problem at all. Just read the manual from cover to cover. So apart from the AFS issue (which can easily be fixed either by choosing AFS lenses or avoiding those models which demand it) the biggest thing to master IMHO is digital imaging.

[CVP]

The thing with the Nikon manuals is they are very confusing in themselves never mind Nikon choosing acronyms which are very close to each other for very different things!

Chris

[kybo]

Thank you all for explaining the differences between the settings, both on the camera and with the lenses. It's also nice to know which bodies have inbuilt motors and which don't. I didn't know about that at all.

So, to mak things easier, I'll tell her not to go for the D40/D60 as they do not have in-body motors, as this will limit her lens choice. This puts her at he D80/D90, which are quite pricey. Couldn't you buy a 450D and alens or 2 for the same price? Is the D90 worth the extra over the 450D.

With all the info I've digested from you good friends, I think these will be my last questions.

Thx
Scott

[CVP]

Mrs CVP has the D80. Nice and light 10MP on the DX sensor which makes additional lenses nice and light. Quality is very nice, battery life good. Downsides are the AF is not brilliant at fast moving subjects e.g. birds in flight. She has learnt an awful lot on it and we decided the additional cost for the D90 was not a worthwhile upgrade.

Chris

[Simpo Two]

kybo said:

So, to mak things easier, I'll tell her not to go for the D40/D60 as they do not have in-body motors, as this will limit her lens choice.

To be fair, there are plenty of AF-S lenses to suit all budgets - it's not the massive stumbling block some people would have you believe. You can also buy it from the idependents, eg Sigma call it 'HSM'.