Nikon D50 and older Nikon lenses

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Fred Anonymous - 04 Jul 2006 22:14 GMT

Hello folks.

I have a friend who had a Nikon F65 and a couple of lenses for it.

She has just bought a Nikon D50 and finds that these older lenses will not
autofocus on the D50 body.

I don't use Nikon so here is my guess:

The F65 body uses mechanical coupling between body and lens to focus the
lens.
The D50 uses electrical coupling to focus the lens (surface wave motor) and
does not have any
mechanical focusing capability. This means it cannot focus the older,
mechanically focused lenses.

Anyone confirm or correct this guess, please.

Thanks,

Ian.

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Bill - 04 Jul 2006 22:48 GMT

>The F65 body uses mechanical coupling between body and lens to focus the
>lens.

Most if not all Nikon bodies, including the D50, have a mechanical
"screw" drive for lenses that lack internal motors, such as most G and D
type lenses.

>The D50 uses electrical coupling to focus the lens (surface wave motor) and
>does not have any
>mechanical focusing capability. This means it cannot focus the older,
>mechanically focused lenses.

My guess is the lenses your friend has are older manual focus lenses,
probably AI or AI-S, and it has nothing to do with the body. Note that
these lenses also do not meter on the D50 body.

Reply to this Message

Sheldon - 05 Jul 2006 02:51 GMT

> Hello folks.
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Ian.

You can go to Nikon's web sight to double check what lenses will work on a
D50, but virtually all AI and newer lenses will "fit' any Nikon DSLR. And
that included older lenses that have been converted to AI. Now, these older
lenses will work, but only in manual mode and will not couple to the meter
or autofocus systems. If you are using an AF lens, make sure the M/A focus
switch is in the A mode. You can see the drive slightly prodruding from the
mount.

According to this, from the Nikon Web site, it should work with all AF
lenses:

High-Quality Nikkor Optics including NEW Compact and Lightweight AF-S DX
Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED Lens: The new D50 offers seamless
compatibility with Nikon's extensive family of high-performance AF Nikkor
lenses, as well as the expanding family of DX Nikkor lenses, providing
superb color reproduction, razor-sharp image clarity and fast and accurate
autofocus performance.

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Tom - 05 Jul 2006 03:06 GMT

Hi Fred, all,

>Fred wrote:...
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>[snip]

http://www.aiconversions.com/compatibilitytable.htm

Reply to this Message

DoN. Nichols - 05 Jul 2006 23:45 GMT

According to Tom <Tom@dontsendmespam.com>:

> Hi Fred, all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> >She has just bought a Nikon D50 and finds that these older lenses will not
> >autofocus on the D50 body.

    If the lens is a *Nikon* autofocus lens, it should work fine on
the D50.

    Note that there is a switch on the camera *body* to turn off
autofocus, as well as one on the kit lenses. On the D50, you will find
the switch just below the lens mount release button.

    Note my stressing of "Nikon autofocus lens" above. This is
because at least one of the third party makers of lenses did not sign a
license agreement with Nikon to get the details of how the lens protocol
works, but instead tried to reverse engineer it -- by observing the
communications between the camera and the lens. This means that later
cameras, which use more of the protocol, will not communicate with the
lens until its firmware has been upgraded. If she got the third-party
lens, it will have to go back to the manufacturer to get a firmware
upgrade.

    You didn't say which lenses, or who made them, and in this case
it *does* make a difference.

    I don't remember which third-party manufacturer it was who did
not get the license, but I'm sure that someone else will remember and
post it.

> http://www.aiconversions.com/compatibilitytable.htm

Good Luck,
DoN.

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