D100 and old 500mm Reflex Nikkor

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Uncle Ron - 29 Oct 2005 16:17 GMT

I have one of the early 500mm Reflex Nikkors. Non-AI. I attached it
to my D100. No force, no strain. In manual mode, it worked well. At
EI 400, took outdoor shots at 1/400, 1/800, and 1/1000. Most
surprisingly good, and sharp.

I asked on this board about possible damage to the D100: Even though
no force required to mount, is there damage possible to the D100? I
only took several dozen shots, then mounted my regular D100 lenses,
they operated in all modes with no apparent impairment or damage to
camera. I received an answer here about 'possible damage' to the
contact tabs in the camera.

Any other advice or experience out there? Any Nikon techs watching?
Am I pushing my luck?

THANKS in advance,

Uncle Ron

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Jim - 29 Oct 2005 17:57 GMT

>I have one of the early 500mm Reflex Nikkors. Non-AI. I attached it
> to my D100. No force, no strain. In manual mode, it worked well. At
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> camera. I received an answer here about 'possible damage' to the
> contact tabs in the camera.

Does the D100 have the contact tab? There is only one, Mounting a pre-AI
lenas on an AI or AI-S camera will do damage to the tab, unless the camera
is an F3 which allows you to move the tab out of the way.

If your D100 does not have the tab, there isn't much to harm.
Jim

> Any other advice or experience out there? Any Nikon techs watching?
> Am I pushing my luck?
>
> THANKS in advance,
>
> Uncle Ron

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Jim - 29 Oct 2005 18:21 GMT

>>I have one of the early 500mm Reflex Nikkors. Non-AI. I attached it
>> to my D100. No force, no strain. In manual mode, it worked well. At
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>>
>> Uncle Ron

The manual for my D70 says that non-AI lenses cannot be used. I suspect
that the D100 manual says the same thing. I would not assume that just
because you have had no trouble with the 500mm reflex lens, you would not
have trouble with other non-AI lenses. I don't own such a lens hence can't
say more.
Jim

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Philip Homburg - 29 Oct 2005 21:45 GMT

>Any other advice or experience out there? Any Nikon techs watching?
>Am I pushing my luck?

I also have an old 500mm (actually 50cm) reflex and it works fine on all
my cameras. It easy to see that my lens will not damage any of my cameras.

If you want an authoritative answer, write to Nikon. Otherwise, the warranty
on free advice is as much as you paid for it.

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could believe what it liked, including the idea that it had been hard done
by. It was allowed to keep its horse, since horses were so cheap to make.
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Uncle Ron - 31 Oct 2005 15:57 GMT

Thanks Philip. Nikon's level 1 support people are fairly
un-knowledgable in my experience. Unless you are a real novice, they
know less than you do, and simply re-state what's in the manuals. I
wrote to them and got a lame reference to the D100 user manual, which
actually places a "check" in the column next to Reflex Nikkors in the
"manual" column, but says in other places that non-AI lenses should not
be used.

I'm guessing that the Reflex Nikkors are a special case. Being fixed
aperature, they don't have any mechanical pieces that could jam or
interfere with a newer AI body.

Anybody got any other experience/advice?

Thanks again Philip,

Uncle Ron

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Philip Homburg - 31 Oct 2005 23:08 GMT

>I'm guessing that the Reflex Nikkors are a special case. Being fixed
>aperature, they don't have any mechanical pieces that could jam or
>interfere with a newer AI body.

Shift lenses are also a special case (aperture ring at the front of the lens).
However, old shift lenses cannot be used on 'Ai-only' bodies. It simply
depends on the construction of the lens.

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