Newbie Question: 35mm SLR Lens Compatible With D SLR Lens?

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Da Monstaa

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Hi All! :wave:

A Question Which Is Really Bugging Me, A Newbie Wannabe D SLR Enthusiast:

Can I Use My Lens From My Nikon F80 (AF Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D) To A Digital Nikon SLR?


Background
I bought my Nikon F80 about 3/4 years ago, when the Digital SLR was still super expensive and as I wanted to get into the Photography Hobby. I don't think I got my money's worth as I was still using my Digital more (not an SLR). I was not using the F80 much mainly for the cost implications of processing films.

I now want to get back to this Photography and want to buy a D SLR. But first thing's first:
- Is the lens fully compatible between a 35mm SLR with a D SLR
- Or is it not compatible at all
- Or is it not fully compatible and I will not get the full benefits of the D SLR due to my lens being more older (if lenses have indeed progressed throughout the years).


The reason I am asking is whether I can still salvage my pride of buying the 35mm SLR and utilise the lens, thereby allowing me to go for a more expensive body, or save money by not having to buy a lens, or would I still have to buy a lens?


Thanks a lot in advance. :) :) :)

PS If this thread has been covered before, my apologies and please direct me there. Thanks.
 
Yes, no doubt. Nikon has a huge back catalogue of older lenses from the film days that can be used with most of their digital slrs and fuji's equivalents too. Watch out for the d40 (or d40x) which can't use certain ones. The lens you have will work on most, if not all, nikon digital bodies no worries :)

Go to search and look up crop factor as you will find the lens you have will actually be at 1.5x crop on a digital body, that can be a good thing so don't worry!
 
Those 2 are actually on my shopping list, as well as the D80. Do anyone know where I can get confirmation on whether I can use it or not?

Thanks.


Newbie Question: :embarrassed: What is a Crop Factor?
 
Crop factor is the effect of the image sensor being smaller than a full 35mm film frame. The crop factor tells you how much the difference in focal length between film and digital needs to be. So a 100mm lens on a film SLR would be equal to 150mm on a 1.5x crop factor DSLR.

It's confusing because the focal length doesn't increase at all, you just see less of the frame - as if it had been cropped.
 
What is a Crop Factor?
Click to expand...

many digital SLR's have a sensor that is smaller than a 35mm film frame. So when you use your lens on your new digi body, it will effectively be a cropped view/shot you are getting.

On a nikon body, the factor of that crop is 1.5. So if you have a 50mm lens. on your digi camera it will give the same view as a 75mm on a 35mm camera (also called full frame).

People talk about a lens "becomming" a different focal length on a crop camera but that's not quite true. The amount of a scene you see changes as you just the middle but things like depth of field and compression or wide angle distortion all stay the same.

Hope that helps. :)
 
If you wish to use your old lens's dont get a D40 as it dosnt have the drive pin that is needed for autofocus.
Other then that you shouldnt have any real problems as nikon have used the same mount from their film cameras on their digitals :)
 
magpieant said:
Is it not a case of it can use the lens, just not the autofocus? Or are some lenses totally redundant with the D40 ?

Anth.
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They will work perfectly fine other than lack of Autofocus. Da Monstaa.. The D80 or even a D200 if you can stratch a little more would be a great choice of camera, and would allow you to use your current lenses with no problems.
 
I have the F80 and a D70 and have found that the older lenses work fine on the D70 - just can't use 'digital' lenses on the F80. The D70 is literally the digital version of the F80 - all the controls are extremely similar, and you can get a pretty cheap used one if you hunt around.
 
Messiah Khan said:
They will work perfectly fine other than lack of Autofocus. Da Monstaa.. The D80 or even a D200 if you can stratch a little more would be a great choice of camera, and would allow you to use your current lenses with no problems.
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Sorry, don’t completely understand your post.

Do you mean that my lens will not have any autofocus with the D40 as mentioned above, or do you mean that it will not have any autofocus with all the D SLRs? I’m presuming you were referring to the latter i.e. lack of autofocus in the D40.


Having said all of this, why does some not seem to mind when there is lack of Autofocus. I think it’s an integral part of SLRs. Obviously the Manual focus gives us more flexibility and ‘power’ (sorry I can’t think of the right word), but surely Autofocus is a must.


My thanks and my advance thanks to the advice. I’ve learnt quite a lot within these few posts. Hope the advice continues. :)
 
Da Monstaa said:
Having said all of this, why does some not seem to mind when there is lack of Autofocus. I think it’s an integral part of SLRs. Obviously the Manual focus gives us more flexibility and ‘power’ (sorry I can’t think of the right word), but surely Autofocus is a must.
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It all depends what you are shooting. For example, if you are gonna be doing lots of Macro work, manual focussing is usually better. Motorsports is another area where manual probably works better, esp if you are panning.
 
Da Monstaa said:
Sorry, don’t completely understand your post.

Do you mean that my lens will not have any autofocus with the D40 as mentioned above, or do you mean that it will not have any autofocus with all the D SLRs? I’m presuming you were referring to the latter i.e. lack of autofocus in the D40.


Having said all of this, why does some not seem to mind when there is lack of Autofocus. I think it’s an integral part of SLRs. Obviously the Manual focus gives us more flexibility and ‘power’ (sorry I can’t think of the right word), but surely Autofocus is a must.


My thanks and my advance thanks to the advice. I’ve learnt quite a lot within these few posts. Hope the advice continues. :)
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Yeah, it means that the D40/D40x won't Autofocus with your lens. Any other Nikon DSLR should autofocus fine with it though. I shoot a lot of macro shots, so 80% of the time my camera is set to manual focus as autofocus when doing macro shots is just impossible in my opinion. I also tend to use manual focus quite a bit for other shots; landscapes etc just because thats what im used to now. When trying to track something moving though, Autofocus is very very usefull. For example I took some shots of Puffins in flight that would have been impossible to shoot without AF.:)
 
Thanks a lot all. Really appreciate all the advice given. :thumbs:


Seems a general concensus that the limitations of the D40 and the D40x is that it seems to be a real beginners SLR. Whilst this may seem OK for the beginner at present, it may have limited options once the beginner wants to progress.

Seems that I can still salvage my pride of buying the F80 and utilise the lens to a digital. Especially after reading the on-hand experience by minimeeze :wave:

My shopping list at present- the D80 body with preferably a 50-200 lens since it seems I can utilise my old lens.

I'll look into the D200 (thanks Messiah Khan:wave: ) although it would seem that would stretch my budget a little. Plus I think I will not be fully utilising its capabilities (not yet at least)- hence maybe a waste of money.

I seem to have this handicap which my wife points out that each time I want to buy something, I do excessive research on it and end up paying tons more money than my original budget. It's a guy thing she points out. :embarrassed:


Wadya posters think of the combination?
DSLR --> Nikon D80 (body only)

(with my current AF Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D from my F80)

Lens --> Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 AFS G OR Nikon Af 70-300/4.0-5.6 G

Anyone with experience with either the 2 lens?


Thanks again.
 
What sort of subjects do you normally shoot? I ask because with the setup you propose, the widest you will have is 28mm, which in my opinion isn't really very wide for landscapes etc.
 
Messiah Khan said:
What sort of subjects do you normally shoot? I ask because with the setup you propose, the widest you will have is 28mm, which in my opinion isn't really very wide for landscapes etc.
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Sorry for the late reply.

Per se, normally shoot is still not yet in my vocabulary. :embarrassed:

I've played around with portraits with my limited experience. I seem to have this obsession with people's facial features, more especially old people. With my limited experience, my highlight and pride pictures are of my father and my late grandmother. Even more-so actually than my own family.

I'm planning to get into portraits, long distance landscapes, sports and macro (FYI I'm into motorsports and model cars).

Can you elaborate on the 28mm limitation and if so give suggestions?

Thanks a lot. Really appreciate.
 
Da Monstaa said:
I seem to have this handicap which my wife points out that each time I want to buy something, I do excessive research on it and end up paying tons more money than my original budget. It's a guy thing she points out. :embarrassed:

.
Click to expand...


I can assure you it's not just a guy thing. Except I don't do the research - I just dive right in and buy stuff :D If you think about it too long (not naming any names - Rickmezza ;)) - you'll never take the plunge!

Your shopping list sounds fine to me. I'd be tempted to go for the 70-300 lens (I don't have that one, I have a Sigma as couldn't afford a Nikon lens :( ). If you buy the 55-200, you aren't really gaining much as your current lens takes you to 105mm. That way, you have a range of 28mm - 300mm from the combination of both lenses - if that makes any sense!
 
Nikon lenses, unlike those from canon, are not autofocus.

With Nikon, the AF drive is supplied by a motor inside the camera. This effectively means that ALL Nikon lenses (AIS), and on, can be used in AF mode on Nikon DSLRs which have the drive pin, but not the newer D40/40s. You can also use the earlier Non AIS lenses, but in manual focus only. I think Nikon stopped delivering new AI lenses back in the mid eighties.

This is my one major bugbear with the Canon EF system. For all intents and purposes, it has rendered the beautiful range of Canon FD lenses obsolete, and there are some real beauties out there - I recently saw a 400mm 2.8 FDL sell for £300!!, and you regularly see 50mm 1.4 beauties for less than £100.

I'd even be prepared to use them in MF mode, but no one has yet come up with a sensible EF/FD converter, and I doubt Canon will do so, because it will hit the sale of the EF lens series.
 
Joe T said:
You may find the 28mm end of your present lens a bit 'long' on a DSLR (due to the crop factor), so I'd advise getting the 18-70 kit lens when you buy the body.
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Yes, starting to see the picture (pardon the pun). Thanks for that advice.

BTW hope you're reading this. Saw your motorsport gallery. Impressed with the F1 Testing pix you managed to get that good quality pix. I see that the Sigma you're using produces high quality pix.

Was the 26 April 06 session at Woodcote? Looks like it.
 
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