"S. S." wrote:

Dear Gurus,

Since an AF Nikon 35mm SLR will also have the capacity to do manual
focus, I am wondering what is the advantage in general of an MF Nikon
over an AF Nikon.

Since the obvious difference is the method of focus, the most noticeable
difference to the user of either is the differences of the viewfinder and
focusing screen. The autofocus lenses can be manually focused, though the
throw is often shorter, and the feedback seems very loose (not very
precise).

I understand that an AF one probably will be bulkier
and heavier than an MF one, and the MF lense speed is faster.

In general, the autofocus bodies are all bulkier. However, the lower
priced autofocus SLRs are largely plastic construction, making them
lighter than many of the manual focus bodies. Most of the older manual
focus bodies are very compact, though the mostly metal construction makes
them heavier. While there is a level of mechanical complexity to older
manual focus bodies, often many are very reliable, and quite simple to
use.

With the lenses, there are a few manual focus lenses with autofocus
matching lenses. The 50 mm choices of the same lens speed offer a
slightly lighter autofocus version, since they are mostly plastic. The
focus helical on a manual focus lens is metal barrels, which adds to the
weight. Some manual focus lenses have no autofocus equivalent, like the
35 mm f1.4, all the shift lenses, all the f1.2 lenses, somewhat legendary
105 mm f2.5, 300 mm f2.0, all Medical Nikkors, all Reflex Nikkors, and a
few others.

With the zoom lens choices, the manual focus versions are generally
heavier than the autofocus choices. It should be noted that most of the
zoom lenses are newer construction in autofocus versions, and generally
better lenses than manual focus zoom choices. If you want to use mostly
zoom lenses, stick with autofocus.

But in
addition to those, what are the benefits, image quality-wise, of an MF
Nikon?

One thing to consider is that autofocus works by comparing changes in
contrast to pick a plane of focus. Under subtle variations in lighting, a
subject or object at a fixed distance could actually cause the lens to
continue to shift focus. Of course, this is when the autofocus lock, or
even just manually focusing the autofocus lens can work better. With a
manual focus only lens, you choose the plane of focus, based upon your
eyesight, and the feedback in the viewfinder. If you have bad eyesight,
then you would probably do worse with manual focusing.

Are MF feature of an AF body the same as MF feature of an MF
body? Thanks in advance for help!

SS

Okay, some of the autofocus bodies allow changing the viewfinder, or just
the viewing screen. Those that allow that change have screens with manual
focus aides, like a split screen view, or fine ground screen. The
contrast is generally very good, and makes manually focusing fast and
intuitive.

The kit zoom autofocus lenses, and some of the lower priced Nikon G
series lenses, have almost no manual focus grip area, making them very
difficult to manually focus. Combine that with a lower priced camera
body, like the N65, and doing anything manually focused would be
questionable.

One thing that none have mentioned so far is that shutter lag is much
longer in autofocus. Even if you manually focus an autofocus lens, often
the autofocus body is much slower to react to your finger pushing the
shutter button. Many of the manual focus only bodies are actually quite
fast responding, making them good for using your reflexes while shooting.

There is one aspect of autofocus that is very difficult to copy using
manual focus. That is follow focus of an object moving towards you, or
away from you. As the speed increases, it can be tough to follow the
plane of focus, though some of the better autofocus bodies are very good
at this.

I am one of the few people on this news group who is largely
anti-autofocus. I do not like the lack of precision, or the lack of
control. I have rented autofocus cameras, though I largely use them in
manual focus. Of those, I like using the F100, F4, and F5 (in that
order). My mom has an N65, which works great for her, though it has a
somewhat dark viewfinder, and not a very good screen for manually
focusing. I also do quite a bit of night and low light photography, using
fairly fast manual focus lenses, and manual focus bodies. In general,
that type of imagery would often make autofocus useless, or hopelessly
slow to react, or throw the autofocus assist light onto my subjects
(distracting, ruining spontaneous nature of the images).

My uses are quite specific, and rarely match how others take photos. I
hope I answered some questions for you. In general, the better autofocus
bodies allow you to easily use manual focus lenses, and really are more
versatile than just a manual focus body. If you want zoom lenses, stick
with autofocus. Hope that helps.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio
http://www.allgstudio.com/gallery.html Updated!