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#1
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Nikkor - overview?
Hi.
Sorry if I ask an old question, I'm new to this NG and gave up searching elsewhere, and before doing anything stupid on ebay I wanted to be informed. Can anybody give me a link to an overview of the Nikon lenses where I can learn something about the differences in quality between the different types (like Ai-S, AF-G, AF-D, and the others)? TIA! |
#2
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Nikkor - overview?
"Jan Tieghem" wrote in message ... Hi. Sorry if I ask an old question, I'm new to this NG and gave up searching elsewhere, and before doing anything stupid on ebay I wanted to be informed. Can anybody give me a link to an overview of the Nikon lenses where I can learn something about the differences in quality between the different types (like Ai-S, AF-G, AF-D, and the others)? Below is the address to the R&L Nikkor Tables, this may answer some of your questions. http://www.verwoerd.info/nikon/ |
#3
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Nikkor - overview?
"Jan Tieghem" writes:
Sorry if I ask an old question, I'm new to this NG and gave up searching elsewhere, and before doing anything stupid on ebay I wanted to be informed. Can anybody give me a link to an overview of the Nikon lenses where I can learn something about the differences in quality between the different types (like Ai-S, AF-G, AF-D, and the others)? There are not quality differences between those. And I don't think there is an AF-G designation; I believe there's a separate G designation. Those are all *feature* distinctions. See http://www.bythom.com/lensacronyms.htm for an explanation of all (or at least many) of the codes. -- David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/ Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/ Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/ |
#4
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Nikkor - overview?
On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 19:44:57 +0100, "Jan Tieghem"
wrote: Can anybody give me a link to an overview of the Nikon lenses where I can learn something about the differences in quality between the different types (like Ai-S, AF-G, AF-D, and the others)? I suggest the following link, which includes nonemclature and this week's compatibility matrix. http://www.nikonians.org/html/resour...atibility.html -- Michael Benveniste -- Spam and UCE professionally evaluated for $419. Use this email address only to submit mail for evaluation. |
#5
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Nikkor - overview? (long)
David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
There are not quality differences between those. And I don't think there is an AF-G designation; I believe there's a separate G designation. Those are all *feature* distinctions. Exactly. There are different quality lenses in all of them. The original Nikon F slr light meter (Photomic F) used a coupling fork and pin mechanism to determine what F stop the lens was set to. The photomic F meter did NOT measure light through the lens. When the second meter (Photomic Ft) was designed it had a problem as it was supposed to meter with the lens open, but there was no way for it to tell what it was measuring. It averaged expsoure across the full frame. The third meter (Photomic FTn) used "center weighted" exposure measurement, 60% of the light used to calculate exposure came from a central circle. In order to calculate epxosures properly, the light meter had to be "indexed", i.e. set to the maximum apeture of the lens. Some early cameras did this by setting a dial, Nikon engineers figured out how to do it by mounting the lens at F5.6, racking it to minimum apeture and back to maximum. Quite ingeneous. Lenses at that time were called Nikor-x, where the x was the first letter of the latin number of elements, e.g. Nikor-H was a five element lens, Nikor-Q was a four. The original 1959 design was unable to accomodate these meters and the mirror box was enlarged in 1964. There is AFIK no way of telling these cameras from the earlier ones, except by serial number and visual inspection. The original system was an analog system, the resitance element to measure lens apeture was a continuous carbon resistor and the meter would measure at any setting of the F stop ring. In 1977, Nikon went from an analog system to what they called a "digital" system. It was still analog, but instead of having a continous strip resistor, the meter went to a set of switch contacts one for each setting of the F stop ring. This used much cheaper single resistors for each settings and a worn switch contact could be cleaned instead of having to have the whole switch replaced. This system first appeared on the standard F2 photomic finder. Those finders are rare and can be identified by the "long tail" a small extension to the exposure window on top of the prism on the underexposure (left side). In mid 1977 Nikon changed to the autoindex (AI) system. The new meters really had no need to be set to the maximum apeture of the lens. To make a proper calculation all the needed to be known was the proportion of light the lens would transmit closed down. The AI system used a cut in the apeture ring and a probe that pushed against it instead of a pin in the fork. For compatbility reasons, the AI lenses also came with a fork and the new finders could move the probe out of the way for the old lenses. Since the meter prism had no indication of the actual F stop in use, AI lenses had a small scale with the F stops on it reflected by a mirror to the user's eye. Nikon converted pre-AI lenses to AI by replacing the apeture (F-stop) ring with an AI one. You can tell these lenses by their metal barrel grip. Nikon went to a rubber barrel grip just before they went to AI. Non Nikon conversion of lenses was done by many people by removing the metal on apeture ring. Some of these were crude, leaving the metal exposed, some repainted it and placed scales with little numbers on them. When Nikon came out with the EM (around 1981-82, I'm not sure), they came out with a low price line of lenses called "series E". I hesitate to call them cheap, opticaly they were excelent, some have been the best lenses Nikon made in that apeture/focal length combination. Series E lenses used some external plastic parts and did not have a fork. The EM was improved to the FG which was Nikon's first camera with "programed" exposure, meaning it could set the F stop and shutter speed for you. The FG used a very complicated system of determining the exposure with the lens wide open, and then closing it to where the lens should be and recalulating expsoure based upon the actual apeture set. With the release of the FA, a programed exposure version of the FE, Nikon standardized the postition of the stop down lever in relation to the closure of the lens. The allowed the FA to react much faster as it did not need to recalculate the exposure when after a delay for the diaphragm to "settle". These lenses were called AIs. Externaly an AIs lens has a small bit of metal scooped out on it's back, which allows the camera to detect it. With out it the FA and later cameras will not go into programed exposure. Any lens can have the metal removed with a dremel tool, but this will not convert an AI lens into an AIs lens. It will fool the camera, exposures will be eratic. If you look at an AIs lens, you will see the scooped out area and being a specific size and shape, it's easy to tell if you have a counterfit. Nikon's first camera was the F3AF, Very rare, it had a huge prism with the extra autofocusing electronics in it. The lenses (there were three) had motors in them. In order to focus the lenses, electrical contacts were added to the camera and the lens inside the top left corner of the lens mount. The AF lenses from the F3AF are AIs lenses and can be used manualy on any camera that accepts AIs lenses. They will only focus on the F3AF and F4. The second generation of AF lenses, the common AF-Nikors, were AIs lenses with some significant changes. The AF lenses indicated maximum apeture, and current apeture through the electrical contacts. They also could be set to a particular apeture through the electrical contacts. Nikon elected to put their autofocus motors in the camera and so the lenes where changed to a rack and pinion focusing mechanism from the helicoid one used before. This cut the size and weight of the lenses and more significant the manufacturing cost and therefore the price went down by almost a third. The early AF lenses were look alikes of the Minolta Maxxum lenses and had the distance scale in a window and a small manual focusing ring at the front of the lens. They were however, standard AIs lenses and could be used on nonautofocus lenses with full function. They included dimples in the apeture rings so that it was easy to (add a) "fork" the lenses for pre-AI cameras. Later improvements to AF lenses included ergonomics of the old style lenses (external distance scales and wider focusing rings). Nikon later added the electronics to measure the focus distance the lens was set to, these lenses are designated AF-D. Since all cameras since the 8008 (late 1980's) set the apetrure electronicaly, the aperture rings were an expensive compatiblity feature not needed by most users. Nikon now produces a line of lenses that have no apeture ring at all called the "G" series. Some of the "G" lenses have mostly plastic body parts, and are therefore much cheaper. Opticaly they are excelent. There are designations for various other features, such as "ED" (extended definition (low dispersion) glass), IF (internal focus, where lens elements in the middle of the lens move instead of the ones at the end), VR (vibration reduction, i.e. image stabilized). There also is a line of lenses specialy designed for the needs of the smaller sensors Nikon uses in their digital cameras, but I'm not familure with it. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 The trouble with being a futurist is that when people get around to believing you, it's too late. We lost. Google 2,000,000:Hams 0. |
#6
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Nikkor - overview? (long)
In article ,
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote: In order to calculate epxosures properly, the light meter had to be "indexed", i.e. set to the maximum apeture of the lens. Some early cameras did this by setting a dial, Nikon engineers figured out how to do it by mounting the lens at F5.6, racking it to minimum apeture and back to maximum. Quite ingeneous. Small correction: the Nikkormat needs the lens to be set at f/5.6. The FTN finder is far more flexible in this respect. Nikon converted pre-AI lenses to AI by replacing the apeture (F-stop) ring with an AI one. You can tell these lenses by their metal barrel grip. Nikon went to a rubber barrel grip just before they went to AI. Of course the last sentence implies that you can really tell whether a late non-Ai lens (with a rubber focus ring) has been converted to Ai or whether it was Ai from the start. Not that it would matter much. When Nikon came out with the EM (around 1981-82, I'm not sure), they came out with a low price line of lenses called "series E". I hesitate to call them cheap, opticaly they were excelent, some have been the best lenses Nikon made in that apeture/focal length combination. Series E lenses used some external plastic parts and did not have a fork. I think the E series didn't have multi-coating as well. With the release of the FA, a programed exposure version of the FE, Nikon standardized the postition of the stop down lever in relation to the closure of the lens. The allowed the FA to react much faster as it did not need to recalculate the exposure when after a delay for the diaphragm to "settle". But the FA still retains that feature to be able to handle non-Ais lenses as well. These lenses were called AIs. Externaly an AIs lens has a small bit of metal scooped out on it's back, which allows the camera to detect it. With out it the FA and later cameras will not go into programed exposure. The FA does support Program mode with non-Ais lenses. Any lens can have the metal removed with a dremel tool, but this will not convert an AI lens into an AIs lens. It will fool the camera, exposures will be eratic. If you look at an AIs lens, you will see the scooped out area and being a specific size and shape, it's easy to tell if you have a counterfit. The scooped out area is needed to provide the camera with the focal length. (To avoid slow shutter speeds on tele lenses). -- That was it. Done. The faulty Monk was turned out into the desert where it 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. -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency |
#7
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Nikkor - overview?
"Jan Tieghem" wrote in message
... Hi. Sorry if I ask an old question, I'm new to this NG and gave up searching elsewhere, and before doing anything stupid on ebay I wanted to be informed. Can anybody give me a link to an overview of the Nikon lenses where I can learn something about the differences in quality between the different types (like Ai-S, AF-G, AF-D, and the others)? TIA! I usually either get my Nikon questions answered at http://www.nikonlinks.com/index.htm or find a link there where the answer can be found. Norm |
#8
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Nikkor - overview?
Wow, impressive!
jan "Norm Dresner" schreef in bericht ... | "Jan Tieghem" wrote in message | ... | Hi. | | Sorry if I ask an old question, I'm new to this NG and gave up searching | elsewhere, and before doing anything stupid on ebay I wanted to be | informed. | | Can anybody give me a link to an overview of the Nikon lenses where I can | learn something about the differences in quality between the different | types | (like Ai-S, AF-G, AF-D, and the others)? | | TIA! | | I usually either get my Nikon questions answered at | http://www.nikonlinks.com/index.htm | or find a link there where the answer can be found. | | Norm | |
#9
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Nikkor - overview? (long)
On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 23:10:01 +0100, (Philip
Homburg) wrote: The FA does support Program mode with non-Ais lenses. Correct. The FA will not, however, switch between its internal Program-highspeed and Program-lowspeed exposure curves with a non-"s" AI lens. Series-E lenses are, for all practical purposes, AI-s as well. -- Central Maryland Photographer's Guild - http://cmpg.org Strange, Geometrical Hinges - http://rob.rnovak.net |
#10
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Nikkor - overview?
Sorry if I ask an old question, I'm new to this NG and gave up searching elsewhere, and before doing anything stupid on ebay I wanted to be informed. I just answered this last week. I won't repost it as it was very long and there were some minor corrections and it would be best if you looked up both my original article and the corrections in an archive. There is also a Nikon FAQ. It's been around for a long time. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ |
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