Nikon made me buy Canon

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:56:26 +0100, "Zebedee" wrote:

I have been a Nikon SLR user for 20 years, using mainly FMs and occasionally
an F3.

Having tried digital compacts, I wanted to get a digital SLR. I'm quite keen
on manual focus lenses and see no reason why I should have to use autofocus
lenses. I was pleased to note that the Nikon bayonet had not changed.

I asked Nikon about using my existing lenses from my FM on a D70 and they
said:
"The D70 needs electronic contacts on the lens with which to communicate and
meter. Manual lenses (at least 99.9% of them)do not have these contacts and
therefore the camera would be unable to communicate with such lenses. You
would therefore be able to use the camera in manual mode only and would have
to use an external light meter to ascertain the correct exposure. YOu would
obviously also not get TTL flash exposure."

Well, if I have to buy new lenses and a new camera, I'm darned well not
forking out for Nikon since they don't support their customers, I said.
Hence I bought a Canon 300D and an 18-55 lens. I shall purchase more
lenses - later.

Bye bye Nikon. You don't support your customer base so we're all migrating
to Canon!

So you like manual lenses, and you dont like AF ones....

And the ones you currently have are basically only usable as MF lenses
if you go with the D70.

So you cant use AF on the lenses you have if you buy a D70, but you
like MF...

And like

DUR,

whats your problem

You have MF lenses, and you prefer MF, and if you buy a D70 the lenses
you have will only work in MF mode (well they are MF lenses after all)
and wont work with AF which you dont like....

sorry but cant see the problem!

And I;m not a Nikon user, but from what you've said the D70 and your
current set of lenses is everything you want from your first post !


--
Jonathan Wilson.
www.somethingerotic.com

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:56:26 +0100, "Zebedee" wrote:

I have been a Nikon SLR user for 20 years, using mainly FMs and occasionally
an F3.

Having tried digital compacts, I wanted to get a digital SLR. I'm quite keen
on manual focus lenses and see no reason why I should have to use autofocus
lenses. I was pleased to note that the Nikon bayonet had not changed.

I asked Nikon about using my existing lenses from my FM on a D70 and they
said:
"The D70 needs electronic contacts on the lens with which to communicate and
meter. Manual lenses (at least 99.9% of them)do not have these contacts and
therefore the camera would be unable to communicate with such lenses. You
would therefore be able to use the camera in manual mode only and would have
to use an external light meter to ascertain the correct exposure. YOu would
obviously also not get TTL flash exposure."

Well, if I have to buy new lenses and a new camera, I'm darned well not
forking out for Nikon since they don't support their customers, I said.
Hence I bought a Canon 300D and an 18-55 lens. I shall purchase more
lenses - later.

Bye bye Nikon. You don't support your customer base so we're all migrating
to Canon!

So you like manual lenses, and you dont like AF ones....

And the ones you currently have are basically only usable as MF lenses
if you go with the D70.

So you cant use AF on the lenses you have if you buy a D70, but you
like MF...

And like

DUR,

whats your problem

You have MF lenses, and you prefer MF, and if you buy a D70 the lenses
you have will only work in MF mode (well they are MF lenses after all)
and wont work with AF which you dont like....

sorry but cant see the problem!

And I;m not a Nikon user, but from what you've said the D70 and your
current set of lenses is everything you want from your first post !


--
Jonathan Wilson.
www.somethingerotic.com

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:56:26 +0100, "Zebedee" wrote:

I have been a Nikon SLR user for 20 years, using mainly FMs and occasionally
an F3.

Having tried digital compacts, I wanted to get a digital SLR. I'm quite keen
on manual focus lenses and see no reason why I should have to use autofocus
lenses. I was pleased to note that the Nikon bayonet had not changed.

I asked Nikon about using my existing lenses from my FM on a D70 and they
said:
"The D70 needs electronic contacts on the lens with which to communicate and
meter. Manual lenses (at least 99.9% of them)do not have these contacts and
therefore the camera would be unable to communicate with such lenses. You
would therefore be able to use the camera in manual mode only and would have
to use an external light meter to ascertain the correct exposure. YOu would
obviously also not get TTL flash exposure."

Well, if I have to buy new lenses and a new camera, I'm darned well not
forking out for Nikon since they don't support their customers, I said.
Hence I bought a Canon 300D and an 18-55 lens. I shall purchase more
lenses - later.

Bye bye Nikon. You don't support your customer base so we're all migrating
to Canon!

So you like manual lenses, and you dont like AF ones....

And the ones you currently have are basically only usable as MF lenses
if you go with the D70.

So you cant use AF on the lenses you have if you buy a D70, but you
like MF...

And like

DUR,

whats your problem

You have MF lenses, and you prefer MF, and if you buy a D70 the lenses
you have will only work in MF mode (well they are MF lenses after all)
and wont work with AF which you dont like....

sorry but cant see the problem!

And I;m not a Nikon user, but from what you've said the D70 and your
current set of lenses is everything you want from your first post !


--
Jonathan Wilson.
www.somethingerotic.com

"Mark B." wrote in
:

Canon digitals don't support older manual focus lenses either, so I'm
not sure you made any kind of point.

I think his point is that ANY Canon EF mount lens will work on the Canon D-
SLR, no confusion involved. IMO Canon’s clean break from the old manual
lenses to the new EOS lenses with a brand new EF mount made life a lot
easier for them and their customers, despite any pain during the transition
for those that owned a lot of glass.



--
Mark Heyes (New Zealand)
See my pics at http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~markh/
"There are 10 types of people, those that
understand binary and those that don't"

In article ,
David Dyer-Bennet wrote:

"Zebedee" writes:

Well, if I have to buy new lenses and a new camera, I'm darned well not
forking out for Nikon since they don't support their customers, I said.
Hence I bought a Canon 300D and an 18-55 lens. I shall purchase more
lenses - later.

Bye bye Nikon. You don't support your customer base so we're all migrating
to Canon!

You do realize that Canon did a much worse thing a few years back,
right? When they went from the FD mount to whatever the auto-focus
system they use now is called, they made a *complete* flag-day change;
no forward or backward compatibility between the old and the new
systems.

But no confusion: the new lenses all work (ignore the one new lens
behind the curtain); the old ones won't get in your way. (A feature is a
bug in a three-piece suit.)

I was still using FD lenses on F1n bodies until a couple months ago,
when I sold the lot.

Not quite settled on what their successor will be, just yet. Teetering
between Canon and Olympus.

In article ,
dy (Bill Hilton) wrote:

From: "Zebedee"

I have been a Nikon SLR user for 20 years, using mainly FMs and occasionally
an F3.

Having tried digital compacts, I wanted to get a digital SLR. I'm quite keen
on manual focus lenses and see no reason why I should have to use autofocus
lenses. I was pleased to note that the Nikon bayonet had not changed.

I asked Nikon about using my existing lenses from my FM on a D70

In all fairness to Nikon, if you were still using Canon FD mount manual focus
lenses then you wouldn't be able to mount those on the dSLR bodies either
since they require the EF mount. Nikon at least held out longer than Canon ...

All that means is they put off the pain a little longer.

In the long run, it won't matter. Ask your grandkids' kids.

In article coh.net,
(Philip Homburg) wrote:

In article ,
David Bindle wrote:
Nowadays... people interested in manual focus cameras can pick up incredible
Canon FD L lens optics for cheap, due to the fact that Canon changed their
mount. Cheaper than MF Nikon equipment but just as good and sometimes
better...

That suggests that Nikon basically got the right strategy.

??

No, they just put off paying the piper a bit longer.

Canon's mount switch made some technical design issue easier, and it has
shown in their EF line, especially over the past few years.

He's right, though, some of the FD glass is *really* good.

In article ,
Steve Hix wrote:
Canon's mount switch made some technical design issue easier, and it has
shown in their EF line, especially over the past few years.

What features does the EF mount have, that Nikon can't match with their
mount?

Lately, Nikon dropped the aperture ring, so you could say that finally
they gave up compatibility with the original F. (I'm not convinced that
you can't combine VR with an aperture ring, but then again, I don't design
lenses).



--
The Electronic Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video
recorder. [...] Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving
you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electronic Monks believed things for
you, [...] -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

In article ,
Steve Hix wrote:
Canon's mount switch made some technical design issue easier, and it has
shown in their EF line, especially over the past few years.

What features does the EF mount have, that Nikon can't match with their
mount?

Lately, Nikon dropped the aperture ring, so you could say that finally
they gave up compatibility with the original F. (I'm not convinced that
you can't combine VR with an aperture ring, but then again, I don't design
lenses).



--
The Electronic Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video
recorder. [...] Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving
you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electronic Monks believed things for
you, [...] -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

In article K8jJc.130$SD3.14@okepread06, Skip M wrote:
Yes, but...how many Nikon lenses introduced since they started to make AF
bodies are incompatible with those same AF bodies. The only ones I can
think of are the VR lenses with bodies pre F/N80. And that's only the VR,
the rest of the lens is operational.

You can't (easily) control the aperture of a VR lens with an F4. I think
this is the only serious incompatibility Nikon created. Of course, a Nikon
F won't meter with an AF lens, but I don't it is hard add a meter coupling
fork to an AF lens.



--
The Electronic Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video
recorder. [...] Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving
you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electronic Monks believed things for
you, [...] -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency