PC lens on Nikon N90s

I have a very early Nikon 35/2.8 PC lens and used it on my N90s for
several years. Well, I just realized that, according to the manual,
this combination could cause damage to the lens and/or body. So, what
am I destroying? It seems to work fine.

Is the lens AI or AIS? If not, the damage occurs to the indexing tab ( I
think they call it that ). This is the little tab on the N90 lens mount. Non
AI lenses do not have a coupling on the lens mount that accepts this tab. On
bodies such as the F4, this tab folds out of the way.


"bayydogg" wrote in message
om...
I have a very early Nikon 35/2.8 PC lens and used it on my N90s for
several years. Well, I just realized that, according to the manual,
this combination could cause damage to the lens and/or body. So, what
am I destroying? It seems to work fine.

"Noname" wrote:

Is the lens AI or AIS?


How can a shift lens be AI, or AIS?

Think about it!

;-)

According to this page http://home.aut.ac.nz/staff/rvink/nikon3.html there
are differences in the AI / AIS lens mounts. The 35mm PC lens is an AI
mount. Have a look. The earlier version , as the previous post said , may
not even be an AI mount. This means there is not a coupler on the lens and
would indeed damage the N90 camera which needs to have AI/AIS lens attached.



"TP" wrote in message
...
"Noname" wrote:

Is the lens AI or AIS?


How can a shift lens be AI, or AIS?

Think about it!

;-)

bayydogg wrote:

I have a very early Nikon 35/2.8 PC lens and used it on my N90s for
several years. Well, I just realized that, according to the manual,
this combination could cause damage to the lens and/or body. So, what
am I destroying? It seems to work fine.

I also have an early version 35 mm f2.8 shift lens. There is no indexing
tab for the aperture (AI, AIS), since that is a pre-set aperture lens.
The problem is that the back collar around the bayonet mount is not
machined down, and therefore often can contact the AI tab on the lens
mount. If it contacts the tab, it could bend it, or even rotate it to a
position in which the metering would be off. Some of the earlier Nikon
bodies (FM, FE, F3, F4, or F5 with modification) had an AI tab that
could be moved out of the way, thus avoiding any interference. Many of
the Nikon bodies without that moveable AI tab have enough manufacturing
tolerance that the tab does not make contact on the older lens. If there
is enough clearance on your old N90s, then it might not have any
interference.

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonfmseries/fm/basic.htm
Check the information and illustration near the red box. This shows the
moveable AI tab on an FM, though it is basically the same on the other
cameras with that feature. It is not present on an N90s.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio
http://www.allgstudio.com
http://www.agstudiopro.com Coming Soon!

I don't know if it's AI or AIS. I think it's non-AI. I don't see any
tab on the lens mount, but I know what you're referring to because I
see such a tab on my two Nikon AF lenses and how they couple with the
body. There seems to be no such coupling whatsoever with the shift
lens. Hence, I think Nikon's concern about using this lens on the N90s
is unwarranted, unless there's something else about this combination.
Anyway, it works, so I'll probably leave it at that. Thanks for the
info.

"Noname" wrote in message ...
Is the lens AI or AIS? If not, the damage occurs to the indexing tab ( I
think they call it that ). This is the little tab on the N90 lens mount. Non
AI lenses do not have a coupling on the lens mount that accepts this tab. On
bodies such as the F4, this tab folds out of the way.

"Noname" wrote:

According to this page http://home.aut.ac.nz/staff/rvink/nikon3.html there
are differences in the AI / AIS lens mounts. The 35mm PC lens is an AI
mount. Have a look. The earlier version , as the previous post said , may
not even be an AI mount.


If you had thought about it, you would have realised that a PC-Nikkor
cannot possibly be an AI lens, nor an AIS lens. AI means "Aperture
Indexing" and there cannot possibly be any aperture indexing of a
PC-Nikkor, because it is a pre-set lens.

The problem with the early PC-Nikkors is that the geometry of the
mount means that it can foul the AI (Aperture Indexing) collar around
the camera body mount. Later PC-Nikkors, while still not being AI or
AIS, had a mount that didn't foul the AI collar on the camera body.

"Noname" wrote in message
...
Is the lens AI or AIS? If not, the damage occurs to the indexing tab ( I
think they call it that ). This is the little tab on the N90 lens mount.
Non
AI lenses do not have a coupling on the lens mount that accepts this tab.
On
bodies such as the F4, this tab folds out of the way.


"bayydogg" wrote in message
om...
I have a very early Nikon 35/2.8 PC lens and used it on my N90s for
several years. Well, I just realized that, according to the manual,
this combination could cause damage to the lens and/or body. So, what
am I destroying? It seems to work fine.



Sometimes they clear the tab, and sometimes they don't. The best thing to do
is send your non-AI lenses to John White of: http://www.aiconversions.com/
and he will convert them to AI for about $35 each........

OK, now I fully understand Nikon's concern. Well, it doesn't pertain
to my lens because I looked at the illustration and realize my lens
doesn't have any of that stuff to move the body's lever. It mounts
seemlessly and meters perfectly (A or M mode), so I guess I can
continue on my journey.

Gordon Moat wrote in message ...

I also have an early version 35 mm f2.8 shift lens. There is no indexing
tab for the aperture (AI, AIS), since that is a pre-set aperture lens.
The problem is that the back collar around the bayonet mount is not
machined down, and therefore often can contact the AI tab on the lens
mount. If it contacts the tab, it could bend it, or even rotate it to a
position in which the metering would be off. Some of the earlier Nikon
bodies (FM, FE, F3, F4, or F5 with modification) had an AI tab that
could be moved out of the way, thus avoiding any interference. Many of
the Nikon bodies without that moveable AI tab have enough manufacturing
tolerance that the tab does not make contact on the older lens. If there
is enough clearance on your old N90s, then it might not have any
interference.

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonfmseries/fm/basic.htm
Check the information and illustration near the red box. This shows the
moveable AI tab on an FM, though it is basically the same on the other
cameras with that feature. It is not present on an N90s.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio
http://www.allgstudio.com
http://www.agstudiopro.com Coming Soon!

"William Graham" wrote:

Sometimes they clear the tab, and sometimes they don't. The best thing to do
is send your non-AI lenses to John White of: http://www.aiconversions.com/
and he will convert them to AI for about $35 each........


I would really love to see his AI conversions of PC-Nikkors !!!!

;-)