Re: [APML] OT: Digital camera compatibility with old Nikon lenses

["Robert Reeves" <reeves10@swbell.net>]

> I have the following two Nikon lenses which were originally manufactured
> for F series film cameras.  Both give excellent results:
> Nikkor ED AF 300mm f/2.8
> Nikkor ED 180mm f/2.8
>
> I am wondering what the consequences would be of using these lenses with
> the following cameras, in terms of whether an adapter is needed (I
> understand there is one available for the Canon), whether the aperture
> coupling works, and whether the AF works (on the AF 300mm):
> a) Nikon D70
> b) Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel)

Hello Philip,

I had the same problem, Nikon lenses, Canon digital body.

My new book, Introduction to Digital Astrophotography is being printed right
now
by Willmann-Bell and I dealt with the same issues when I made the jump to
the
"dark side" to work on that book.  I have about 20 lenses for the old F and
F2 Nikons,
and found myself with a Canon 10D body.  The 10D is essentially identical to
the
Digital Rebel as far as the lens mount goes.

Not wanting to retool my lens inventory, I went to B&H Photo and got a
NIKEOS
lens adapter manufactured by Novoflex.  There are now several other adapter
makers
out there that I found on Internet, but I can vouch for the quality of the
Novoflex unit
even if it was a bit pricey.

The bottom line is the Nikon lenses are all strictly manual operation with
the
adapter on the Canon body.  I believe the Nikon D70 will accept the old F
lenses,
but they will again be manual operation.

Not all of my Nikors fir the Canon with the adapter because of mechanical
interference with the electrical contacts in the EOS body.  I can't use the
old 20mm f/3.5, old 35mm f/2.8 and the 45 mm f/2.8 GN.  By "old", I mean
I bought them in 1970.

On the upside, although you loose auto functions with the 180mm and 300
lenses,
because of the smaller imaging area of the Nikon and Canon digital cameras,
your lenses will act like they are longer focal length, but with the same
maximum
aperture.  With the Canon camera, there is a 1.6X crop factor because of the
smaller
image sensor.  the 180 mm will act like a 288mm f/2.8 while the 300 mm will
act
like a 480mm f/2.8.  That is some serious firepower!

The downside with the digital bodies is you loose the wideangles.  Every
wide-angle,
if it will fit the digital body and does not have a light exit angle
exceeding about 10
or 12 degrees (important with digitals for other reasons), will act like a
lens
with 1.6 times greater focal length.  Superwide views of the Milky Way will
need new digital wide-angle lenses.

Hope this helps.  BTW, check out www.willbell.com for both my new book
and Richard Berry's new version of the Handbook of Astronomical Image
Processing.  It now has Version 2 of AIP4Win that has been completely
retooled to also process full-color images from digital cameras.  Its a
killer
image processing program!

Robert Reeves                 +29.484   98.440
reeves10@swbell.net       San Antonio, Texas
www.robertreeves.com

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