You Know You're Going To Do It...

on December 13, 2018
I know you're going to do it. And Nikon know you're going to do it. At least they are not hypocrites about the thing - and they'll do their best to assist you to do it. It? The use of older Nikon F-mount lenses. The wise user of a new camera like the Nikon Z7 or Z6 will get a new full-frame Nikkor S-mount lens to go with it and will only add Nikkor S mount lenses to it in the future. They will have all the benefit of the new mount and the constant improvement that Nikon bring to their lenses. That's the wise user. The rest of us have shelves full of film-era and DSLR Nikon lenses that we are dying to try out...and Nikon are going to play along. They make an adapter for their F-mount to their new S-mount that will couple thousands of older lenses. Some will operate as per normal - the AF-S electronic ones - some will operate their diaphragms but not their focus mechanisms - the older AF-D types, and some will just be manual-only - the early film lenses come to mind. No matter - their optical registry distance will be correct - you can haul them into focus and blaze away. Here's the new adapter front and back - if you have a delicate balancing job with an older lens, there is a 1/4" tripod socket on the bottom of the foot. And you thought I was kidding? That's an old trombone-zoom Nikkor 70-210 f:4-5.6 D lens and a Tokina 35mm f:2.8 Macro - The one leftover from my daughter's F 601 kit, and the latter from my old D300 kit. They both work. The long lens is surprisingly easy to zoom and focus manually at the same time - more so than a rotary zoom would be. The Macro is a DX lens and you might not expect it to work well, but apart from a little dimming in the corners, it does everything you'd want. And I'll bet there are a thousand lenses in the metro area you could lay your hands on that would be just as successful. Essentially, anything that your old lens could do on film or an earlier digital sensor, it can do now. Nikon know their customers, and we know you as well. Actually, there is something of the inveterate experimenter in all of us. We just need an inventive company to realise it and give us the opportunity.
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