Nikkor Lens Technology
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Nikon Lens
Technology
. All rights reserved.
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biggest source of
is when you use any of
when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thank you! Ken.
(&non-AI&)
23 September 2007
05 September 2007
Introduction
Nikon is the leader
when it comes to
among cameras and lenses of different decades.
Most of today's lenses are
compatible with ancient
cameras, and most ancient lenses can be made to work fine on today's digital cameras.
The key is to understand
Nikon's alphabet soup. Each time they add a new lens feature they usually
retain the previous lens features, so the newest lenses have long lists
of letters behind them. One usually can ignore the earlier letters, even
though they still apply. As we will see, today's AF lenses are still AI-s
and F mount, even though they don't always list that.
The only two gotchas in 50 years have been in 1986, when AF lenses lost the prong needed to couple to pre-1977 cameras. No big deal, even today you can have prongs added. The only real gotcha has been with G lenses, which are just about useless on manual focus cameras. More at
Some Nikon designations
are mechanical, like F, AI, and AF; while others are optical, like ED
and IF. We'll cover al of these.
Mechanical
(also called pre-AI and non-AI): 1959 &&&
Nikon Nikkor-H 50mm f/2. (circa 1969)
Non-AI, Pre-AI (also called NAI) refers to the
original Nikon F bayonet lens mount and lenses introduced in 1959 for the
Nikon F camera.
These lenses have an aperture coupling prong just below f/5.6. When used on cameras made before 1977, you had to &index& the lens to the camera's meter by mounting the lens and then remembering to rotate the lens to its largest aperture and back (f/2 in this case) so that the meter was properly calibrated. Forget to do that and your exposures could be way off.
You can recognize these first lenses from:
1.) Solid coupling prong.
1.) No coupling ridge on the bottom of the aperture ring.
2.) No second set of tiny aperture numbers on the aperture ring.
This primitive form was used through 1977, when the completely
compatible AI series was introduced. All modern Nikkor lenses, except the , are
still completely compatible with the very first Nikon cameras, given a
little machine work in some cases.
These lenses today
can mount just fine on today's cameras if you first have them converted
to AI by a machine shop, although you won't get matrix metering on the
FA or F4 or AF cameras. See the
section for more info.
does great conversions and his site provides lots of background
on AI lenses.
Most all of these
lenses had automatic diaphragms. The diaphragm is
held open against spring pressure while you are viewing the image. When
a photo is taken that lever in the camera releases this pin. The lens
very quickly stops down to the aperture you have set on the lens (or set
by the camera's automation), until the pin again is pushed by the camera
to open the diaphragm after the photo is made.
1.) Automatic diaphragm pin
For meter coupling
AF lens to a pre-1977 camera you will have to have Nikon add a prong to the aperture
ring. You'll see two little pilot holes around the f/5.6 position for
the screws!
Nikon's later cameras were still able to accommodate pre-AI lenses. ,
bodies had special aperture coupling rings that let these lenses mount, but metering was via stop-down.
As a testament to Nikon, my new
can be retrofitted with one of the special rings that lets it also use these lenses from almost 50 years ago, and the F6, with stop-down metering and the AE-Lock button, still meters and gives
aperture-preferred automation. Bravo Nikon!
These lenses also mount on the cheaper digital SLRs like the , ,
and , but have to be used by guessing the exposure since the meters don't couple.
AI (Automatic Indexing): 1977 &&&&&
Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AI. (circa 1979)
This was a real advance
in 1977. For once you could mount lenses with one twist, and NOT have
to twiddle the aperture ring separately each time. Since indexing was now automatic and foolproof, it was called automatic indexing or AI.
An AI or () lens still works wonderfully today on Nikon's newest ,
cameras. Mount these lenses on a D300 or D3 or D2Xs etc., enter the lens' information manually, and you now get matrix metering and EXIF data!
You can recognize AI
lenses by:
1.) Coupling ridge on bottom of aperture ring. (look near f/8 on the 50mm lens above.)
2.) Second set of tiny aperture numbers which, on better bodies, allowed you to see the
aperture in the viewfinder with a set of tiny lenses that looked out at
them. This finder readout is called ADR, for aperture-direct readout, and the scale of small numbers is called the ADR scale.
3.) Two extra skeleton holes in the coupling
prong to let light hit f/8 and f/4 so they are easy to read in the
viewfinder.
All AI lenses are
also F mount lenses and fit onto every Nikon SLR camera ever made. The cheaper AF and digital cameras lose metering ability with these manual focus lenses.
Used AI lenses are
bargains. They are mostly the same as the newer AI-s versions made today,
but you can get them less expensively. Today AI lenses can be bought
very cheap, and they are often far better made mechanically than many of
&professional& AF lenses of today. There are no different significant
features available between AI and AI-s lenses. The only functional difference
is if you have an FA camera, on which only AI-s lenses of 135mm and longer
will automatically trigger the high-speed program. AI lenses will all
work on the standard program, which I prefer anyway.
All AI lenses give
matrix metering only on the F4 and FA, as well as all Manual, Shutter-preferred
(S), Aperture-preferred (A) and Program (P) modes on the FA. Forget it
on any other modern AF cameras.
These manual focus
lenses only give give center weighted and spot metering in manual and
A modes on most AF cameras.
The AI mount even
includes (to this day) mechanical lugs that tell the camera the focal
length of the lens. Nikon snuck that in there for future cameras that
may have taken advantage of that, but none of those cameras were ever
built. Today all this information is coupled electronically to the AF
cameras by AF lenses.
The AF cameras do
not read these lugs, because it costs more to put mechanical feelers in
the camera. That is the reason you can't get matrix metering with manual
focus lenses on any AF camera except the F4. It's also the reason some
AF cameras can't even meter with manual focus lenses. It's just because
Nikon cheaped out, preferring to have you have to buy new AF lenses instead.
To Nikon's credit,
newer lenses usually always work with older cameras, but newer cameras
don't always work with older lenses.
See more about use
on AF cameras
AI Updates,
Conversions and Hacks: AI'd or AID&&&&&
Correct Factory Upgrades
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nikon
would upgrade
pre-AI, also called , lenses for about $20 each so they would work
with the new AI compatible cameras. Nikon did this by designing
aperture rings dedicated to
each lens. When you sent a lens to Nikon, they replaced the old aperture ring with a brand-new
factory part. These new parts were designed
to match the cosmetics and color-coded apertures of each lens.
These factory upgrades work perfectly.
An example of an old lens with a newer, factory retrofitted AI ring looks like this:
Nikon Nikkor-S 35mm f/2.8, factory AI conversion. (circa February 1968, converted later)
The way to identify a factory AI conversion is to realize that this lens was from before the AI era, and note that the aperture ring has flutes to match the early focus ring. Nikon did a class job. Except for the obvious anachronism of the AI ring on an older lens, everything else about the lens is original.
Nikon no longer offers these upgrades, but if you can find the part for your lens, you can have it installed and you're all set.
Converted lenses are factory-approved, and collector-approved, too. Lenses converted this way work great with the latest F6, D300, D700 and D3, which adds to their collectible, as well as user, value.
Home-Made Hatchet- Job Conversions
Since Nikon no longer does these conversions, some people
get out their metalworking tools and hack away at the aperture ring to get some sort of crude functionality. This lets them work on newer cameras, but destroys any value they may have had to collectors. Any lens that's been converted has no collectible value.
To do this, people grind off some of the bottom of the aperture ring and maybe glue on an ADR scale. Here's what a good one looks like:
Nikon , home AI converted. (circa 1971, unknown conversion date)
You can identify the non-Nikon AI conversion by:
1.) The coupling ridge is really just part of the aperture ring, ground off.
2.) Glued-on paper ADR scale.
3.) Still has solid prong with no holes for the light.
Older non-AI lenses
converted to AI will not give matrix metering on the FA and F4 unless
one adds the special absolute aperture coupling lug to the mount, something
that is not part of the usual conversion. I did add this to a 200mm f/4 Q
and a 300mm f/4.5P, but these are probably the only samples of old converted
lenses on the planet that give matrix metering with those cameras.
does these conversions to update pre-1977 lenses for use on
almost all of today's Nikon cameras.
Series E: 1979 &&&&&
Up through the 1970s
Nikon only made very expensive professional lenses. Normal people had
to buy discount brands lenses if they wanted something they could afford.
Buying an off-brand lens was, and still is, the worst of all worlds: spending
a lot on a camera, and then getting a dinky lens. The lens is the only
part that affects the picture quality, so you are far better of with a
crummy camera and good lenses.
To capture more of
the amateur market Nikon decided to make a series of lenses called &Series
E& which had great optical quality. They were built with well thought
out, simple to manufacture optics and cheaper mechanics that were more
than good enough for amateur use. These cheaper mechanics are often better
than what Nikon makes today in some of their cheaper plastic AF lenses.
The optics are all
great. Nikon only made Series E lenses in focal lengths and aperture ranges
for which optics could be designed simply and still give great performance.
For instance, I have the . A 100mm
f/2.8 lens is very easy to make work very well for very little money.
It is as sharp or sharper than my expensive
especially at f/2.8. An 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom has to be expensive because
it requires complex optics, but a fixed 100mm f/2.8 lens is easy to make
inexpensively. Take these series E lenses very seriously.
The simplest Series
E lenses were
and others were .
Nikon's designers knew what they were doing: they used whatever they needed.
The very simple classic designs of some of the fixed focal length Series
E didn't need multi-coating.
The first Series
E were a little bit ugly. The first were mostly black (lacking the chrome
colored grab rings of the Nikkors) and used dorky big blocky nubs on the
focus rings. In a few years Nikon updated the cosmetics and added the
silver colored aluminum grab ring near the aperture ring and nicer looking
nubs on the focus ring rubber, making them look very similar to the Nikkors.
These great lenses
were never popular because Nikon was too honest.
Back then Nikon admitted
that they used a little plastic here or there in the Series E lenses,
which at the time was considered a crime. Remember everything is made
of plastic today but back then everything was metal and weighed a ton.
Nikon didn't use the Nikkor brand name because they were reserving the
Nikkor brand only for what they considered professional lenses. Therefore
everyone was afraid of the Series E lenses and few people bought them.
Oddly, more people bought the crummier cheap brands that weren't as honest
about what they were selling. Too bad, because the Series E were great
lenses and far better than the discount ones. Today most Nikon AF lenses
are far more cheaply made than the Series E were, and they are called
Nikkor. Heck, even some of the super-expensive AF-S lenses have PLASTIC
filter threads, and the Series E were solid metal.
From what I've seen
Series E lenses typically had anodized black aluminum barrels and focus
helicoids instead of enameled brass barrels and brass helicoids as
the manual focus Nikkors do. All Series E had metal mounts, although
some had plastic focus helicoids. They had aluminum zoom cams. Today's
cheap AF Nikkors have plastic mounts and very little metal anywhere.
The Series E have plastic aperture rings, a crime in their time but
standard on almost every expensive Nikon lens today. The series E were
very precisely made mechanically.
Some Series E optical
designs were used in newer AF-Nikkor lenses. For instance, I read that
the first 28mm f/2.8 AF and AF-D Nikkor sold up until about 2001 was the
Series E five element design, and that the
was the 70-210 Series E design.
The Series E retained
Nikon's superior .
All Series E lenses
are AI-s, and likewise fit every Nikon SLR camera, manual and auto focus.
Some of the cheaper AF cameras and the
the ability to meter with the Series E as they do with all manual focus
See more about use
on AF cameras . The operation and compatibility
of the Series E lenses is identical to the other manual focus
lenses, which makes sense because they are AI-s.
In 2007, Nikon is re-using the E designation to refer to the electronic diaphragm of their
AI-s: 1981&&&&&
Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 AI-s. Note two orange f/22 markings.
This was an incremental
advance in 1981. It is the same as AI unless you have an FA or F4.
You can identify an AI-s, as opposed to an AI, lens, by:
1.) The smallest aperture (largest number, f/22) on the ADR scale (the second set of tiny aperture numbers) is in orange.
2.) You'll see this half-round cutout in the mount:
2.) The gouge in the center of the photo tells some Nikon cameras that
this is an AI-s lens.
AI-s is over 20 years old
and still the version made today for manual focus lenses.
AI-s is the same as AI-S.
I've seen it written both ways.
other two ways to identify AI-s as opposed to AI are:
AI-s lens' minimum aperture (usually 16 or 22) is marked in orange.
Color-coded depth of field index lines are engraved on a thin chrome ring,
unlike on AI lenses where they were engraved on the black painted part
of the lens.
means that the actuation of the diaphragm was linearized with respect
to the position of the automatic diaphragm pin. This is very important
for AF cameras because they have have open-loop exposure control
that depends on the aperture being exactly correct or else your exposure
will be off. It is not important to manual focus cameras. (see && below)
manual-focus, auto-exposure cameras like the FA use closed-loop exposure
control. That means that they make the actual exposure measurement in
the instant AFTER the lens stops down but before the mirror flips up,
and means that they will automatically compensate for any inaccuracy in
the lens diaphragm actuation.
Adding linearization
to the actuation made it possible for these cameras to work a little more
quickly when you pressed the shutter. It allowed the camera to get to
the intended aperture a little faster, since it could guess pretty well
where the diaphragm control pin needed to be and just go there, instead
of having to release that pin a little more slowly while monitoring the
light through the lens to arrive at the intended aperture by successive
approximation.
All this happens
in thousandths of a second, and I've never felt any speed difference on
my FA between AI and AI-s lenses. The difference would be in the lag from
when you pressed the shutter to when the film gets exposed, and it all
seems pretty instantaneous to me.
Today some people
think that AI-s lenses are required in order to get shutter-preferred
(S) and program (P) modes on cameras like the FA. Nikon salespeople tried
to suggest this casually as a ploy to get people to replace their AI lenses
with new AI-s ones, and this myth still exists today.
Baloney. All AI,
AI-s and AI-converted lenses work fine on the FA and similar manual focus
cameras from the 1980s. Ignore me, see your camera instruction book. They
all, to this very day, have detailed charts that explain exactly which
features work with which lenses on your camera. Yes, you can get full
program mode on the FA with a lens from 1959 that has been AI converted,
even though you won't have matrix metering due to the conversion.
The sales brochures
always choose to ignore telling you which features you lose with certain
lenses (like the fact that new AF-S lenses can't autofocus on many popular
cameras like the 8008), however the actual manuals are always honest.
All AI-s lenses are
also AI lenses.
All AF, AF-I and
AF-S lenses are also AI-s.
All AI-s lenses fit
on every Nikon SLR camera, including AF cameras. Some of the cheaper AF
cameras will not meter with these manual focus lenses. Also AF cameras
don't do much with manual focus lenses. See your camera's instruction
See more about use
on AF cameras
AF (Autofocus): 1986&&&&&
Nikon's traditional AF lenses
are focused with a mechanical coupling between camera and lens. There is a screwdriver thing
that pokes out of the camera like the Alien and couples with the slotted
rotating coupling shown below. It rotates to move the lens in and out
for focusing. Today it's primitive compared to the Canon AF system, however
back in the 1980s it allowed Nikon to retain compatibility with the manual
focus lenses.
3.) The slotted screw in the middle of this photo is turned by an AF camera
to focus the lens mechanically
All AF lenses are
AI-s, and work great on manual focus cameras. You'll need to install a
meter coupling prong for use on pre-AI cameras.
Calibrations&&&&&
Manual focus lens'
diaphragms are usually adjusted correctly at the factory and usually more
than accurate enough for life. Only if you have had the lens serviced
are you ever likely to see a problem. The aperture you select on the ring
is usually the aperture you get.
AF cameras control
the aperture by varying the precise position of the spring-loaded automatic
diaphragm pin that pops out of the back of the lens. The correlation between
this pin's position and the opening of the diaphragm also needs
to be adjusted correctly. This is a separate adjustment from the the correlation
between the aperture ring and diaphragm noted above. Any slight variation
in this internal adjustment will vary the exposures you get with that
lens. Therefore, some lenses may give slightly different exposures than
others. This is a limitation of the Nikon AF system with which Nikon is
stuck because they base their AF system on compatibility with manual lenses.
Canon controls all this electronically.
I say &stuck&
because the mechanical tolerances are quite tight and can lead to a third
stop variation here and there.
You can try looking
at this yourself. Look through the lens on an AF camera. There ought not
be any aperture blades visible. Now go to M or A modes and select different
apertures. Press the DOF button on a modern AF camera and see what happens.
When you set the maximum aperture of the lens you ought not see any blade
motion. At the first 1/3 stop down setting you ought to see a little bit
of blade motion. At the next 2/3 stop down you ought to see twice as much.
For instance, with
an f/2.8 lens set at f/2.8 you should see no motion of the diaphragm when
set to f/2.8 on the camera. Set the camera to f/3.2 and you ought to see
them move a little bit when pressing the DOF button. Now set f/3.5 on
the camera and you should see twice as much motion.
If you see a lot
of motion, even at the lens' maximum aperture, you may tend towards underexposure.
If you see no motion
unless the camera is set to a couple of third stops down from maximum
you may tend towards overexposure.
Unless you are a
camera designer don't fret over this. A far better way to test this is
to go photograph on
slide film with two or more lenses you wish to compare.
The diaphragm ought to be in the same place when set to the same aperture on the lens, or on the camera.
Many zooms move the
diaphragm while you zoom. It is often normal to see a bit of diaphragm
even when set to maximum aperture at some ends of the zoom range.
AI-P: 1988 &&&&&
This was a kludge
invented around 1988 to allow Nikon to milk a little more life out of
some of its manual focus telephoto lenses before it could develop AF supertelephotos.
In 1988 the longest AF lens Nikon made was a 300mm f/2.8.
P lenses are manual
focus AI-s lenses that have had the electronic contacts of an AF lens
added to them.
There are only a
few of these: the 500mm f/4 P from 1988, the 1200 - 1700 mm f/5.6-8.0
P ED and the new .
They allow Matrix
metering and I believe the addition of all the automatic exposure modes
on AF cameras.
Again, these are
manual focus lenses that are unique in their ability to take advantage
of exposure and metering modes usually reserved only for AF lenses on
AF cameras. You still have to focus them by hand.
Nikon also, until
about 1970, used letters on the front of a lens to delineate how many
elements it had. The &P& stood for the Greek Penta, or five, elements.
&Q& was quad (four) and etc.
Some people kludge older lenses to imitate P lenses by
AF-n (AF-new cosmetics): 1990&&&&&
This is just a way
to distinguish between older and newer versions of some of the earliest
AF lenses.
The very first AF
lenses of the mid-1980s had thin, hard manual focus rings that everyone
hated. Nikon presumed no one would ever touch them, so why bother to make
them big and grippable when that would just make them get in the way when
the AF motor rotated them?
It turned out that
photographers preferred conventional wide, rubberized focus rings.
Therefore AF-n was
often used to delineate the difference between an earlier lens with no
real manual focus ring (AF) and a version from the late 1980s with a rubber
focus ring that felt like one from a manual focus lens (AF-n).
Even though all of
today's AF lenses are certainly newer than the AF-n from the late 1980s,
the designation isn't used, unless a major redesign happens. I think the
only AF-D lens that has been updated recently is the 28mm f/2.8D AF, which
around 1998 was updated from the original old Series E design of 5 elements
to a modern 6 element design.
&D Type& (Distance Information): 1992&&&&&
&D& means these lenses
let the camera know the distance at which the lens is focused. All lenses introduced since 1992 have been &D.&
This can help the camera set flash exposure more accurately if the subject occupies only a small part of the frame, or if you're shooting into
mirrors or very light or dark subjects. With non-D lenses the camera is more likely to get tricked into the wrong exposure in these odd cases.
On digital SLRs introduced since about 2010, they can often correct lens distortion, but only with D lenses.
If you are buying used lenses on a budget you can get the earlier
non-D versions cheaper, and if you are considering updating a non-D lens to D, don't bother unless you shoot a lot of .
In fact, the instruction
manual of the 105mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor cautions that the D feature
of the lens can lead to the WRONG EXPOSURE unless you keep your flashes
at the same distance from the subject as the film, which is a real obstacle
to creativity.
There are a couple
of ways to signify a &D& lens: Nikon usually marks its lenses
as &50mm f/1.4D AF& as opposed to &50mm f/1.4 AF-D,&
but it all means the same thing.
AF-D lenses are
AF and AI-s, and work great on manual focus cameras. You'll need to have
a coupling prong added for use with the meter on ancient pre-AI cameras.
The D feature has no direct relation to autofocus speed, however as Nikon introduced newer D versions of existing lenses they sometimes sped up the autofocus speed, too. The Nikon
i the D version focuses several times faster than the earlier one. The speed comes from a change in mechanical gea not the D feature itself.
Focusing speed has
nothing to do with whether or not a lens is D. Of course newer lenses
are D and newer lenses tend to focus more quickly, but the focus speed
is determined by the gearing between the AF coupler and the focus ring,
not the D feature alone.
All the newest AF lenses, especially every ,
and especially , are also D. Nikon doesn't bother to mark it anymore on the newest models.
AF-I (AF-Internal Motor): 1992&&&&&
These add an internal
motor to focus the lens. There is no mechanical AF connection between
camera and lens, it's done electronically.
Nikon introduced
these in their super-telephotos in the early 1990s, which is the only
sort of lenses you'll find as AF-I.
All Canon AF lenses
have been this way, even the cheap ones, all along.
Not all Nikon AF
cameras can autofocus with these lenses, make sure to investigate if you
are buying an AF-I lens. AF-I lenses are usually $10,000 super-teles,
so Nikon rightfully didn't go to the expense of adding this ability to
the low-end cameras that would not be likely to be used with these lenses.
In other words, why add $10 to the cost of every N60 when none of them
would likely to be used on a 600mm f/4?
AF-I introduced a
sloppy A/M, or automatic switching between AF and manual focus operation.
It' you have to keep your finger on the AF button (usually
the shutter on the camera) while you grab the focus ring and it does eventually
klunk over to manual focus. Nice try, but still years behind Canon's system
introduced years ago. Nikon's AF-S lenses are much better this way.
The 300/2.8 and 600/4
AF-I lenses are not very fast. They sort of grind while focusing. The
400/2.8 AF-I is newer and much better. The 400/2.8 AF-I motor is super
fast and very quiet, with just a hint of a very high-pitched whine that
sounds like an AF-S lens. The 400/2.8 AF-I is as fast as the AF-S version,
but the A/M switching is still primitive.
AF-I lenses usually
offer several very nice focus hold buttons on the lens itself. The AF-I
lenses are built like the tanks you should expect, unlike the plasticy
AF-S lenses.
All AF-I lenses are
AF and AI-s, and probably AF-D. They work great on manual focus cameras,
too, giving you all features. You may need to have a coupling prong installed
for pre-AI cameras.
I have measured that
AF-I lenses draw the same amount of battery power from an F100 as do ordinary
AF lenses.
Chipped Lenses: 1990s &&&&
Nikon's best AF cameras have always worked with manual focus lenses. The autofocus F4 of 1988 gave full matrix metering automatically, and other cameras like the F5, F100 and N90 worked, but only with basic metering. (See
for exactly what works with what.)
Again, since 2004,
Nikon's better digital and film cameras now work great with manual focus lenses. The best ones,
like the D3X, D300, D700, D3,
D200 and D3, give full EXIF data and color matrix metering if you'll
go into a menu and enter the lens' focal length and maximum aperture. If you do this, they work great in manual and A exposure modes, but not Program or S modes.
Cheaper and older AF film and digital cameras wouldn't meter at all with manual focus lenses. They required the electronics of the newer AF lenses for this.
Enterprising Americans realized that if we add
electronic CPU contacts to
a manual focus lens, that Nikon's cheaper cameras will then have all the data they need to give all the usual metering and exposure modes, even with old manual lenses!
can add a chip to your manual-focus Nikon lenses so they give
full matrix metering and Program, Shutter, Aperture and manual exposure modes on all Nikons, including the cheapest digitals.
AF-S (AF-Silent Wave Motor): 1998 &&&&&
These, and the , are the only lenses that autofocus on the .
These lenses have
magical motors built into them to focus. The main advantage is not speed,
but that most of these lenses allow one to
grab the focus ring and turn it even in the AF mode
to get instant manual focusing, without having to mess with any
The AF-S motor is
driven by the electronics of your camera. All
Nikon digital SLRs work with them. Some of the oldest crappier film cameras can't autofocus with these. All the pro film cameras from the f4 (1988 on) work great with them.
AF-S first came out
only on Nikon's $1,500 lenses, and today AF-S can be found on $99 kit lenses.
All AF-S lenses are
AF-D. They still work great on manual focus cameras, too, unless they are . The
S in AF-S has nothing to do with the s in AI-s. You may
need to have a coupling prong installed for metering on pre-AI cameras.
Watch it, AF-S
lenses are not AI-s and will
not work on manual cameras.
I have measured the
power drain from the F100 camera to focus these lenses. They take the
same power that conventional Nikon AF lenses do.
The cheapest AF-S lenses, like the , don't allow instant manual focus override. Most other AF-s lenses do.
(Gelded): 2000 (won't work on manual focus cameras) &&&&&
G is not a feature, G is a handicap. G stands for .
G lenses are lenses which have been crippled by removing their aperture rings to save cost. This is a classic example of taking away features while making customers think they are getting something new. G eliminates many features with older cameras.
These newest AF lenses
have no aperture ring. This means that they will not work on
manual focus cameras since there is no way to set the aperture. You can
mount them, however
every shot will be made at the smallest aperture
and your metering will be way off (probably about SIX stops underexposed)
since the camera has no way to know what the aperture will be.
This is silly, but you may
get them to work on closed-loop auto exposure cameras like the
mode. Good luck if you want to waste your time on this.
The G series work
fine on all current AF Nikon cameras on which the manual aperture rings
were a pain. On legacy AF cameras like the 8008 and 6006 you may lose
the A and M modes, you'll have to see. I forget if for those modes if
one sets the aperture on the camera or on the lens aperture rings.
All the G series
are also . They are not .
This removal of the
aperture ring is typical migration for Nikon: Nikon tends to make new
lenses work on all cameras for about 15-20 years after they discontinue
the camera. AF cameras have not needed aperture rings for most modes since
they were created about 20 years ago! Of course collectors growl about
this and the brilliant new G lenses won't work at all on the brilliant
, all the other manual and AF
lenses made today still work great on every camera they've made since
1977, and with a small modification to add an aperture prong will work
great (with all meter coupling) even on the original Nikon F from 1959.
This is good, although G lenses are still useless on manual focus cameras.
For an AF camera
to control the aperture on any non-G lens with an aperture ring you
just turn the aperture ring to the minimum setting in orange (usually
f/22) and flick the lock so it stays there, and then everything is done
on the camera body. If for some reason the lens is set otherwise the
camera will flash something like & F - - & to let you know
to set the lens back to the minimum setting.
and E (Electronic Diaphragm): 2008 &&&&&
Nikon finally decided to do what Canon did back in the 1980s, and adopt electronic diaphragm control for Nikon's newest
lenses, the ,
and , as well as 2015's
and some others.
These diaphragms only work correctly on cameras introduced since about 2007; see
for the list.
See also .
Innovations&&&&&
Micro (Macro): 1956 &&&&
&Micro& is simply is Nikon's
designation for their macro lenses.
Nikon has made
microscopes since
1903. They've only made cameras since 1948.
When they made their first
in 1956 for their ,
Nikon cameras had been around for only eight years. Microscopes ruled the roost at Nikon in those days, and today, microscopes are still very important at Nikon.
In the 1950s,
photographs made through microscopes at larger-than-life sizes were called macrophotography. &Macro& meant larger than life size.
Since the new
was intended optimally for use at somewhat smaller than life-size (ideally 1:12 to 1:1), Nikon didn't want to confuse their microscopy customers by calling this a &Macro& lens, since it didn't enlarge.
THerefore, Nikon called it a &Micro& lens, and still does to this day.
manual-focus Micro lenses for SLRs focus
up to half life size. Nikon's autofocus Micro lenses focus all the way up to life
The effective aperture
changes on all AF and MF micro lenses as the magnification is varied.
This requires exposure compensation if used with an external meter in
some cases. See variable aperture lenses below for details.
Reflex (Mirror) Lenses: 1961 &&&&&
Yip, these are telephoto
lenses that do it with mirrors! They are designed based on the same principle
developed by the Russian optical genius Maksutov and used in huge telescopes
for astronomy.
They have a clear
front. They have a big mirror in the back. They also have a little mirror
on the back of the clear front element. Light comes in and bounces off
the big rear mirror and is directed towards the little mirror on the front
element. From there the light is bounced back to the film through a hole
in the big rear mirror. This helps keep down the size.
These are not very
good for photography, but they are very compact, light, focus close and
are inexpensive. They do make great telescopes when used with the
since they do have great definition in their centers
and little chromatic aberration.
They are poor for
photography because they tend to:
1.) Have low contrast
2.) Have uneven illumination. They tend to have a hot spot in the center
of the image and get very dim at the sides
3.) Are slow. Even though they have an f/ of about 5.6, because of the
limited transmission and the mirror in the center blocking some of the
light, they are really about one stop slower than marked. This makes them
too slow to allow the fast shutter speeds that their high magnification
4.) Are too light. They are so light that they are extremely sensitive
to any sort of vibration. Oddly enough, they work better handheld than
on a tripod because you can couple your body mass to the system to damp
the vibration.
5.) Have no diaphragm. It is difficult to focus because it is so slow,
and then there is no added depth of field to help you out because there
is no stopping down.
6.) Have awful . The out-of focus
highlights are very distracting donuts of light.
Aperture Zoom and Micro lenses: 1961 &&&&&
If a zoom lens lists
a range of apertures, for instance a
lens, then the maximum
aperture varies continuously as you zoom. This is done to reduce size,
weight and cost. Fixed-aperture zoom lenses are heavier and cost more
The effective aperture
of the Micro lenses also vary as you focus closely and change magnification.
On AF cameras the
computer figures all these changing f/stops by magic as you zoom. Whatever
the camera says is automatically set correctly on the lens, regardless
of zoom or macro setting. This causes no problem except that you can't
get some larger apertures at some lens settings.
On manual focus cameras
using external meters you have to guess at the actual aperture when you
are in the middle of the zoom range or at close distances with the micro
There are two colored
index marks from which you read the f/stop on a variable zoom. The colors
are coded to the colors of the focal length markings. You have to guess
when in between the ends of the zoom range.
On Micro lenses the
exposure compensation values for different magnifications are listed in
your manual. I prefer to tape scales onto my lenses instead (see
for a picture of these scales)
This is unimportant
due to TTL metering if you are using the camera's meter or TTL flash.
If you are using
a manual focus camera with an external meter or the A mode of a flash
then you need to pay attention. The AF cameras correct automatically,
the MF cameras do not.
CRC (Close Range Correction): 1967 &&&&&
Range Correction,& means the lens optimizes itself as the distance
changes. This is done with &floating elements& that move in
relationship to others during focusing. This is most needed on macro
and fast wide-angle lenses like the
and 105mm F/2.8 AF-D
Micro. The benefit to this is that it allows wide-angle and macro lenses
to focus closer than they could otherwise while retaining great sharpness.
instance, the
has CRC, while
does not. The
AF version focuses very close, but does not have the sharpness at close
distances, especially in the corners, that the older manual focus lens
does. The AF lens is better in just about every other way, though.
can see this working in the lens if you are observant. In a CRC lens some
of the elements rotate when focusing while others do not. For instance,
most of the AI-s wide angle lenses have CRC and rotate the front elements
while the rear ones do not, even though all the elements are moving forward
and back while focused. The reason some rotate and others don't is that
some run on another set of helical threads while others run on the main
set. In this way the spacing between groups varies as intended by the
lens designer.
4.) This is the
lens. It is
focused at infinity. Fig. 5.) Focused at 0.2m.
how the front element retracts slightly from the rest of the lens. In
this lens the front elements rotate while focusing, while the rear ones
does not mark lenses that have CRC. You have to read the sales literature
or look for yourself.
PC (Perspective
Control): 1968 &&&&&
These are lenses with mechanical
adjustments
mimicking the movements of view cameras.
They are called TS, tilt-shift,
They can keep parallel lines
parallel in buildings or groups of trees while looking up or down.
They also can exaggerate perspective. Without these lenses, parallel
lines will converge if the camera isn't perfectly level.
PC lenses are a pain. They provide only limited manual metering, manual
focus and usually require a tripod.
Nikon has made a 35mm f/2.8
PC, followed by the 28mm f/2.8 PC, for decades. Each of these provides
vertical and horizontal shifts, but no tilts.
Nikon's 85mm f/2.8 PC provides
tilts, to allow enormous depth-of-field.
lens a decade ago. Photoshop
provides much faster correction of converging lines. Today I use the
Photoshop's
for that, in one mouse movement!
Aspherical
Elements: 1968
All conventional
lenses are spherical, meaning that all the curved surfaces are the same
shape as a part of a sphere. Even if the lens is cut into an odd shape
as eyeglasses are, the curvature of the optical surface is still spherical.
Spherical surfaces
are used because that's what's easy to grind. To make any shape other
than flat or spherical requires very expensive custom manufacturing procedures.
Spherical surfaces
are not the optimum shape for lenses. In fact, &spherical aberration&
is the phrase used to describe a lens defect that results when one only
uses a single spherical element.
The ideal shape is
a curve, but not a spherical one. One of the reasons lenses require many
elements is to attempt to simulate the ideal curvature with the clever
use of many easy-to-manufacture spherical surfaces.
There are several
ways to make aspherical lens elements:
Precision Ground
The best and most
expensive way is to grind each one carefully by hand. Nikon calls these
&precision ground& and are found in very expensive and superb
lenses like the ,
There are several
more economical ways to make aspherical elements. They don't perform quite
as well as the hand-ground ones, but for a price affordable by casual
amateurs they can offer performance improvements for the same price as
conventional spherical lenses.
Molded Plastic
One of these ways
is to just mold an aspherical element out of plastic. This is often used
to correct distortion in point-and-shoot camera viewfinders.
Molded Glass
Another less expensive
way is to mold the glass elements in bulk instead of grinding each one
individually. In this way the expense is in making the mold once, and
then the elements are stamped out cheaply. This allows increased, but
not spectacular, performance at a reasonable price for high-volume lenses.
Nikon uses this process in the 18mm f/2.8 AF-D, 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D
and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D. The 28-200 also uses hybrid aspherical elements.
Another clever way
is to glue a thin molded piece of aspherical plastic to a conventional
glass element. This gives the advantage of adding mechanical stability
to the plastic element since it's glued to a glass substrate. This is
also inexpensive and allows some performance improvement at the same time.
Nikon uses this in the 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-D, 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-D
and 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D. The 28-200 also uses molded aspherical elements.
NIC (Nikon Integrated Coating): 1970 &&&&&
SIC (Nikon Super-integrated Coating)&&&&&
Nikon was among the
first to introduce multicoating in 35mm camera lenses with the 1970 release
lens. True to the good old days of Nikon, they just
did it because it made for a better lens, even though it was not very
obvious to the casual observer or at the sales counter. I don't
Nikon promoted it much, if at all.
Just about every
Nikon and other brands of lenses today are multicoated. No one worries
about it anymore. Every Nikon lens that needs it has it. This is standard
today and it rarely is mentioned, except for very cheap lenses that
&multicoated& and may only have one surface multicoated just
to try to claim it.
Multicoating not
only allows a reduction of lens flare and ghosting, but also increases
light transmission. It becomes difficult to design decent lenses with
many groups of elements without multicoating. This is because with many
groups of elements, as we find in most zoom lenses, the light can start
getting lost and bounced around inside the lens without decent coatings.
Multicoating also
allows careful fine-tuning of a lens' color rendition. Lenses can impart
slight color casts to the light that passes through them. Even if lenses
seem to look neutral to our eyes, vivid color films like Velvia actually
amplify color differences. Carefully designed multicoating allows the
lens designer to achieve the color balance he prefers.
You can look into
your lens to see what sort of coating it has if you are really that curious.
Look into your lens.
Look carefully at the reflections in the glass.
An uncoated lens,
only found on disposable cameras today and cameras made before W.W.II,
will show bright white reflected images. You will recognize these reflections
as identical to those you see in windows and in most people's eyeglasses.
A single-coated lens
has reflections that are usually tinted magenta, blue or amber.
A multicoated lens
surface will take on many other colors. Most often you will see green,
but every other color may also be seen, like deep red. The whole point
of multicoating is to eliminate these reflections, so they may be very
dim. If you see a myriad of colors reflected from the different elements
you have a multicoated lens.
Each lens surface
may have different sorts of coatings. Some filters are coated on only
one side just so they can be sold claiming &coated filter,&
just as some discount lenses may have only one multicoated surface so
they can claim &multicoated.&
Unless you are scraping
the bottom of the discount barrel don't worry about this with modern lenses.
They all are coated however they need to be coated.
Here are what the
coatings in some Nikon lenses look like. The magenta color doesn't imply
multicoating (even though it may be), but the green reflections do signify
multicoating.
8.) 600mm f/5.6 AI-s, green coating. Fig 9.) AF 20mm f/2.8, green coating
10.) 200mm f/4 AI, green and red coating. Fig. 11.) AF 28mm f/1.4D, green
and blue coating.
12.) AF 28-85mm, green coating. Fig. 13.) 85mm f/2 AI-s, green coating
(Extra-low Dispersion) Glass: 1975 &&&&&
&Extra-low Dispersion
glass.& Nikon started using this only in their super speed super
teles in the late 1960s. These lenses say &ED& on and have
a gold band around the barrel. All ED lenses say so.
Since only the most
expensive lenses used or needed this glass it acquired a cachet. Therefore
Nikon started using the moniker on cheaper lenses, and today it seems
everything says ED on it. Short and normal lenses have no need of this
it's benefit is reducing secondary chromatic aberration, which
is green/magenta color fringes that used to plague lenses of 300mm and
ED glass is an improvement
over the fluorite used by other makers at the time because it is hard
enough to use for outside elements, unlike the soft fluorite.
ED glass helps eliminate
secondary chromatic aberration (green-magenta color fringes) which is
what previously prevented the design of practical super speed, super sharp
super teles.
Discount brands now
purport to use this glass. Ign they may or may not
use this glass, but there are far more important factors in lens design
than just what sort of glass was used. See the reviews for specific performance
ED glass is less
stable with temperature than conventional glass, and so the focal lengths
of these lenses change slightly with temperature. Therefore there is no
hard infinity focus stop on ED lenses because the point of infinity focus
will change a bit with extremes of temperature.
ED glass also has
a lower index of refraction so it requires more deeply curved elements
for the same focal length.
The whole point of
owning a Nikon is to use these super tele lenses, so don't be a bone head
and waste your time with non-Nikon super telephoto lenses. You will find
that when you go to sell a Nikon super telephoto that you will sell it
for what you paid for it, so it's sort of free. If you have a discount
lens (Tokina, Tamron, Spooginar, Sigma, etc.) you will have to sell it
for far less than you paid, so the discount lenses actually cost MORE
IF (Internal Focusing): 1976 &&&&&
&Internal Focusing.&
In the old days, the entire lens had to move in and out to focus. Telephoto
lenses had to be designed with huge focusing tracks just to let them
focus at all, and they couldn't focus very close because the helicoids
just weren't long enough. The long focal lengths meant that there
were long distances the lens had to move to focus.
Nikon discovered
that one could focus the lens by just moving some elements around
inside the lens barrel.
IF lenses focus closer
and faster than conventional telephoto lenses. IF was a fantastic innovation
for telephoto lenses when Nikon invented it in the 1970s for the manual-focus
super teles. Today, most modern AF zooms, super teles and some macro lenses
use this technique. It helps AF lenses focus quickly because there is
less glass to have to move around.
The optical trick
is that the internal elements
move slightly to
shorten the lens' actual focal length as one focuses closer. This lets these lenses focus very close. It also means that when compared to a traditional lenses that the IF lens will appear to have a slightly shorter focal length than marked at close distances. This discrepancy disappears at infinity.
Focusing): 1988 &&&&&
&Rear Focusing.&
Same as IF, except just the rear element or group moves.
6.) AF 28mm f/1.4 lens focused at infinity. Fig. 7.) Focused at 0.35m.
The rear element retracts as the lens is focused closer.
DC (Defocus Control or
variable ): 1990 &&&
These lenses are
NOT soft focus lenses. They are super sharp.
They are for advanced
users who want to make very subtle variations in the appearance of the
out-of-focus areas. The adjustment does not affect the in-focus part of the image.
This baffles most
the effect is very subtle and only affects the out-of-focus areas.
These lenses do this
by varying the nature of the correction of spherical aberration. This
allows adjusting the , or appearance
of the out-of-focus areas of the image.
for more explanation.
Yes, these lenses
are superb for portraiture. You need still need to provide any soft-focus
or diffusion effects by putting things in front of the lens, since they
are incredibly sharp at the in-focus areas.
VR (Vibration Reduction): 2000 &&&&&
is the same as Canon's IS Image Stabilization. It stabilizes lens and
hand vibration to avoid the need for a tripod.
a very helpful feature for shooting handheld in dim light, as I often
do. I love it. It doesn't cure all or every shot. It greatly increases
the percentage of sharp shots you get at longer shutter speeds handheld.
It doesn't
stop action. It's not for sports, although it does help smooth out slow
you from having to carry a tripod, a huge help. If you use a tripod remember
to turn it OFF, since if you leave it on while on a tripod it will blur
your image!
I'm addicted to VR. See .
DX: 2003 &&&&&
These lenses have small image circles which only can cover the smaller
(16x24mm) frame.
Nano Crystal Coating: 2006 &&&&&
This is a magical new anti-reflection coating which surpasses the multi-layer coating that's been popular since 1970. Nano Crystal coating was invented by Nikon's semiconductor manufacturing division. It uses a layer of zillions of sub-microscopic particles just 10-20 nm (smaller than the wavelengths of light itself) to bend light rays gradually into the glass. This
prevents them from bouncing off at a hard angles as they do ordinarily.
The particles are packed with air between them so the effective index of refraction is less than the index of the particles themselves. They are packed more closely closer to the glass, so that their index of refraction varies gradually. Therefore these coatings are effective regardless of the angle of incidence, and more effective across a broad range of wavelengths because they are not working on the principle of
interference and fractions of wavelengths.
As of 2007, Nikon's camera lenses have only one internal surface with this coating. It's just another letter for Nikon to use to push new lenses on people. It means nothing to photographers all by itself.
A lens' ghost, flare and contrast performance depend on many, many many factors. It depends more on the wisdom of the lens designer than a coating on one surface of one element. The other zillion surfaces have Nikon's traditionally excellent Super Integrated Multicoating (SIC).
Nano Crystal coat is, and will be, especially effective on the inside surface of the first element of
and fisheye lenses, because
it is this surface which begets most ghosts in these lenses. The nano-crystal coating is especially effective here because it is effective regardless of the angle of incidence.
Traditional coatings have a very hard time in ultrawide
lenses because they 1.) depend on their layers' thicknesses being related directly to the wavelengths, and therefore incident angles, of light, and 2.) the ghosts in these lenses happen because light comes in from the top,
is strongly bent by the front element, hits the inside surface of the strongly curved front element on the bottom at some weird angle. These weird angles lead to a lot of ghosts in ultrawide lenses, and traditional coatings are ineffective at these angles.
I wish Nikon offered a retrofit to nano-crystal coat this particular surface in older lenses that need it, like the .
More information on Nano Crystal coat from Nikon in Japan:
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