Nikkor wide primes, AI and none AI - are they good enough to use on a D800

BillN_33

BillN_33

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I have a few Nikkor pre AI and AI wide angle lenses.

Is the glass good enough house on a D800 or is the sensor size too much for them?

I don't have a D800E yet - but may get one and maybe some of the old glass I have, particularly 20mm, 28mm and an old 55mm f1.2 will be of some use and therefore worth keeping.

Anything wider than 35mm I need AF at my age

I used the 55mm f1.2 on my Nikon D300 but being DX I did not give it a fair chance.

What do you think?
 
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ST4 said:
Try it and see, I dont see why not?
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Steve, as I pointed out I don't have a D800E yet - only a DX format body - I can sell my old Nikon gear and buy a good AF wide once I have a D800E

My question is really, has anyone used such on a D800, particularly the D800E - maybe I should search Flickr as there must be an opinion on there.

Thanks
 
freecom2 said:
Because non AI lenses can damage the AI sensing tab mechanism on your DSLR! Only use AI converted/AI lenses with the D800.
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I thought that non AI apart from the odd few, as indicated in the manual, were OK?
 
ST4 said:
Do they? I thought so long as it was an F mount it fitted. Turn off autofocus on the body?
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Gosh, no! They have the same mount, but mounting a non-AI lens on a D800 will damage the AI mechanism. This is nothing to do with autofocus at all.

See this guidance: https://support.nikonusa.com/app/an...en-an-ai-lens,-an-ai-s-lens,-and-non-ai-lens?

a non-Ai Nikkor lens. Note the lack of the Ai coupling ridge, however note that at the rear of the lens, the aperture ring protrudes slightly over the bayonet mount and therefore can damage the Ai lever on Ai cameras
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I use both 35mm f2 AI converted and 28mm 2.8 AIS on my D800 both with superb results. I don't have any non AI lenses but would check the Nikon compatibility chart to confirm if you can mount them
 
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BillN_33 said:
I thought that non AI apart from the odd few, as indicated in the manual, were OK?
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Any non-AI lens that has not been converted to have an AI coupling ridge (the other features are 2 sets of aperture numbers on the aperture ring, and usually holes in the metal "rabbit ears" rather than solid rabbit ears) will damage. Many film cameras had a feature where you could move the AI sensing mechanism tab out of the way so non-AI lenses could be mounted, but this is not a common feature in DSLRs.

Incidentally, the low end Nikon DSLRs can have non-AI lenses mounted, because they don't have any AI sensing mechanism at all.

Regarding your query on sensor size - the D800 sensor is the same size as the area exposed on film. Whether or not the sensor is likely to show deficiencies in lens design comes down to technique, the subject, exposure and the individual lens.
 
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I've used both the tiny Nikkor ai 20/4 and the somewhat larger 24/2.8 on Canon full frame (up to 20mp) and both have proved excellent. I appreciate that the D800 will be somewhat more demanding at 36mp though! If you can find an ai/ais 28/2 then that is also a cracker :)
 
manualfocus-g said:
I've used both the tiny Nikkor ai 20/4 and the somewhat larger 24/2.8 on Canon full frame (up to 20mp) and both have proved excellent. I appreciate that the D800 will be somewhat more demanding at 36mp though! If you can find an ai/ais 28/2 then that is also a cracker :)
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Thanks

If they work on the D800E and produce good results it is probably worth having them converted - it is not a difficult job and I believe if you are handy at DIY it is relatively easy to do it your self
worth it for a good 20/28/35mm as they are not worth much on Ebay

I have used them a very few times on a G1 m4/3 that I have with a cheap HK adapter but with the M43 crop factor they are of course not wide and the sensor is small
 
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BillN_33 said:
I have a few Nikkor pre AI and AI wide angle lenses.

Is the glass good enough house on a D800 or is the sensor size too much for them?
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The sensor size is 35mm... just like the film size they were designed for. How can it be too much for them?
 
You read a lot of guff on the internet about how the D800's huge pixel count requires only the best lenses (plus a sturdy tripod, mirror lockup, and so on). Well, yes, that's the way to get the best out of any camera. But the pixel density of the D800 is considerably less than that of most modern consumer DSLRs, so I reckon the advice to treat the D800 differently probably needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt.
 
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