Can you use Nikon 'digital' lenses on a film back?

P

photonumpty

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Mat
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Hi I appreciate its probably a stupid question...

My niece is currently studying for a photographic degree and a little Nikon D70 that she happily clicks away at. For Christmas she got a couple of small lenses such as the Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 and all is well.

There is now a whole section of the course dedicated to film and she has birthday only a couple of weeks away so the family is in the market for a film camera.

I want to stay with nikon as she is already familiar with the layout and the shape (I'm guessing that new digital cameras are based on older film designs) but am having a hard time deciding what to go for.

I saw in a recent thread that www.carmarthencameras.co.uk have a Nikon F65 with a 28-80 lens going for 135 quid, which sounds good enough to me.... except that it might all end up in a drawer as soon as the course module ends. They also do used F601, F65 & F801 bodies for about 50 quid but then I would need to find compatible lenses...

Hence the initial question, can she use her Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 on film back?

If anybody has any other insights or things to consider then plese pile in!

Cheers,
PN
 
Hi Mat - sure she can - they are all F-mount and so should be just fine. She may lose auto focus/aperture or both but they will still fit on, focus and take pics.

Arthur
 
Cheers for that Arthur, thats exactly what I needed to know and just found the LCE has an F65 and lens for 70 quid, which might even leave me enough change for a pint of the brown stuff!

Thanks again.

Mat
 
Ahhh your sneaky post jumped in whilst I was writing the last reply.
Cheers Jon.. I hadn't thought of consulting The Rockwell... I may well take a print and give it to her in a card (what fun!) so she can dabble all she likes.

Cheers for the help.

mat
 
the 50mm af will auto focus and meter on an f65. its not actually a digital lens ,,,but one that can be used on either a digital or film camera..
 
AFAIK, all Nikon AF lenses (apart from one or two that only fit the F3-AF) will fit and AF on an F65. There will be a fair amount of vignetting if she uses a Dx lens though. TBH, an F80 (if you can find one at the right price) may be a better partner for the D70 - they're very similar in size and feel and although the F65 is a great little camera, it does feel rather plasticky compared to the F80.
 
Bugger!
I jumped the gun and put an order in with LCE for a F65 before I read Nod's post... oh well maybe when she leaves this one in a pub i can have a look for F80.

Thank you for the info on the 50mm Donutagain. I hadn't realised that any of the big companies made lenses that would happily work on both digital and film cameras. They are pretty good at squeezing cash out of us at most opportunities (is it just me that shakes my head at why you can get IS in a 100 quid point and shoot but not in a 700 quid DSLR?) and the cynic in me never considered that there would be an act of largess involved!

Who would have guessed?

Thanks to everyone for their help. the deed is done.

mat
 
Don't worry about it! As I said in my earlier post, the F65 is a great little camera and I shall be using mine again as soon as I find my stash of spare batteries for it!
 
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