I realize there is a few lenses I haven't talked about which could create confusion (isn't that the theme with this lens mount). There is a decent reason why I didn't : those lenses are either rare, or super expensive and generally not something you would use without being perfectly knowledgeable about thing that you're buying. But for the sake of being as correct as possble, let's list them here: First, there is the oldest "special" lenses : the AF-I lenses. "I" stands for "internal" meaning the focus motor is inside the lens. I believe those were the first lenses to have internal focus motors in Nikon world. They are extremely rare and expensive, as internal motors were reserved only for the lenses using the largest glass elements (read long and fast telephoto lenses). Those lenses were using aperture rings and were fully compatible with AI ring equipped film cameras. They effectively work with AF-D lenses with the focus motor inside the lens. List is as follows : - Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D (released 1992) - Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 400mm f/2.8D (released 1994) - Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 500mm f/4D (released 1994) - Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 600mm f/4D (released 1992) There was a few AF-S D type lenses that released with aperture rings and with internal focusing. Just like the AF-I lenses, those lenses are generally pretty rare and the G type is much more common. Most of them are replacements of the AF-I lenses, with the addition of a set of "holy trinity" zooms. List of the lenses that were added is as follows : - Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D - Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D - Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8D - Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D There were other, meant to replace the AF-I, but as I said, I do not expect anyone buyign those lenses not to be aware of what they're buying considering their price and rarity. Next there is the E-type lenses, which are regular "AF-S" lenses, but not G-Type. "G" means that the aperture is mechanically controlled by the camera's aperture lever. "E" type lenses have an electronic control of the aperture inside the lens. Some 3rd party lenses (like the Sigma 100-400 lens I showed in this video) are technically compliant with the "E type" standard. They work like any other AF-S G type lens, however it means that you loose some functionality if you try to adapt them. You can still focus them manually (unlike AF-P lenses), but you cannot change the aperture manually with a G-type adapter. There is a few of them, and it is worth citing every lens that is "E type". The list is as follows: - AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.4E - AF-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.4E - AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E - AF-S Nikkor 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E fisheye - AF-S Nikkor 16-80mm f/2.8-4E DX - AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E - AF-S Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8E - AF-S Nikkor 200-500 f/5.6E - AF-S Nikkor 400mm f/2.8E - AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF - AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/4E - AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4E - AF-S Nikkor 800mm f/5.6E There is a couple of AF-P E type lenses which I don't think is worth talking about, since you will not use those lenses on anything other than an AF-P compatible camera, which is also E type lenses compatible. Most Nikon DSLRs are compatibl with E-typ lenses, however not all of them. The D1 series, D2 series, D40/X/60, D50, D70 series, D80, D90, D100, D200 and D3000 are not compatible with E type lenses, will wtill work with them. The VR capabilities will be maintined, as well as the autofocus but you will be forec to shoot wide open all the time.
The Nikon F mount is a testament to good engineering on the part of Nikon. It was first introduced in 1959 and remained unchanged, so far as the geometry of the mount is concerned to date The lenses though have changed through the years to reflect advancement in camera functionality. The manual focus lenses such as the P, AI, AIS can all be mounted on a Nikon F cameras with various limits on functionality. Then you have the AF-D ( these have aperture ring ), AFS-D ( Silent Wave motor and aperture ring ), AFS-G ( Silent Wave motor but no aperture ring ), and then the AF-P which are the latest lenses. The Pro line of cameras from Nikon D200, D300, D300s, D700, D800, D810, D850, D3, D3s, D4, D4s D5 and D6 all have the ability to work even with Nikon legacy lenses without the microichip. You just choose the type of lens from a list in the menu, and the camera even does Matrix Metering with these lenses in aperture priority mode. I can even use my AFS-G lenses with my Nikon F4 ( film camera ) but only in Program and Shutter proiority modes. The amateur line of Nikon cameras do not work with legacy lenses, as far as I know. The other point to note is that Nikon F80, F100, F5 can all use much later lenses with Vibration Reduction activated.
You're not always chosing the lens and maxium aperture in a menu though. On my Nikon D1X, there is absolutely no menu to choose lenses from, it works exactly like film cameras. Ultimately, the camera doesn't even know what lens is on the camera to function properly when it comes to metering. The camera just over expose the images by whatever the AI ring tells it to over expose by, compared to the absolute widest aperture on the lens. Selecting the lens in the menu is just a matter of comfort, having the right focal length and aperture value in your EXIF data when you transfer them to the computer later on. For the AFS-D lenses (which have internal focus motors, but also have apeture rings), I'm going to be honest I have hardly eve seen one. I think I saw a 300mm f/4 lens that had this configuration but honestly they're so rare I didn't feel like mentionning them in the video (that is already long enough. Same goes for the E lenses). In the end, it's just a matter of lttle additional compatibility with older film cameras, but otherwise it's pretty much the same as other AF-S lenses (as you just close the lens all the way down and let the camera control the aperture electronically anyay)
if by "manual focus lenses" you mean all the AI stuff (so basically we're talking about cameras with the AI ring), there's a list at 32:27 I didn't include any film camera in this video as I have very little practice with those, and didn't take the time to really try to understand the whole lineup (there is also a stupid amount of film bodies in the F mount)
I think in case of Nikon autofocus lenses, you have to understand their model's suffixes and prefixes separately as they are independent of each other and Nikon and third party manufacturers were implement them independently as they see fit. For lenses from Nikon themselves, they have prefixes "AF, AF-I, AF-S, and AF-P", and they have suffixes "none, D, G, and E", and those are not really linked. The AF lenses are lenses that use autofocus motor in camera which have screwdriver shape, not compatible with low end DSLR body since D40. The AF-I lenses are lenses with autofocus motor in the lens itself, but it's an traditional motor similar to early Canon EF lenses that doesn't have USM (remember that all Canon EF lenses have internal autofocus motor but there are some that didn't use USM or STM but old style motor which mostly called AFD motor which have loud noise and slower speed in similar fashion as other brand that use camera's motor for autofocus, think of Canon EF 50mm f/1.8), only introduced in their super-telephoto lenses back in early 90s due to their normal AF lenses in that ranges are very slow at autofocus it's not really practical for the use cases; on the other hand, they're compatible with low-end DSLR that doesn't have autofocus motor in camera but they're not doing autofocus with Nikon Fx01 series of model. The AF-S lenses are lenses with "Silent Wave Motor" in the lens, equivalent to Canon "Ultrasonic Motor (USM)", known for quieter operation, have the same compatibility as AF-I; and no, they're not meant for DSLR only, they're successor to AF-I and later replace all the normal AF. The AF-P lenses are lenses with Pulse Motor, equivalent to Canon Stepper Motor (STM), for lower noise and faster focus in low grade lenses, they replace somewhat crappy USM and SWM that existed in low end lenses to make it more capable to take video, should act the same as AF-I and AF-S in term of compatibility if not consider model suffixes. AF lenses without character suffix are autofocus lenses that make for early autofocus camera in the day of F501, F401(s/x), F601, F801(s), and F4; they're compatible with any camera with electrical contacts or AI ring, they have the same aperture control ring as older AI/AI-S lenses, and they can't autofocus on any camera without autofocus motor, also they're not capable to take advantage of 3D Matrix Metering and 3D Multi Sensor Balance Fill Flash and can only meter in normal matrix mode when you use matrix metering, any pixel RGB metering in camera spec will not have any meaning when you use these lenses (or so I thought, I still don't understand how they work on newer camera, they seem to working just fine on those newer camera though). D lenses are the same as the lenses without character suffix, but it indicated that the lenses can send distance information for the 3D Matrix metering and 3D Multi Sensor Balance Fill Flash and anything that derive from it, also have backward compatibility, these are lenses that compatible with most Nikon SLR camera. G lenses are the same as D lenses but have aperture ring removed, it got introduced in an era where most Nikon SLR available new in the market at the time can control aperture from camera, so it lost compatibility for using manual or aperture priority mode in any camera that must have aperture value set via aperture ring only such as MF cameras, F4, Fx01 series, and F90 series. E lenses are the same as G so it's also D, but they use electrical control on aperture diaphragm instead of lever in the mount, they are compatible with only Nikon D3, D300 and newer model, and can only shoot wide open in older camera. Plain AF lenses can be either vanilla, D, or G. That Tokina you bring up is one example of AF lens that is a G. Nikon also used to make lenses like that such as Nikon AF 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G that is a kit lens sold with their cheap 35mm SLR in early 2000s such as F55, F65, F75; it's not have internal motor and must rely on camera motor which mean it will not autofocus with low end DSLR body but it doesn't have aperture ring and can only set aperture from camera. As for AF-I lenses there are only D lenses exist in this group. For AF-S lenses they can also be either D, G or E as well (there is no AF-S lenses with no character suffix because SWM got introduced after 3D Matrix metering in F90), the earliest AF-S are D and market as high end lenses such as AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED, AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED, AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8D IF-ED, and AF-S 300mm f/4D IF-ED, Nikon seem to make AF-S into G lenses only after millenium turned because at that time they have the entire lineup of 35mm SLR into new design that derive from F5 which doesn't need aperture ring anymore, after that they make AF-S into E lenses in mid 2010s as a higher grade lenses with higher grade motor than the AF-P lineup and both are made to be more suitable for video shooting and with somewhat smaller size than the model they replaced.
Great video. Although I think there is a mistake when talking about AF-P lens compatibility. The early Dx and Dx00 are not compatible with AF-P lenses based on my own research. But great video nonetheless!
Did I say otehrwise? I'm pretty sure I didn't. AF-P lenses have a limited compatibility with cameras released around 2007/2008 : my 2007' D300 and 2008' D700 both have "limited compatibility" (it works, but the focus is reset everytime you turn on and off the camera). I think "full" AF-P compatibility started with the D600
Yes, the D850 is fully compatible with AF-D lenses. In fact it's fully compatible with every F mount lens except Pre-AI lenses since it has both the AI ring and the internal focus motor. It's even fully compatible with the AF-P lenses And no, there is no special setting to activate it, the camera recognizes AF-D lenses and activates the focus motor accordingly
The problem with nikon is purely economic. By 3rd parties creating F to Zed adapters and nikons own adapter. Makes it harder for people wanting to get into the world of dslrs that much more exspensive. The price for lenses of any era of glass will be exspensive. As long as the lens dosent get dogged it will retain a huge amount of value. Which is bad for any consumer of older tech. Great for z9 owners bad for beginners.
I realize there is a few lenses I haven't talked about which could create confusion (isn't that the theme with this lens mount). There is a decent reason why I didn't : those lenses are either rare, or super expensive and generally not something you would use without being perfectly knowledgeable about thing that you're buying. But for the sake of being as correct as possble, let's list them here:
First, there is the oldest "special" lenses : the AF-I lenses. "I" stands for "internal" meaning the focus motor is inside the lens. I believe those were the first lenses to have internal focus motors in Nikon world. They are extremely rare and expensive, as internal motors were reserved only for the lenses using the largest glass elements (read long and fast telephoto lenses). Those lenses were using aperture rings and were fully compatible with AI ring equipped film cameras. They effectively work with AF-D lenses with the focus motor inside the lens. List is as follows :
- Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 300mm f/2.8D (released 1992)
- Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 400mm f/2.8D (released 1994)
- Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 500mm f/4D (released 1994)
- Nikon ED AF-I Nikkor 600mm f/4D (released 1992)
There was a few AF-S D type lenses that released with aperture rings and with internal focusing. Just like the AF-I lenses, those lenses are generally pretty rare and the G type is much more common. Most of them are replacements of the AF-I lenses, with the addition of a set of "holy trinity" zooms. List of the lenses that were added is as follows :
- Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D
- Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D
- Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8D
- Nikon ED AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D
There were other, meant to replace the AF-I, but as I said, I do not expect anyone buyign those lenses not to be aware of what they're buying considering their price and rarity.
Next there is the E-type lenses, which are regular "AF-S" lenses, but not G-Type. "G" means that the aperture is mechanically controlled by the camera's aperture lever. "E" type lenses have an electronic control of the aperture inside the lens. Some 3rd party lenses (like the Sigma 100-400 lens I showed in this video) are technically compliant with the "E type" standard.
They work like any other AF-S G type lens, however it means that you loose some functionality if you try to adapt them. You can still focus them manually (unlike AF-P lenses), but you cannot change the aperture manually with a G-type adapter. There is a few of them, and it is worth citing every lens that is "E type". The list is as follows:
- AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.4E
- AF-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.4E
- AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E
- AF-S Nikkor 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E fisheye
- AF-S Nikkor 16-80mm f/2.8-4E DX
- AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E
- AF-S Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8E
- AF-S Nikkor 200-500 f/5.6E
- AF-S Nikkor 400mm f/2.8E
- AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF
- AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/4E
- AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4E
- AF-S Nikkor 800mm f/5.6E
There is a couple of AF-P E type lenses which I don't think is worth talking about, since you will not use those lenses on anything other than an AF-P compatible camera, which is also E type lenses compatible.
Most Nikon DSLRs are compatibl with E-typ lenses, however not all of them. The D1 series, D2 series, D40/X/60, D50, D70 series, D80, D90, D100, D200 and D3000 are not compatible with E type lenses, will wtill work with them. The VR capabilities will be maintined, as well as the autofocus but you will be forec to shoot wide open all the time.
The Nikon F mount is a testament to good engineering on the part of Nikon. It was first introduced in 1959 and remained unchanged, so far as the geometry of the mount is concerned to date The lenses though have changed through the years to reflect advancement in camera functionality. The manual focus lenses such as the P, AI, AIS can all be mounted on a Nikon F cameras with various limits on functionality. Then you have the AF-D ( these have aperture ring ), AFS-D ( Silent Wave motor and aperture ring ), AFS-G ( Silent Wave motor but no aperture ring ), and then the AF-P which are the latest lenses. The Pro line of cameras from Nikon D200, D300, D300s, D700, D800, D810, D850, D3, D3s, D4, D4s D5 and D6 all have the ability to work even with Nikon legacy lenses without the microichip. You just choose the type of lens from a list in the menu, and the camera even does Matrix Metering with these lenses in aperture priority mode. I can even use my AFS-G lenses with my Nikon F4 ( film camera ) but only in Program and Shutter proiority modes. The amateur line of Nikon cameras do not work with legacy lenses, as far as I know. The other point to note is that Nikon F80, F100, F5 can all use much later lenses with Vibration Reduction activated.
You're not always chosing the lens and maxium aperture in a menu though.
On my Nikon D1X, there is absolutely no menu to choose lenses from, it works exactly like film cameras. Ultimately, the camera doesn't even know what lens is on the camera to function properly when it comes to metering. The camera just over expose the images by whatever the AI ring tells it to over expose by, compared to the absolute widest aperture on the lens. Selecting the lens in the menu is just a matter of comfort, having the right focal length and aperture value in your EXIF data when you transfer them to the computer later on.
For the AFS-D lenses (which have internal focus motors, but also have apeture rings), I'm going to be honest I have hardly eve seen one. I think I saw a 300mm f/4 lens that had this configuration but honestly they're so rare I didn't feel like mentionning them in the video (that is already long enough. Same goes for the E lenses). In the end, it's just a matter of lttle additional compatibility with older film cameras, but otherwise it's pretty much the same as other AF-S lenses (as you just close the lens all the way down and let the camera control the aperture electronically anyay)
@@uncertainrelease I think I did list the cameras that do accept manual focus lenses.
if by "manual focus lenses" you mean all the AI stuff (so basically we're talking about cameras with the AI ring), there's a list at 32:27
I didn't include any film camera in this video as I have very little practice with those, and didn't take the time to really try to understand the whole lineup (there is also a stupid amount of film bodies in the F mount)
I think in case of Nikon autofocus lenses, you have to understand their model's suffixes and prefixes separately as they are independent of each other and Nikon and third party manufacturers were implement them independently as they see fit. For lenses from Nikon themselves, they have prefixes "AF, AF-I, AF-S, and AF-P", and they have suffixes "none, D, G, and E", and those are not really linked.
The AF lenses are lenses that use autofocus motor in camera which have screwdriver shape, not compatible with low end DSLR body since D40.
The AF-I lenses are lenses with autofocus motor in the lens itself, but it's an traditional motor similar to early Canon EF lenses that doesn't have USM (remember that all Canon EF lenses have internal autofocus motor but there are some that didn't use USM or STM but old style motor which mostly called AFD motor which have loud noise and slower speed in similar fashion as other brand that use camera's motor for autofocus, think of Canon EF 50mm f/1.8), only introduced in their super-telephoto lenses back in early 90s due to their normal AF lenses in that ranges are very slow at autofocus it's not really practical for the use cases; on the other hand, they're compatible with low-end DSLR that doesn't have autofocus motor in camera but they're not doing autofocus with Nikon Fx01 series of model.
The AF-S lenses are lenses with "Silent Wave Motor" in the lens, equivalent to Canon "Ultrasonic Motor (USM)", known for quieter operation, have the same compatibility as AF-I; and no, they're not meant for DSLR only, they're successor to AF-I and later replace all the normal AF.
The AF-P lenses are lenses with Pulse Motor, equivalent to Canon Stepper Motor (STM), for lower noise and faster focus in low grade lenses, they replace somewhat crappy USM and SWM that existed in low end lenses to make it more capable to take video, should act the same as AF-I and AF-S in term of compatibility if not consider model suffixes.
AF lenses without character suffix are autofocus lenses that make for early autofocus camera in the day of F501, F401(s/x), F601, F801(s), and F4; they're compatible with any camera with electrical contacts or AI ring, they have the same aperture control ring as older AI/AI-S lenses, and they can't autofocus on any camera without autofocus motor, also they're not capable to take advantage of 3D Matrix Metering and 3D Multi Sensor Balance Fill Flash and can only meter in normal matrix mode when you use matrix metering, any pixel RGB metering in camera spec will not have any meaning when you use these lenses (or so I thought, I still don't understand how they work on newer camera, they seem to working just fine on those newer camera though).
D lenses are the same as the lenses without character suffix, but it indicated that the lenses can send distance information for the 3D Matrix metering and 3D Multi Sensor Balance Fill Flash and anything that derive from it, also have backward compatibility, these are lenses that compatible with most Nikon SLR camera.
G lenses are the same as D lenses but have aperture ring removed, it got introduced in an era where most Nikon SLR available new in the market at the time can control aperture from camera, so it lost compatibility for using manual or aperture priority mode in any camera that must have aperture value set via aperture ring only such as MF cameras, F4, Fx01 series, and F90 series.
E lenses are the same as G so it's also D, but they use electrical control on aperture diaphragm instead of lever in the mount, they are compatible with only Nikon D3, D300 and newer model, and can only shoot wide open in older camera.
Plain AF lenses can be either vanilla, D, or G. That Tokina you bring up is one example of AF lens that is a G. Nikon also used to make lenses like that such as Nikon AF 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G that is a kit lens sold with their cheap 35mm SLR in early 2000s such as F55, F65, F75; it's not have internal motor and must rely on camera motor which mean it will not autofocus with low end DSLR body but it doesn't have aperture ring and can only set aperture from camera. As for AF-I lenses there are only D lenses exist in this group. For AF-S lenses they can also be either D, G or E as well (there is no AF-S lenses with no character suffix because SWM got introduced after 3D Matrix metering in F90), the earliest AF-S are D and market as high end lenses such as AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED, AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED, AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8D IF-ED, and AF-S 300mm f/4D IF-ED, Nikon seem to make AF-S into G lenses only after millenium turned because at that time they have the entire lineup of 35mm SLR into new design that derive from F5 which doesn't need aperture ring anymore, after that they make AF-S into E lenses in mid 2010s as a higher grade lenses with higher grade motor than the AF-P lineup and both are made to be more suitable for video shooting and with somewhat smaller size than the model they replaced.
Nice discussion about the F mount, and the part about adapting to Mirrorless was very interesting.
Thank you! Hopefully the terrible sound didn't turn you off 😅
this dude just casually blows my mind when he pulls out the same ancient lens i got from a dead guy a few weeks ago
Great video. Although I think there is a mistake when talking about AF-P lens compatibility. The early Dx and Dx00 are not compatible with AF-P lenses based on my own research. But great video nonetheless!
Did I say otehrwise? I'm pretty sure I didn't.
AF-P lenses have a limited compatibility with cameras released around 2007/2008 : my 2007' D300 and 2008' D700 both have "limited compatibility" (it works, but the focus is reset everytime you turn on and off the camera).
I think "full" AF-P compatibility started with the D600
@@uncertainrelease My bad, I mixed it up 🤭
can the D850 use the D series lenes if yes is there a setting to use the lenes properly ?
Yes, the D850 is fully compatible with AF-D lenses. In fact it's fully compatible with every F mount lens except Pre-AI lenses since it has both the AI ring and the internal focus motor. It's even fully compatible with the AF-P lenses
And no, there is no special setting to activate it, the camera recognizes AF-D lenses and activates the focus motor accordingly
The problem with nikon is purely economic. By 3rd parties creating F to Zed adapters and nikons own adapter. Makes it harder for people wanting to get into the world of dslrs that much more exspensive. The price for lenses of any era of glass will be exspensive. As long as the lens dosent get dogged it will retain a huge amount of value. Which is bad for any consumer of older tech. Great for z9 owners bad for beginners.