Will A Non AI Nikkor Lens Fit Later Bodies?

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Steve M.

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I have a Nikkormat FT2 w/ a non AI 50 2.0 HC Auto lens. It's a great kit, but sometimes I wish it was faster to shoot. Normally I use bodies like N6006, N8008s, and N90s (the best by far) w/ Leica lenses and an adapter in stop down metering mode. Even in stop down mode, the motorized film advance on the AF bodies makes fast shooting a lot easier, for me anyway. I'd like to put this lens on one of those AF bodies, but all the web info says don't do it, it may damage the camera. I'm assuming that's because of that little prong on the lens that might jam? I looked at the non AI lens, and the prong just has two little screws holding it on. Can I assume that if I take the tab off it will mount? Unfortunately I no longer have an AF body to try it on and I'm trying to find out if it would work before buying one.
 
Don't do it. It's not the metal prong, it is an extension of the lens barrel towards the rear that interferes with some later camera body's auto indexing tab. On some later bodies like FM, F3, these tabs can be flipped up out of the way. Other later bodies like 801/8008 they can not.
 
As FrankS correctly stated, the "prongs" or "ears" whatever anyone wants to call them, make no odds to Ai or pre-Ai.
Nikon used to make Ai kits, but these are getting rare now. Some repair companies still "Ai" lenses - about £40 in the UK as a guide price.

They will go on the cheaper Nikon DSLRs though, such as the D3100 and D5100 (But not the D300 or higher, sadly)
 
Depending on where you live, it may be possible to have the lens AI'd. I've had two non-AI lenses AI'd by a good tech in Burlington, near Toronto. Not cheap, $50 or $60 per lens, but two lenses were worth it for me: a 50mm F1.4 S, and a 20mm f3.5 UD.

You have to look around for a tech. I called Nikon who eventually gave me the contact info for the guys I went to. I say eventually as the first guy I spoke to, at Nikon, didn't know what AI or non-AI meant. He was young.
 
Thanks everyone. I was eyeballing the lens after I posted this, and was afraid it might be as Frank said. I can't see getting it modified at this point. I'm going to look for a beater N6006 or something and see if I can remove/modify the camera's indexing tab. I would feel no pain if I screwed up one of these cheap plastic cameras in the process. Actually, I'd better look for an N8008. The N6006 battery costs almost as much as the camera.
 
I had a non-Ai hooked to an F3. The meter did not work. I don't see the point of Ai-ing Non-Ai lenses when the newer lenses perform better and are reasonably priced.
 
If you are at all handy with tools you may find that its not too hard to make the AI conversion yourself. I have done it.

If you are very lucky you can still, from time to time, find AI conversion rings on ebay for the specific lens in question. These are the lens' aperture adjustment ring with the AI "cuts" made to them in the Nikon factory. They used to be widely available - not so now but you can be lucky.


But you do not absolutely need this. You can also find on the internet instructions on how to make the modification to your existing lens aperture ring. A matter of a little measuring, a couple of cuts with a fine metal saw and some light filing. The real pain can be the disassembly and reassembly but as you are only taking off the aperture ring this is not too hard. You will not be able to see the AI numbers in the viewfinder - but more modern lenses did not give you this anyway on older lenses.

Here is an illustrated guide. There are others you will find by Googling.

http://www.chr-breitkopf.de/photo/aiconv.en.html

Incidentally for those who do not now how this works, the notch in the rear of the lens mates to a lever in the camera. The position of the notch corresponds to the maximum aperture for that lens (thus is the same for every lens with that maximum aperture, no matter what the focal length of the lens). This facilitates open aperture metering as this "information" (its not really information in the sense we normally use the term as its all based on mechanical linkages) is used by the meter to make the necessary adjustments when metering. This is very ingenious given that it was a mechanical way of conveying the lenses aperture to the camera - well before in-camera computers became available.
 
I have a 50/1.2 that I might do myself (if I ever loosen the mount screws...) by judicious use of fine files.

I'll post some pics If I ever get round to it. :)
 
There are quite a few used FMs sitting around, and that is one of the ones mentioned above on which the tab can be flipped away for mounting your lenses. It's a nice camera, too, one of the last of the fully-manual, mechanical ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_FM

It's no great improvement on your Nikkormat, but a nice camera..

Reading around, the F4 appears to be the latest camera with the flippy tab, and it MAY be that the flippy tab ring from the F4 can be installed on the F5, so that would be an exotic solution.
 
Just beware, those screws are likely glued in. This is one of the biggest annoyances with working on Nikon SLR AI and non-AI lenses.

I don't know what possessed them to glue in the mount screws.

And they are glued in tight. It is very easy to damage the screws when trying to remove them.

Proceed with caution.

Vick


Peter_Jones said:
I have a 50/1.2 that I might do myself (if I ever loosen the mount screws...) by judicious use of fine files.

I'll post some pics If I ever get round to it. :)
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