Nikon F mount adapter questions

[texchappy]

I have never used a lens adapter so I'm wondering what the limitations are. I have some pretty good glass with my F2 kit. Only my 2.8/180 ed is AI and the rest is pre-ai.

Questions:
1. Do the lenses meter?
2. my understanding is that with non-g lenses you can change the aperture - correct?
3. do they work with non-ai lenses?

TIA,
Tony

 

[sevo]

Apart from one odd medium format lens (Fuji 100mm AE), I've never encountered a lens that metered. If you wanted to ask whether the body will still meter with the lenses: No adapter will transfer any kind of information between body and lens. But in this state a camera can still meter and do aperture priority AE at working aperture - provided that that is not disabled. The latter is no issue of any M4/3 body I tried so far, but it is a fairly widespread restriction on budget DSLRs, so we might see cameras that don't meter with adapted manual lenses once M4/3 grows an entry level.

Almost all adapters will fit every Nikon lens, from non-AI to G - but I've seen complaints about some unidentified no-name adapters that won't fit pre AI lenses unless you file down a (useless) ridge, probably a issue of the workshop owners owning no non-AI lens to test against.

G lenses have no aperture ring any more, and are stuck at their smallest aperture (which is much less useful than being stuck wide open!) unless you buy an adapter that provides a ring to manipulate the (internal) aperture lever.

 

[Warren T.]

1. The lenses meter because the metering method will be stop-down, ttl.
2. yes, the aperture is changed in the normal way, manually via the len's aperture ring
3. any Nikon lens can be mounted on a standard Nikon to mu-43 adapter including non-ai and ai.

--Warren

 

[Dwig]

...
3. any Nikon lens can be mounted on a standard Nikon to mu-43 adapter including non-ai and ai.

--Warren

This should be true but...

... it is possible that some adapters won't accept non-AI lenses, though I don't that this is common with the exception of the rare lenses Nikon sold during the first year or two, 1959-61. These have a very deep overhang (~3mm) on the f/stop ring and come to grief on bodies (all metered Nikkormats) and adapters with the more shallow flanges. The overhang on the bulk of the pre-AI lenses is shallow (~1.5mm) and usually doesn't cause problems on any body or adapter that doesn't have the AI and/or newer coupling tabs.

BTW, there are some adapters made that have a control ring that allows you to adjust the aperture on G series lenses where there is no f/stop ring. I haven't used one, but it seems like these would function like a pre-set lens (one ring for f/stop on the lens and one open/close ring on the adapter) when used with AI and pre-AI lenses. If so, this would be somewhat nicer than the pure manual function you get with standard adapters.