Ai lenses on D7000 - focussing?

jasonstone

Hi all,

Excuse my ignorance but I just don't have any older Ai Ai-s lenses and so know nothing about them...

What lenses will autofocus on a D7000? Ai? Ai-s?
for example -what about this lens:
http://www.ebay.ch/itm/Nikon-Nikkor-1-4-50mm-Ai-Bajonett-/170726733759?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item27c01b37bf#ht_1770wt_1219

or this one?
http://www.ebay.ch/itm/Nikon-Nikkor-50mm-f1-4-AI-lichtstark-/260887922525?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item3cbe21c75d#ht_4888wt_1219

My thought (or what I thought I remembered reading somewhere i guess) was that only AF will auto focus on that ai and ai-s are all manual focus but will meter on a D7000?

Thank for any tips folks

Trying to expand my lens range on a budget so looking at 2nd hand primes

Cheers
Jase

ziggy53

I believe that the Nikon D7000 has an AF screw drive so I believe that AF-D will work. Otherwise AF-S and AF-I should autofocus just fine.

I believe that AI and AI-S are metering connections, not so much to do with AF.

When in doubt refer to this chart:

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/slr-lens.html

Pretty much just stay away from Pre-AI (which have not been converted) and F3AF. Most others are at least safe to mount, even if they vary in full features on your camera. If the lens does not have AF, AF-D, AF-I or AF-S, it's usually a manual focus lens.

Matthew Saville

ziggy53 wrote: »

I believe that AI and AI-S are metering connections, not so much to do with AF.

When in doubt refer to this chart:

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/slr-lens.html

Pretty much just stay away from Pre-AI (which have not been converted) and F3AF. Most others are at least safe to mount, even if they vary in full features on your camera. If the lens does not have AF, AF-D, AF-I or AF-S, it's usually a manual focus lens.

That is correct. Ai and Ai-S lenses are manual focus only, they have zero electronics, (unless they are especially chipped) and they are mostly from the 70's / 80's before AF was even invented.

You are correct to assume that the D7000 does indeed have a mechanical coupling that will allow you to meter freely in both matrix, center-weight, and spot metering mode although in spot metering you do lose the ability to meter off-center focus points.

Also, indeed you should stick with Ai and Ai-S lenses; pre-Ai lenses will have mechanical coupling issues and could damage your camera. But that's okay, since Ai lense are so cheap to begin with!

Manual focus lenses in general are a delight to shoot with, especially if you're shooting still subjects like nature or landscapes. I have three Ai lenses myself, a 24mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, and a Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro. They're all rock-solid metal construction, and will outlast ANY of my AF lenses even the pro ones. Heck, I used my 50 Ai-S as a paperweight for two years before I brought it back to life on my D700!

The best way to focus is in live view IMO, especially if you crank up the in-camera sharpening and ESPECIALLY if you use one of those LCD magnifiers. ($30 from Amazon, search for "Vfinder"... And btw ONLY crank up your in-camera sharpening if you're shooting RAW; in-camera sharpening will RUIN your JPG images...)

However, if you use the viewfinder to manually focus you will also be able to see a focus confirmation dot. It won't be at the in-focus focus point, like Canon's manual focus, instead it's in the margin of the viewfinder as just a dot. On a D700 or better there is a guide that tells you which direction to go, but on the other cameras it's just a dot.

Focusing is VERY easy at wider angles and normal apertures; I use my 24mm f/2.8 Ai-S on my D300 as a ~36mm walk-around lens ALL the time and it's just perfect. Ai-S lenses are also awesome for star photography, because most of the time they have a hard-stop at infinity which makes it very easy to focus on stars for shooting wide open on a pitch-black desert night. ;-)

Anyways, good luck with your MF lens endeavors!

=Matt=

jasonstone

Thanks all! That's helped me to get my head around the topic