Are you hanging onto your screw drive AF lenses?

Short answer is I'm keeping them. Most are lenses my wife got when she was shooting with an F100. Since I have a D7100 that powers screw drive lenses, and since most are worth relatively little, and I still have some older cameras that need an aperture ring, there's no good reason to sell them. I regularly use the 105/2.8 D and the 50/1.4D, and occasionally use the 28-105 for chasing bugs and the like. I wouldn't miss the 70-300 or the 80-400 so much, but they're worth so little it seems easier just to keep them in case I decide to run a roll or two through the F4 again.

Yup, I'll second that. I have a 500mm & 600mm f4 paperweight pair....:(

Have Midwest Camera Repair - Wyandotte, Michigan - 734.285.2220 take a look at them. They're able to rebuild AF-S motors on older lenses when parts are no longer available!

I'm keeping mine- no plans to move to Nikon Mirrorless. I have one AF-S lens, a 50/1.8 that came with the Df.

The AF-D lenses perform well, and are reasonably sized. The newer lenses- no reason for a 58/1.4 to use a 72mm filter, just some "bigger is better" marketing. Same with the mirrorless lenses- seems to be driven by the same mentality, bigger, heavier, more expensive. Nikon seems to have lost their Mojo. I don't know what it will take to bring them to their senses. Newer lenses are not as reliable, overly complex, and not great performers- compared to lenses that they pretend to update.

I still love the 180 2.8 D even on my Z7 and the 85mm 1.4 D

My older AFD screw drive lenses are largely metal inside, unlike newer Nikon lenses which have many interior and exterior plastic components. The lens inteior plastic components hold many of the glass lens elements and if heavily shaken ( e.g., sudden auto stop) the impact of the glass against the plastic rim may break the stiff plastic. This happened to me, and according to NikonRepair is a frequent event, which they term impact damage. They informed me that it does not happen with the older metal mounts or the highest level Nikon Pro lenses which still use mostly metal rims inside. The newer lenses focus faster, are lighter ( due to plastic interior in place of metal) and optically are better, but not to my eye.

Yes, because I still have cameras with the screwdriver AF, both digital (D7200) and film (F4).

Although I have not used a mechanical AF lens on the D7200 in a long time.

I am so glad, ecstatic, in fact, that Nikon never, ever changes their mounts (F-mount FOREVER) that I still have all of my non-AI Nikkors as well as a fair selection of screwed lenses.

Since all my Nikons are vintage and film, I probably won't be buying any newer Nikkors o_O

 

I do get to use those older, manual focus Nikkors on almost all my Canon FD and Canon EOS cameras (manually and with glassless adapters, of course);)

Edited November 30, 2020 by JDMvW

Just curious if you are hanging on to your old screwdriver lenses?

Yes. I have an AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D that is small and I use for landscapes on my D800. I also have an AF DC-NIKKOR 105mm f/2D that works well on both my D800 and D500.

 

My reasoning is the opposite of yours. One of the reasons I'm not interested in mirrorless is the lack of compatibility with the above lenses (and possibly others that I might want to use some day). I have other reasons to not want to use mirrorless, so for now the only other camera I'm considering in the future is a D850 to replace my D800 (that's likely years away).

 

Sorry to hear about your difficulties and hope you enjoy your new gear.

I'm keeping my last one, the 60mm D. I prefer the focal length over a 50mm and like its solid build quality. Plus I can use it on any F mount camera; I still have an FM and friends occasionally give me old Nikon bodies. All my other mechanical AF lenses were sold off a few years ago.

Exactly the one (well: not exactly.. non-D) that is on my D800 most of the time!