Nikon F100 lens compatibility

Hi guys,

Was wondering if anyone had any information on whether autofocus lenses from other mounts (like newer Sony FE lenses etc.) would work when adapted/converted onto a Nikon F100.

Cheers.

Lenses for mirrorless cameras are designed for a shorter flange-to-sensor distance than lenses for SLR/DSLR cameras and hence cannot be easily adapted to your F100. These lenses would require an adapter that contains optical elements and it is to be expected that the optical quality of the attached lenses would be compromised to some extent.

Also, a Nikon F-mount body is one of the hardest bodies to attach a "foreign" lens to as the flange-to-sensor/film distance is one the longest ones around - which makes it easy to adapt Nikon lenses to virtually all other manufacturer's bodies and nigh impossible to mount other manufacturer's lenses to a Nikon F-mount body. One exception is Leica-R lenses - here generally not an adapter is used (would have to be very thin) but the mount on the lens itself is exchanged. Since there are no AF Leica-R lenses, the question of AF compatibility naturally does not arise in this case.

In general, it is possible to adapt lenses designed for a longer flange-to-sensor distance to cameras with a shorter one - the difference is then made up by an adapter (that is essentially just an empty tube). In many cases, AF can be made to function too (as evidenced by the use of Canon EOS lenses on Sony A7 Series bodies or of Sony E-mount lenses on Nikon Z mirrorless bodies, among others). Just don't expect the same performance than using lenses native to the mount in question.

Here is a list of flange-to-sensor/film distances to facilitate the determination which manufacturer's lenses can be attached to which camera body: Flange focal distance - Wikipedia

In short: Forget it.

Besides; there are so many great F mount lenses available so why bother anyway?

HSHN +1

The use of old lenses on "alien" bodies is a task best done for FUN. When you start to get into translating between different proprietary AF systems, it's mostly just WORK also often expensive .and frustrating besides

The flange distance on Nikon Z cameras (16 mm) is less than on any other MILC. Clearly Nikon did not you to use one of the 250+ lenses, for example made by Sony (18 mm) and their third party versions. On the other hand, adapting SLR lenses to an MILC is easy, and full autofocus for servo lenses is possible.

If you go the MILC route, you should plan to buy at least one native lens made for that camera. While you can use SLR lenses, I do not recommend buying them for that purpose. You give up some features, and the image quality may not be up to MILC standards.