F601 and 24-85 f3.5/4.5G Compatible?

I am going to buy the new ED lenes Nikon 24-85 f3.5/4.5G

 

Do you know whether it is compatiable with my body F601?

 

Germen

I think they're not. G-type lenses require the aperture to be set on the body, using the sub-command wheel. The F601 does not have that wheel, so I'm afraid it's not going to work.

If you use f22 (the smallest f-stop) for everything you shoot and a tripod to hold the camera/lens steady, the lens might work.

 

But you may not like this restriction if you get the lens....

If you use exposure modes such as P (program) or S (shutter priority) when the camera sets the aperature for you, I would imagine that it'll work fine. You simply cannot control the apeture directly from the F601 body so that the M and A modes won't work. But you can still control it indirectly by selecting the shutter speed and lets the camera to select a suitable aperture.

Thank you for your help!

 

The price and performance ratio is really attractive for this lense.

 

And I think I will shift to a newer body soon.

 

Is there any formal/offical documents that talk about this issue?

You can take a look at this <A HREF="http://www.aiconversions.com/images/AICompat0107.PDF">compatibility chart</A>. Of course I am not sure everything on this chart is 100% correct, but the F601/N6006 is listed to be compatible to G lenses, of course with the restrictions I mentioned about.

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It is practical to use the new G lenses on all AF bodies since the late 1980's, such as the F4 and F801/N8008, as you can use the P or S modes. It is not practical to use G lenses on the F3, FM/FE series (including the current FM3a) and earlier MF bodies because there is no way to control the aperture.

The 24-85 3.5/4.5G is an AF-S lens. As far as I can remember, the F601 will not AF with AF-S lenses, which means you'll be restricted to manual focusing only.

So, I cannot use A and M mode, and don't have auto focusing..

 

really confusing.... :(

Gordon has a very good point; earlier we were only considering the G part but not the AF-S part.

 

It really isn't all that confusing. AF-S means no "screw driver" type AF shaft, which means AF only with F4, F/N90(x/s), F70, F5, F100, F/N80 and all the DSLRs (D1, h/x and D100). Otherwise, it is MF.

 

G means no aperture ring, hence direct aperture control (i.e. M and A modes) only from the bodies with the sub-command dial: F5, F100, F/N80 and all the DSLRs. Cameras with the P or S mode can control the aperture indirectly; that means the F4, F801(x)/N8008(s), F601/N6006.

 

Manual-focus bodies such as the FM/FM2 only have the M mode while the FE/FE2, FM3a and F3 also have the A mode. But there is no way to control the aperture from those bodies as you are stuck at f22 (or whatever the minimum is for a particular G lens).

 

I am sure I left off a couple of bodies here and there, but you get the picture.

Thank you for all your answers, they are really helpful.

 

I think that could be diffcult to use MF without the "split".

I will get another similar AF lense 24-120 instead... the price is closer, as 24-85 f/2.8- is much more expensive...

 

Thanks again!

As you're interested in this particular zoom range, have you considered the AF-D 24-85 2.8-4 ? Granted, it costs more, but it's a brighter lens, and has a proper aperture ring to work fully with your F601 and any other pre-F5 body you may have or plan to get.

Ooops!! I hit the "confirm" button too late !! You beat me to it.

hi, what do you mean by proper aperature ring for F601?

 

i've read through some reviews, i've found the the performance for 24-120 and 24-85 is pretty close... is that ture?

 

my buget is around the price of 24-85 f3.5/4.5 G only...

 

man thanks!

At B&H, the new G lens is about $360 and there is currently a $35 rebate, making it around $325. That is a pretty attractive price. The older 24-85 D doesn't seem to be available new any more.

 

Chuck Fan bought the G lens a few months ago when it first came out, and he has provided a lot of very helpful info on it. I am somewhat interested in this lens myself and currently only use bodies with the sub-command dial, so compatibility is not an issue for me. According to Chuck, this lens has pretty serious barrel distortion at 24mm but is good from 28mm on. I have only played around with one in a camera store on a D100 body, so it wasn't a full-35mm-frame view. But the barrel distortion at 24mm is pretty obvious even from the D100's viewfinder. For most people, that is probably not a major problem unless you shoot something that requires critical straight lines such as architecture. Build quality seems to be fairly typical for a Nikon consumer-grade lens. There are a lot of plastic parts and it is light; don't expect the build quality similar to the 17-35 or 28-70 AF-S.

 

The advantage of AF-S is that with bodies that work with it, AF is faster and you can manually override it without swicthing off those AF/MF buttons and switches. Even without AF, electronic focus-confirmation is still available on your F601. So I don't think MF will be difficult. But without AF it is somewhat a pain if you shoot moving targets such as kids or sports. I guess it all depends on how long you are keeping your F601.