Nikon mechanical mount

I recently read in an artical by Joe McDonald that the mechanical

mount on Nikon cameras(well I guess an cameras with a mechanical "stop

down lever") is unreliable and sometimes doesnt work. Is there any

truth to this at all?

Anything mechanical can fail still I�ve never seen this problem with 17 or more Nikon bodies.

I would agree that it "sometimes doesn't work", but I wouldn't say it's unreliable. If you bend one part or the other (lens or camera body) you can induce a mysterious 'jam' where the camera and lens 'freeze' in mid-shot. Easy enough to remove the lens and clear the fault; if you've got some known good equipment to compare it to, you can even attempt a field repair on your own.

 

I guess I'd rate them 'damn reliable' considering they rarely break and stand up to five frames per second or more rather well.

 

In 25+ years of shooting with Nikons, I've had more problems with the electronic interface between lens and camera than I've had with either the mechanical aperture follower or the stop down lever linkage. I have one lens that has a chronically sticky aperture mechanism (it's slow to react) but it's not a Nikon lens and it's been immersed in salt water. When my AF bodies refuse to 'recognize' an AF lens (electronically), I'm glad my bodies have the mechanical assemblies to fall back on.

I had an F3 where the meter got to reading only the max shutter speed, even in broad daylight. Seems the metering ring around the lens mount is connected to the internal guts of the meter by a string, which has a spring to pull it back. If this spring jams, then you can move the meter to a smaller aperture, but not back the other way, so the exposure eventually maxes out. Fairly light use caused this, but then again, that particular body was prone to breakdowns like this, all over.

I've used the mechanical Nikon mount for 40 years and never had a problem with just a Nikon lens on the body. The problem, and I believe what Joe McDonald referred to, is when you add teleconvertors or extension tubes. These add more springs and levers to the drive, and more opportunities for failure. And of course, Nikon did not always update these to provide full automation with the newer equipment (I switched to the newer Kenko extension tubes for this reason). I had a problem with a Tamron universal adapter some years ago, but that is a third-party solution that also added more linkage.

 

That said, the stop-down lever can stick if it gets dirt in it, or once it happened to me when some moisture froze. It is simple enough to check the functioning when you mount a new lens. I have heard of similar problems with the electrical contacts on newer Nikon and other makes when they get dirty - but you may not observe it until you get your film back.

 

Overall, the Nikon mount is just as rugged as any, in my opinion, and with the mechanical cameras you can still take pictures when the battery fails.

Years ago (late 1960's/early 1970's) my friend had a Nikon F and F2 's with motor drives. He showed me several sports photos that were overexposed every 2nd or 3rd frame; due to diaphram closure problems. This occurred with NON Nikkor Lenses; namely SOME Vivitar & Soligor T4 lenses that he had. During motor drive usage; when the mirror was also used; these aftermarket lenses SOMETIMES had diaphrams that would not fully close when the shutter fired. One could look at the diaphram with a Auto Nikkor; and the diaphram would be a nice even diameter opening. With the T4 mounted lenses; some focal lengths he had would have diaphrams that danced around in opening size; when motor drive burst was shot. These lenses worked FINE for static shots; but went nuts when driven quickly with a motor drive.

I took one of Joe's short courses a while ago. He's a Canon bigot.

In 38 years of using Nikon cameras with many, many lenses, I have had a problem with only one diaphragm, and that on a 20mm auto-focus that was probably exposed to some heat in the summer. The blades were very oily and would not cycle properly, but a quick cleanup by Nikon Canada fixed the problem.

The two mount related problems I've had with Manual and AF Nikon bodies has always related to a 3rd part lens.

 

1. 20-35 Tokina 2.8, the apature blades would stick open, and not fall with the lowering of the stop down lever, on AF bodies this wasn't a problem because the meter always checks the exposure post stop down to see if it needs to make any small changes. But on my F3 it would go nuts, motor drive blaring, chewing up 4.5 frames a second until I unmonted the lens.

 

2. Russian Zenitar 16mm fish eye. Again a misalignment of the apature linkage on my F2 (actually the flimsy aluminium used in the lens) would sometimes cause it to slip off the side of the level on its travel downwards and cause the camera to no return the mirror after exposure. Nothing 2 minutes and a pair of plyers couldn't fix.

 

Apart from the the Nikon system has been the most reliable thing I own. Bar NON!

 

Cheers

 

Dave