AF P DX 18-55 VR Compatible with older DSLRs?

A friend is going to use my D300s for a while, and somehow I did not have a general purpose zoom to go with it. I have read good things optically about the 18-55 P and like the small size so I picked up a used one in great condition.

 

 

It does not seem to AF on the D3s and D2x I have handy, but does AF well on my D810. I could not find information anywhere on Nikon USA site that would indicate that the lens would not work on older bodies? My friend will try the lens on the D300s tonight. She does have my 35/1.8DX that does work well with the D300s so not all is lost. Will report if no AF on the D300s.

Third paragraph of the "manual" (leaflet, presumably):<br />

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This lens does not support D4-series, D3-series, D2-series, D1-series, D800-

series, D700, D610, D600, D300-series, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70-series,

D60, D50, D40-series, D7000, D5100, D5000, D3200, D3100 or D3000 digital

SLR cameras or film SLR cameras. When using it with a D5500, D5300, or

D3300, be sure the camera firmware has been updated to the latest version.<br />

<br />

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/318/AF-P_DX_NIKKOR_18-55mm_f_35-56G_VR.html<br />

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Hope that helps!

I did not think anything was wrong with the lens, so AG thanks for confirming what I suspected. So, Photo.neters are now more informed, at least. Maybe I will keep it and get a D500 to go with it, LOL.

 

Nikon USA should put something fairly prominent on their website, I was able to select the lens after indicating that I had a D2x camera.

Reflecting a bit on this, I am disappointed with Nikon. Of course, I would encourage Nikon to innovate when true improvements might risk rendering older equipment obsolete. I am an engineer familiar with control systems, and I don't see where the controls systems required to focus this little lens would not be physically present in older AF cameras. What is missing is an effort on Nikons's part to update the firmware on older camera to support this lens. Guess there is no profitable reason for Nikon to update the firmware in older cameras. In fact, firmware revisions to older cameras supporting newer feature might somewhat reduce new camera sales.

 

 

Actually, a good part of what loyalty I might have for the Nikon brand has been their general commitment to backward-forward non-obsolescence.

 

 

I would be willing to pay a fair fee for updated/improved firmware for older bodies, but this does not seem to be an option that is offered.

 

 

I seem to remember some internet noise about Nikon providing continued firmware updates for one of the DSLRs, maybe the D800 (that I had). Maybe that concept was not potentially profitable so it quietly disappeared.

 

 

Sorry for this rant, but if Nikon is not generally supportive of long term customers (about 40 years in my case), then maybe I should not be a somewhat loyal Nikon customer. I have too much Nikon stuff to swap to Canon or Sony now, but maybe I should start recommending Canon or Sony to the significant number of people that ask me.

Edited February 17, 2017 by robert_bouknight|1

I think the 18-55 is primarily intended as a kit lens for first purchasers of a new D3x00 or D5x00 Nikon DSLR. Backwards compatibility would be a priority if it is expected that a lot of users of DSLR would want to use these lenses, but I think most people either keep using the kit lens they got, or want to move up to higher end lenses if they get more ambitious. The AF-P lenses have some special interest because they are expected to provide smoother video and live view AF but still they are basic entry level zooms.

 

There may be technical reasons why only certain cameras support the AF-P lenses. It seems cameras with EXPEED 4 or 5 are supported (either as they are or through firmware upgrade) but EXPEED 3 are not. Stepper motors are controlled in a different way than silent wave motors. It may be that the algorithms are coded in a way that it takes advantage of newer features (or increased speed) of the newer processors and Nikon doesn't want to rewrite the code for older processors or these may simply lack the processing capability to perform the functions needed. At least Nikon is providing firmware upgrades to cameras that have the right processor but were introduced with older firmware.

Canon do seem to support STM lenses on all their EOS cameras. Perhaps they were prepared to use this type of motor when they designed the first EOS cameras. Good planning.

Some users would like Nikon to move faster and abandon compatibility sooner, such as with the transition from G to E lenses (pre-2007 cameras do not support E lenses except 24/45/85 PC-E which are supported on older cameras which support VR lenses with manual stopping down from the button). However, my experience suggests that E lenses have frequent problems when being used in harsh winter conditions (-22C, open seawater bringing in high humidity sea smoke); after prolonged exposure (1-2h) to these conditions if I'm using an E lens, there is a high probability that the aperture will malfunction and the camera stop functioning. This can be solved by taking off the lens and putting it back in, and then taking a shot to clear the aperture setting to where it should be. However, I've encountred these problems for many years and wasn't immediately able to identify the E aperture as the culprit, but recently I realized the connection. It seems the lens contacts are too exposed in the F mount and the humid and cold air lands on the contacts, preventing correct operation of the aperture. I at first tried to clear the situation by taking the battery out and putting it back in but this usually hasn't helped. Anyway, I've only got one case where some dirt got into the aperture control mechanism of a G lens (the original 70-200/2.8G) and that caused aperture to stay wide open when it should have stopped down a couple of times. It was corrected in service. However, I've had this aperture control issue in the cold and humid conditions with 24, 45, 85 PC-E and 70-200/2.8E now (D700, D800 and D810) so quite many lenses and bodies. I don't know if Nikon can solve the problem by better sealing but at least I'm not super keen on seeing a rapid transition to E lenses if they cannot correct this issue. Anyway, this is a bit of an off topic discussion, more regarding the pace of change in the mount control systems. I would take it slower and apply only thoroughly tested technology to new products.

Only a subset of Canon's cameras can use STM lenses "properly", I believe. I imagine they have two ways to drive the lens, and the lens can pretend to be a USM lens when driven that way. It's true that I might have hoped for Nikon to introduce a similar compatibility hack (unless there's another trivial annoying patent stopping them - I hate the patent system). My concern is that if AF-P is actually helping with video focus (as opposed to being simply a cheaper motor technology than SWM) then Nikon are going to have more of a compatibility problem in the future when people want this capability on existing cameras - and the roll-out is going to take a while, as evidenced by the time it took for Nikon to produce bodies with know autofocus motor (AF-S was 1998; the D40 was 2006), G lenses (2000, with the F5 introduced in 1996) and E-capable bodies vs E lenses (D3 added E support in 2007; the PC-E lenses had a manual work-around, so we could argue that "E"-only lenses appeared in 2015 with the 300mm PF). On that basis, Nikon can start assuming that all their lenses can use AF-P technology around 2024, which is a bit behind the times. :-) But maybe it's only a cost thing, and we'll only ever see it in kit lenses. I'm prepared to accept that a kit 18-55 may not work perfectly on a D800, all things considered.

Nikon can start assuming that all their lenses can use AF-P technology around 2024

 

I don't think they will use stepper motors for all their lenses. The ring type SWM has its own advantages (speed, in particular, of making large adjustments in focus). The stepper motor's advantage is reproducibility of small steps, which is helpful for contrast detect AF. Notice that Canon has used STM for a while but all the STM lenses are relatively small, and they still keep introducing their fast high end lenses with USM, as before.