Autofocus lens compatibility with Nikon F3HP

I am considering buying a Nikon F3HP body. I have sold all my old

manual focus lenses and now only have autofocus. Are the autofocus

Nikkors fully compatible with the F3? Thanks for any responses.

-only non-G lenses will allow you to control the aperture.

 

-variable-aperture zooms can make it annoying to know at what aperture you're actually shooting.

I routinely use an older 28-85/3.5-4.5 AF Nikkor and 50/1.8D AF Nikkor with my F3HP and FM2N. They work fine.

 

Many manual focus zooms are variable aperture types so using an AF variable aperture zoom is no different.

 

With the F3 in aperture priority AE mode the stepless shutter speeds accomodate the variable aperture so there's no problem. Even in manual exposure mode (the only metering mode available on the FM2N) you'll seldom see any significant differences when using b&w or color negative films.

 

I've seen surprisingly few problems using ISO 100 slide film with manual exposure and a variable aperture zoom. I just approximate the aperture and, when possible, bracket exposures. You can do the same thing with flash photography.

"Are the autofocus Nikkors fully compatible with the F3?"

 

with the exception of the G-type Nikkors (which have no aperture control ring on the

lens),

the correct answer is "yes".

Shane - if you are after the F3 because of the "small" difference in viewfinder and handling you will also miss the "small" difference in MF handling with most AF lenses. Many AF lenses work OK - but you want better than OK? Especially on the F3HP every little mechanical inferiority like backlash and the poor feel of the focussing action will jump on you. You might want to reconsider if the F3HP gives you so much without also getting one or two of you favorite lenses in the MF version. Yes - I also used the AFD50mm 1.8 on my F2 but very quickly put my old AIS50mmF2 back into the bag (together with some other AIS "treasures" one can get so cheap today). If you sold your MF glass a few years ago you can get them back today at a fraction of the price.