Help: The lens diaphragm stays at f/22 when the lenses are installed on my F5

I have two AF-S lenses which have to be installed on my F5 with the

lens opening set at F/22. The problem is that the lens seems to stay

at this opening instead of opening up to full (f/2.8) opening for

viewing once installed. Has anyone had this problem and does any one

know why this happens and is there a way of remedying this problem

without having to take the camera for service?

Many thanks in advance for the way things look at this moment, I am

going to have to go to the food sepermarket to get a disposable for

Christmas pictures. Figure that!

gonna need more info to help....is the camera or are the lenses new to you? If not, is this a new problem? What have you tried to remedy the problem. Is the aperture ring locked at F22? Have you tried using the camera manually? Do you have non-AFS lenses or older lenses that work OK?

 

I've never encountered a problem exactly like this..are you sure you're not seeing "L EE" in your LCD display--you may just need to lock your aperture ring at f22 on the lens for things to work if that's the case.

 

Answer those questions and I'll be someone can help you with the problem since, unless it is a broken F5, I doubt it is a problem with the lenses and is probably just something you aren't doing quite right.

--evan

We need some more information.<p>

First of all your lenses don't <I>have</I> to be installed on your F5 locked at f/22. You can use the aperture ring to set the aperture if you so desire. It only needs to be set to f/22 if you use a program mode, shutter priority or you want to use the forward command wheel to set the aperture. <p>

Based on what I just said, can you adjust the aperture with the command wheel? If you could in the past has this problem just occurred? Have you tried adjusting the aperture with the aperture ring on the lens? What mode is the camera in? P, S, A, M?

Replace the batteries. The diaphragm may get stuck if you don't have fresh batteries. (It's best to use NiMH or lith AAs.)

I don't own an F5 or any AF-S lenses but I do have five Nikkors that I bought new. In only one of the owners manuals (AF60 2.8D micro), under Important!, is the following line:

 

 

Important!

 

"Depending on the camera model, the lens cannot be mounted with the minimum aperture locked. Before mounting the lens make sure the minimum aperture is not locked..."

 

 

Remove the lens, set the aperture to f/8, remount the lens, cycle through the entire aperture range, then set to f/22 & lock.

No, I've never had a problem with mounting any of my lenses when locked at f/22 on an F5. This is normally how I use them, selecting the aperture with the forward command wheel. I don't think that's an issue here. <p>

Still waiting for more info Julio...

Another possibility is that somehow custom setting #22 got changed to disable setting of the aperture via the forward command wheel. You might check that.

"instead of opening up to full (f/2.8) opening for viewing once installed"

 

The way I read this question, it has nothing to do with the front command dial, or even the fact that the lenses are set to f/22. All lenses close to the minimum when they are off-camera. The camera body has to open them when they are mounted. Either the aperture ring on the body isn't engaging properly, or is otherwise broken, or the depth-of-field preview button is stuck down. On the F5, depth-of-field is an electrical function, so I would agree with a previous poster that the batteries need to be checked; and the camera turned on. Try cycling the depth-of-field button.

Julio, it has been almost 40 hours, you have received 7 answers, many question were asked: would you please clarify. Not a peep from you. Shame on you.

 

Are you there? Polite as ever, I see.

Hello Frank: Someone once told me many years ago that the problems of the world are created by people that make assumptions: It so happens that I have replied individually to everyone that posted an answer, except for Curt, to whom I have yet to write, and you Frank. UPDATE: I am indeed grateful for everyone's help and although all answers have been helpful, I am still hoping to 'hear' from someone that has had the identical problem, which seemingly no one has thus far, lucky you. Curt probably has come closest, he posted: "Either the aperture ring on the body isn't engaging properly, or is otherwise broken, or the depth-of-field preview button is stuck down." I see nothing inside the body that appears broken, so why the thing is probably not engaging properly is a mystery. The aperture prongs in both lenses seem in perfect order and to move freely. I also thought that the depth of field preview button might be stuck although it clicks when you press it, but the click might be noisier than regularly, I do not know for sure. I am still hoping for a simple solution but hopes are fading and next Monday the camera and lenses will have to go to Nikon in Toronto which means no camera for Christmas and time to go back to my Contax or Hassy and less spontaneous photographs. Thanks to all.

Peach young bucks....Both of you have good points. I think Frank has an important point however. You posted your question in a public forum Julio. The replies you got--esp. the first two, posed unclear issues that needed to be clarified and ideal that would have been included in the original post. Although you did, indeed, write to me individually (which is nice acknowledgement), the fact that I responded once doesn't imply that I would be able to solve your problem even with the requisit information.

 

However, that additional information may have allowed others who had NOT initially responded the clues they needed to more specifically answer the question.

 

Someone asked a question about their N70 viewfinder coverage a few days ago, several speculative replies were made and the original poster has not responded at all. Did we help? Did he figure it out on his own? We may never know, and more importantly others who have a similar problem in the future will not know what happened (though they might be helped by the proffered suggestions).

 

I think Frank's point is that if you open yourself up publicly with something like this the responses (usually) should be kept public so that everyone can profit and learn.

--evan

Evan: Infinitely agree with you, well said. Amen.

Greetings all: Took the F5 to the Nikon service centre. Instantly they observed that the lens diaphragm opening control lever within the camera was bent, the result of mounting a lens in contravention to the correct procedure. They said this is quite common. Then went to a camera store and took care to examine carefully Nikon and Canon mounts. In the Nikon mount, the flange in the lens mount does not seem to lie perfectly flush against the camera flange when the two are brought into contact but the lens seems to require a tiny bit of pressure to make them so. On the Canon 1V mount, the lens sits perfectly flush under its own weight, even for a light lens. Also the Canon mount is quite a bit larger than the Nikon. With the

F5 trying to balance a heavy camera and heavy lens (80-200 AF-S) to bring the two flanges into perfect alignment, when the design impedes it seems to me as awkward as docking two space modules in flight. I know you old hands will scoff at this but according to Nikon's service, damage to the F5 from mounting lenses is not uncommon, evidence that its design leaves something to be desired. There is no doubt in my mind that the Canon mount is by far superior and easier. Indeed after mounting lenses probably more than one thousand times in different cameras, for over 40 years, I never ever had such problems. FYI, repairs were quoted at about $225 USD. Thanks you all and watch how you handle these expensive toys.

If this is due to the same thing as on the F4 and FM-10 that I have, i.e., there's a little pin on the camera mount that needs to be pressed down by the lens before twisting it and locking, then the solution that I use is to keep the lens release button pressed while mounting. That pulls the pin into the camera, and allows easy mounting.