compatibility of older AF lenses with new D40

[howard_sloane]

I am new to this forum, but have seen from other posts that Nikon apparently has a back-compatibility

policy. A friend has offered me three lenses previously used on a 6006 body. These are all AF versions:

50mm 1.8, 35-70mm 2.8 and 24mm 2.8. Can I expect these lenses to mount and the autofocus features

to work properly on the D40 digital body? Many thanks.

[narayan]

All of these AF lenses should mount fine on the D40 and you will have metering. However, autofocus will not work.

[Michael R Freeman]

As Narayan notes, all of these WILL mount just fine on the D40 (and all three are superb lenses). You will have full metering capability, and all exposure modes will function normally. The <u>only</u> thing that these lenses will NOT do is autofocus. For that, you need AF-S lenses.

[howard_sloane]

Perfectly clear. Many thanks.

[frank_skomial]

"A friend has offered me three lenses previously used on" - what was the offer ? If you have to pay for them?, better get yourself AF-S lens or two instead.

[lex_jenkins]

I use the 35-70/2.8D AF Nikkor more than any lens, on my D2H and film Nikons. I like to frame medium range action shots tightly so the focal range suits me (52-105mm equivalent on the D2H). It's on my D2H right now for some product photos. It focuses down to 2 feet and the zoom is far handier than any prime since I don't need to move the tripod to recompose. I use a prime macro only for tight detail photos , such as to show the surface condition, when doing this stuff.

 

If I need something wider I tend to use my 18-70/3.5-4.5 DX at 18mm, pretty much like a prime. But the 35-70/2.8D is waaaaay better between 35-70mm than the 18-70.

 

If the fellow is offering it for a reasonable price I don't think you'd regret it, even being restricted to manual focus for now, assuming that you might get another (AF compatible) Nikon dSLR later or a film body. It has a good manual focus feel, despite being intended as an autofocus lens (can't say that about most AF-S Nikkors). The foward location of the focus ring is awkward at first but not a big hindrance.

 

OTOH, the 18-70/3.5-4.5G DX AF-S is not a bad lens at all and fully compatible with your D40. Even tho' I don't use mine as often as the 35-70, I don't plan to give it up either.

 

The 24/2.8 Nikkor would make a moderate wide angle on your D40 (equivalent to 36mm). I've always found fast medium primes useful; some folks find 'em pretty useless. Again, lacking autofocus, only you can decide whether it's worth having. Same with the excellent and inexpensive 50/1.8 AF.

[n. gale]

Better yet, trade your D40 for a D70, D80 or D200 and the lenses will be fully functional (including AF). You will probably like these cameras better than the D40, so you keep the great lenses AND upgrade your camera. in addition, this will probably be cheaper (at least for D70/80) than buying any of the lenses!

 

Nick

[rene gm]

Maybe some information: These old lenses do not have an AF motor of their own, but are driven by the motor inside the camera. Newer lenses have those silent motors of some kind built-in. The D40 and D40x do not have a motor in the camera body but rely on the motor in the lens. That's why you use autofocus on the D40 with a 50mm AF. You need AF-S (auto focus silent) for this camera.

 

I send the oppinion to trade for a D80 and use the old lenses.

[afuecker]

I'd get those lenses.They're all fairly wide-angled,so you'll use them for landscape,people and so on, not small birds 50m away:manual focusing ought not be a problem.I use the D40 myself and believe i can even learn something by being forced to focus manually with 2/3 of my lenses;)

[penmachine]

Manual focus is, after all, the way we all had to do it until the late 1980s, and many of our

photos turned out just fine (though I regret the loss of split prisms on focusing screens for

that reason).