Nikon D40 compatibility with Kenko lens?

[m_.]

well, a friend of mine is asking me this question and i don't own both items. he bought a d40x and a kenko 420-

800mm super tele zoom. he claims, when he attached th elens to the camera, the camera does not recognize the

lens and says no lens attached. do any of you know if these two items capatible? if yes, how can he make it work?

 

thanks.

[ian_rose]

The only way it might work is in M mode with man focus

[tri-x1]

Not that familar with the lens but a Google search indicates it is manual focus and uses a T mount. So there's no way a D40x is going to be able to do much with it. Maybe he can set the camera to manual mode and guesstimate at f-stop and shutterspeed--or use a hand held meter. He'll also have to manual focus.

[tri-x1]

Your friend should have done more research before getting the camera and/or lens.

[frank_skomial]

T-Mount lens would possibly provide auto exposure in Aperture priority or Manual mode on D200 camera when set as a "non-CPU" lens. In a menu you tell the lens aperture value used that must match the lens aperture set, and D200 would select proper shutter speed for you.

 

On D40 in Manual mode, you must select proper aperture and shutter speed yourself, - try until you get well exposed pictures. The lens should be on a steady tripod. Use high ISO to help make better pictures. Use remote camera release like RF ? if that camera has one ? - to eliminate camera/mirror shake.

[lester_hawksby1]

If you put a lens with no chip onto the D40, it *will* work - but only in full manual mode, which takes a little

getting used to. In fact, for a T-mount lens like this, pretty much any camera will only work in manual - it's a

limitation of the lens, not the D40.

 

Brief instructions: (Pardon me if any of this is too basic)

 

- Mount the lens. Don't panic about the error message.

 

- Turn the mode dial to M. Set the ISO to 800 and set the shutter speed to about 1/800.

 

- Go outdoors in strong daylight. This lens does not gather very much light, so it will be difficult to use in

dark conditions. You might want to try using the biggest, heaviest tripod you have available.

 

- Aim, then focus manually. (Do not expect the green focus-confirm light to work with this lens - it does work

with manual lenses but only at wider apertures.)

 

- Shoot, and immediately examine the image review. If the image is totally dark or totally light the exposure is

way out, change the shutter speed by eight clicks of the dial in the appropriate direction (higher

numbers/shorter times if too light, lower/longer if too dark) and try again. If there is some image, check the

histogram, which is a representation of how the lights and darks in your image are distributed. It is unlikely

that the exposure will be absolutely correct, since it was just a guess. You want to set the shutter speed such

that the histogram tails neatly off off at each end rather than slamming into the end of the graph at a high

value. See the four blocks the graph is divided into? Moving the shutter speed dial four clicks (1 1/3 stops)

moves the tones on the graph by about that amount, higher speeds -> less light -> graph moves down. Use this to

work out a corrected exposure (easy with a little practice) and shoot again.

 

If you want to hand hold this combination, you will probably need a shutter speed in excess of 1/2000th of a

second. Experimentation will reveal how rarely available light will let you do this.

 

---

 

It should be possible to get acceptable images by this method, but they will never be technically great and it

will often be frustrating. Just to prove it *can* be done, this

 

http://pics.livejournal.com/raygungothic/pic/0003hf67

 

was shot using a T-mount full-manual lens (not the Kenko, but not a good lens either) and the above process. On

the other hand, more expensive lenses are more expensive for a very good reason - far better quality and a lot

more convenience.