Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AI-s Pancake and Zone Focusing

[Akaky]

I know that this is going to sound incredibly stupid, but I can't figure out how to zone focus on this lens.  I've been zone focusing on Canon lenses for twenty years without a problem and now, all of a sudden, I've got problems. I got a Nikon FM2N and the fifty as a present last year and I want to use it, but it's going right by me. Are the colors of the  numbers significant or am I just being incredibly obtuse here? I know the answer is going to be very simple, but I am still not getting it. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[mike_halliwell]

Errr, what actually goes wrong?

..and don't just say they're out-of-focus....🤣

Edited May 15, 2023 by mike_halliwell

[Ken Katz]

Don't have this lens but if it looks like the one on the top of this page:  https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f18-ais-pancake.htm#id

then the yellow lines on the silver ring refers to f11, and the blue and orange lines refers to f16 and f22 respectively.  So if you set the focus ring so that the zone you want to focus at is within one of those colored lines pairs, and you set the aperture accordingly, then that is zone focus.   They probably didn't include any indication for wider apertures since the amount of DOF available using a 50mm lens on a FF camera is so limited that it is not very useful for zone focus or hyperfocal distance focus.

[Akaky]

35 minutes ago, mike_halliwell said:

Errr, what actually goes wrong?

..and don't just say they're out-of-focus....🤣

Well, it is out of focus, but I am buying a diopter to fix that. It's that I've used Canon FD lenses for years and I know how to read them. This Nikkor was a bit of a Rosicrucian mystery and I couldn't find anything on the Net that spelled it out for me. Thanks for answering.

[Akaky]

3 hours ago, Ken Katz said:

Don't have this lens but if it looks like the one on the top of this page:  https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50mm-f18-ais-pancake.htm#id

then the yellow lines on the silver ring refers to f11, and the blue and orange lines refers to f16 and f22 respectively.  So if you set the focus ring so that the zone you want to focus at is within one of those colored lines pairs, and you set the aperture accordingly, then that is zone focus.   They probably didn't include any indication for wider apertures since the amount of DOF available using a 50mm lens on a FF camera is so limited that it is not very useful for zone focus or hyperfocal distance focus.

Thanks for the info!!!

 

[SCL]

And the little barely visible red dot is for infrared focusing.

[BeBu Lamar]

How do you do it with the Canon lens? Besides why do you need to do zone focusing? You want to shoot very fast without having to focus? 

Edited May 15, 2023 by BeBu Lamar

[hjoseph7]

It could be something faulty with the focusing screen inside your camera. Check to see if it's loose, or installed incorrectly. I have both versions of this lens and have no problems with either. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by hjoseph7

[BeBu Lamar]

If you do zone focusing then the chances are you never have a picturs in sharp focus. They may be OK focus but not tack sharp.