Nikkor AF-D

[Gerry M]

Any reasons to not use Nikkor AF-D lenses on FE2 & F3 bodies?

[rolleiman]

They will fit OK, but the autofocus lenses lack any kind of "feel" when manually focussing. Presumably you already have AFD lenses? If you haven't there's no point in buying them for cameras with no autofocus function. The Nikon AIs manual lenses are (and feel) better made and some rate the optical performance better too, although I think this depends on the individual lens. Some Nikon autofocus lenses feel more "plasticky" than others.

[Gerry M]

They will fit OK, but the autofocus lenses lack any kind of "feel" when manually focussing. Presumably you already have AFD lenses? If you haven't there's no point in buying them for cameras with no autofocus function. The Nikon AIs manual lenses are (and feel) better made and some rate the optical performance better too, although I think this depends on the individual lens. Some Nikon autofocus lenses feel more "plasticky" than others.

I have AI, AI-S and AF-D. Agree with build quality & "feel" of the AF lenses. I wanted to try my 28-70/3.5-4.5 AF-D on a manual focus body. It fits and meters OK, just didn't want any nasty surprises. Thanks for your input.
Gerry

[rolleiman]

I've never owned the 28-70 AFD Nikon.......one short range zoom I can really recommend is the 35-70mm 3.5 manual focus (same aperture throughout zoom range) it's incredibly good and also has a macro function at 70mm. I used it extensively when working as a pro., it's the only zoom I've owned that I can confidently claim matches the fixed focal lengths over the range. A truly stunning lens. (don't confuse this with the cheaper 3.3-4.5 lens over the same range, it's not in the same class.)

[Gerry M]

^^ Thanks for this info. I'll start looking for one of those.

[randyB]

I've used my 85mm f/1.8 AF on my FE2 in auto photographing the family kids. I found the "plasticky" feel of the manual focus to be an advantage as there was almost no drag while focusing. I could use just one finger to quickly fine focus, we are talking 1-2 inches of FF. This lens has extremely shallow DF at close range when used wide open so fine focus is critical. Using an AF body is easier but to me it doesn't always pick the exact spot I want to focus on even with multiple focus spots in the viewfinder.

[Kiron Kid]

The Nikon 28-105 is quite good too.

[destroya]

they work fine but have a much different feel to focusing than the AI &AI's lenses do. I put the older 35-70 2.8D on my FE2 and it had some nice resistance to the focus ring, not unlike some of my manual lenses. but then I put a newer 50 1.8D and it had, like was mentioned above a plasticy, thinner, cheaper feel to it. Hard to describe it, but there is little resistance to the focus ring and it feels kinda hurky jerky if that makes any sense. Not to say it won't work. I've taken many wonderful pictures with the newer style D lenses. I just prefer the older over the newer D lenses on my manual focus bodies.