1Feathercrest Loc: NEPA

Buy an exposure meter. I still have (and use) my old Wesson with manual on my DSL , and I sometimes use an old lens on the digital. Experiment and broaden your "photography" skills. Not every shot has to be computed by the camera. Your own skills should come into play.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Taking this discussion a little further down it's twisty road, I only think it is worth messing with the better old lenses.

I will be testing that theory later this week with a chipped adapter for a newly relubricated micro nikkor lens on a Cannon DSLR. Should be fun!

bthomas42 Loc: North Ridgeville Ohio

I have a Nikon D5200 and use my old canon FL lens frequently. My lens are a 35mm, 50mm. 135mm, and 200mm I have not had any problems with focus. shooting in manual mode I have to select aperture and shutter speed the same as with the Canon cameras

cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX

I have used an number of Pentax m42 mount lenses and Zeiss lenses made for Contax and Rollei on my Canon full frame. It's fun to use them for "art shots", although I agree with the sentiment that lens design has improved since then. Also manual focus through the viewfinder is a little more difficult as the split focus screens I grew up with are no longer the rule on modern DSLRs. In fact I have gotten a bit lazy and have not shot with them for a while. They have almost run afoul of my rule that if you don't use it for a year.....

machia Loc: NJ

I use my old manual Rokkor lenses on my Canon with the use of a MD-EOS Fotoiox adapter . It meters , and I can shoot in manual and aperture priority . Slight image degradation due to rear glass on adapter but not noticeably bad in any way . Bringing back to life all those Prime and Zoom lenses with Aperatures of f1.4 and f1.7 was well worth it .

cthahn

Attach them to your camera and try them for your self. Why do you have to ask everyone else what to do?

Djedi

When I first purchased a Nikon DSLR (D700), I used some of my legacy lenses to save money. They worked, but required a bit more time and thought. Then I started shooting some sports and wanted instant, accurate focus. DSLR viewfinders no longer have the split screen (metering issues) and my older eyes could not keep up. So I sold the old lenses for the new.
Today the only manual focus lenses I use are the super wide Rokinons, where "close enough" always gives me fabulous results, since they have such a large DOF.
Also, the newer optical formulas, ED glass, and improved coatings just don't make it worth my time to use outdated glass.
Unless, of course, someone wants to prove me wrong by donating a 15mm f2.8 Zeiss Distagon......

MEB540 Loc: New Jersey

I have had really good luck using Nikon PC lenses on my canon cameras. Because of their design the adapter does not require any glass so no degrading in image quality. I use both the 28mm and 35mm Perspective correcting lenses, and what works really nice is the design of the lens with two aperture rings, the first is used as normal to set the desired f stop and the second allows you to open it to wide open for focusing and then quickly close it down to the preset aperture for shooting. I have also had very good luck using the lenses with live view for focusing, even without a chipped adapter.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

The discussion may be interesting to quite a few people. Why do you participate on UHH?

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I use my older Nikon mount 3rd party & Nikkor lens on my D7100 & D300 DSLR's. My older Canon, Konica, Minolta, Pentax (both screw & bayonet mount) Leica and other mount lenses get used on my mirrorless cameras. I tried the adapter to DSLR for my Nikon DSLR's but it wasn't worth it. Many of my older lenses were computer designed & give excellent results, others don't. Since Nikon cameras have one of the longest registration distances, most any lenses adapted to them require an element to maintain infinity focus. Most of those elements are not of very good quality. The better ones are pricey, thus it's cheaper to just buy quality older MF lenses as opposed to going the adapter route.

JimRPhoto Loc: Raleigh NC

In the film days, at different times, I had a Nikon system, and a Canon T-90 system (last before they changed the mount). I now have adapters permanently mounted to my old Nikon lenses, and to my old Canon lenses, to use them with a full frame Canon 5Dii. The thing I want to mention is that the Nikon lenses use an adapter with no extra glass (lens) in the adapter, and as far as I can tell, they focus well to infinity, and they are true to their original focal length (i.e. A 50mm lens is still a 50mm lens). However, not so for the adapters for the Canon FD lenses to the FL format. Those adapters all have glass (lens) and although focus is sharp, and I can't tell the difference in quality, there is one important thing. The adapter makes a 35 mm prime lens become about a 50 mm lens on the camera. And a 50 mm lens becomes about a 70 mm lens. So if you are OK with that, then the adapters should work fine. I bought one recently that touted it would focus to infinity, would not change the focal length, but I had to return it. It did not come anywhere near focusing to infinity. Just some lessons learned. One last thing: I found the Photodiox brand to be the best made. Good luck with checking this out. JimR

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

Unfortunately, the results will be poor.

BebuLamar

All of my lenses were bought to be used on film camera.

randall56

I've been a professional Nikon user for going on 40 years and have never sold any old equipment. I own 16 old Nikon film cameras from the original F models through to the F5 and F100. The reason I stuck with Nikon when making the jump to digital is I am able to use ALL my old Nikon glass, literally dozens of lenses from fisheye to long telephotos and many zooms. I love using my old 55mm f1.2 non AI lens for portraits on my D7100 and on my D700 for low light. You can meter with the Nikon digital cameras and there is a focus assist indicator in the extreme left lower corner of the viewfinder. All you have to do to meter is go into the menu settings, go to Setup Menu then Non-CPU Lens Data. Then assign the lens a number, enter the focal length and enter the maximum aperture(lowest number) and press OK. Your Nikon digital camera will now meter in Aperture priority or manual exposure. There is an exposure meter in the center of the lower viewfinder to show correct, over or under exposure. Try it, it works great! I have read that the only thing inferior about the older lenses are the modern coatings. These older Nikkor lenses are all glass and metal, not like the cheap plastic G lenses. Read some of the reviews on Ken Rockwell's site of older Nikkor lenses. You can pick up these older lenses reasonably cheap.

romanticf16 Loc: Commerce Twp, MI

Manual and Aperature exposure are available using older Nikon lenses on all newer Nikon digital cameras except the D3000 and D5000 series. Everything from the D90, D300 thru the D7000 series + all FX models will meter and indicate focus in the finder by a green light.