Nikon Lenses and Hard Infinity Stop
Jun 4, 2019 11:17:07 #
My Nikkor AF lenses have a hard infinity stop, but my AF-S lenses do not.
Does anyone know why this is? Is this caused by the SWM in the AF-S lenses?
Does anyone know why this is? Is this caused by the SWM in the AF-S lenses?
Jun 4, 2019 11:22:35 #
Jun 4, 2019 11:27:20 #
Fotoartist wrote:
Didn't know there was a hard infinity stop on any lens.
Yes, I have a number of Nikon AF lenses and they all have a hard stop when focusing to infinity.
Jun 4, 2019 11:32:46 #
Mac wrote:
Yes, I have a number of Nikon AF lenses and they all have a hard stop when focusing to infinity.
Yes, but is that true infinity? Live view has taught me it is not a hard stop.
Jun 4, 2019 11:37:33 #
PixelStan77 wrote:
Yes, but is that true infinity? Live view has taught me it is not a hard stop.
Being as I do not have the equipment to determine if it is "true" infinity or not I can not say. But I do know that on AF lenses the focus ring will not proceed past the infinity mark while on the AF-S lenses it does.
Jun 4, 2019 11:54:11 #
The marks are less exact stops and more generalizations. Don't ask me why.
Jun 4, 2019 11:57:40 #
The camera's af can't tell if has achieved best focus without going past and coming back?
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Jun 4, 2019 12:00:18 #
Back in my film days, I was taught when focusing at infinity to go to the infinity stop and back off just a tad. It seems to have worked then, I think it would work now. For the life of me, it was so long ago I can't remember the technical reason why, but there was one.
Jun 4, 2019 12:20:07 #
Mac wrote:
My Nikkor AF lenses have a hard infinity stop, but my AF-S lenses do not.
Does anyone know why this is? Is this caused by the SWM in the AF-S lenses?
Does anyone know why this is? Is this caused by the SWM in the AF-S lenses?
Well although your AF lenses that don't have built in motor do have hard stop but it's past infinity a bit. The AF-S lenses do not have a hard stop I believe the lens focusing movement and the focusing ring slip to allow the lens to AF but the ring doesn't move. When you move the ring the lens focusing moves but when at either end the ring will slip and doesn't move the focusing mechanism any more. They do it that way so that while the camera is AF the ring doesn't move so you can hold the ring also let you MF while it's in AF mode. That is why the AF-S lens has M and M/A position and not A and M. The M/A position allow both AF and MF.
Jun 4, 2019 12:21:05 #
SteveR wrote:
Back in my film days, I was taught when focusing at infinity to go to the infinity stop and back off just a tad. It seems to have worked then, I think it would work now. For the life of me, it was so long ago I can't remember the technical reason why, but there was one.
Probably to allow for DOF. That way some closer things would be in better focus.
Jun 4, 2019 14:39:43 #
Mac wrote:
Being as I do not have the equipment to determine if it is "true" infinity or not I can not say. But I do know that on AF lenses the focus ring will not proceed past the infinity mark while on the AF-S lenses it does.
Yes, that alone qualifies those optics, as having a hard stop! As for the answer, I do not know, maybe its just because of them being a newer design ( as many of them are now easily pushed past the mark, older designs did not do that), sorry, you'll have to wait 'til someone can clarify!
Jun 4, 2019 14:41:24 #
speters wrote:
Yes, that alone qualifies those optics, as having a hard stop! As for the answer, I do not know, maybe its just because of them being a newer design ( as many of them are now easily pushed past the mark, older designs did not do that), sorry, you'll have to wait 'til someone can clarify!
Thanks speters.
Jun 4, 2019 14:49:39 #
Mac wrote:
Being as I do not have the equipment to determine if it is "true" infinity or not I can not say. But I do know that on AF lenses the focus ring will not proceed past the infinity mark while on the AF-S lenses it does.
The AF-S lens does not go past the mark any more than screw drive AF lens. You can turn the focusing ring forever in the same direction but watch the marking, it only goes past the infinity mark by a little bit.
Jun 4, 2019 14:53:14 #
SteveR wrote:
Back in my film days, I was taught when focusing at infinity to go to the infinity stop and back off just a tad. It seems to have worked then, I think it would work now. For the life of me, it was so long ago I can't remember the technical reason why, but there was one.
Another thing, there is some manufacturing tolerance. To compensate for that the manufacturer will have to place a stop (and there is always some sort of stop to protect against jamming the mechanism) a little past where the actual infinity focus point is. Otherwise there would be some lenses for which the infinity focus point is a bit past the stop.
Jun 4, 2019 15:06:08 #
BebuLamar wrote:
The AF-S lens does not go past the mark any more than screw drive AF lens. You can turn the focusing ring forever in the same direction but watch the marking, it only goes past the infinity mark by a little bit.
Right. On the AF-S lenses it goes past the entire infinity mark and you can keep turning the focus ring but the focus does not advance any further than slightly beyond the entire infinity mark. But on the AF lenses it stops at the center of the infinity mark and the ring does not turn any further.
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