Help with old lenses i was given. AF NIKKOR 35-70mm 1:3.3-4.5

[AutumnCurl]

Hi,

I was given 2 old lenses by a friend a AF NIKKOR 35-70mm 1:3.3-4.5 & a AF NIKKOR 70-300mm 1:4-5.6G.

As i only have a D5000 - i understand they can not AF.

I can manually use the 70-300mm one no problems.

But i know nothing about the 35-70mm - and i cant seem to get it to AF at all - we are trying to work out if we are doing something wrong or its totally not compatible or the lens is broken.

Any advice would be helpful thanks.

[wolffman]

They won't autofocus on the d5000 as they are both screw driven lenses. They should meter ok though

[I @ M]

AC, there seem to be a few versions of the 35-70 around, man focus, auto focus models etc. have a look at this page --- http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/AFNikkor/AF3570mm/index.htm --- it details a few of them.

[peterb666]

The 35-70mm will be a screw drive AF so you can only use it manual focus. As the 70-300 is a 'G' lens, I expect it has an internal motor; if so, the AF will work fine.

[I @ M]

The 35-70mm will be a screw drive AF so you can only use it manual focus. As the 70-300 is a 'G' lens, I expect it has an internal motor; if so, the AF will work fine.

Not necessarily correct Peter, the 35-70 may be a manual focus model if the AF in the original post is a typo or mistake ( unlikely) and the 70-300 is almost 100% bound to be the screw driven model. The reasoning behind that is that one model 70-300 is a 4.5-5.6 lens with a designation of AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED whilst the other "kit" lens is the AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6G and it has a screw driven autofocus. The G designation doesn't refer to the autofocus method, the difference between them is that lenses named "AF" are the in camera driven focus models and the lenses with the built in motor are all labelled "AF-S".

[peterb666]

You are quite right that the AF Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6G was available as a screw drive AF lens. My mistake. I am well aware of what the 'G' designation represents* as I have a collection of Nikon lenses and have been using Nikon SLRs and dSLRS since 1975. The excuse I will use re the AF drive is that I am a late convert to AF having kept my Ai lenses until about 3 years ago. ;)

Also while there was non-AF 35-70 f/3.3-4.5 I think it would be pretty hard to misake the AF lenses as non-AF. The lettering "AF NIKKOR 35-70mm 1:3.3-4.5" is clearly stamped on the lens body and the bezel around the front element of the lens.

I don't think there is much point raising details of lenses not mentioned.

It is quite possible there is a typo in the original post and possibly the reference to not being able to get the 35-70 to 'AF' after previously acknowledging that it cannot AF on the D5000 is a mistake it may be a reference to being unable to focus the lens manually.

There are a couple of possiblilities.

1. The focussing cam is jammed. Quite possible as this lens could be up to 25 years old and it was of a cheaper construction to most of the Nikkor lenses of that age.

2. The earliest versions of the AF lens had a very thin manual focus ring at the front that doesn't look like a focus ring - more like a bit of decoration. The more obvious wider band with the focus window in this model doesn't move. I am going to have a wild guess and think this could be it.

* As Ken Rockwell puts it "gelded" and a pain if I want to use these lenses on my Olympus Pen because it is impossible to set itermediate apertures accurately.

[AutumnCurl]

Sorry i am not good at explaining myself - i understand that there will be no autofocusing.

i cannot get the manual focus to work - however as i get a error msg - i think what i need to do is digital set the aperture to be able to manual focus - otherwise i think that something is wrong with the lens itself.

[peterb666]

If the lens has electrical contacts around the base, then there shouldn't be an issue EXCEPT 25 year old electronics are known to sometimes fail. Loss of CPU communication will affect metering but should not affect manual focus.

The first generation of the 35-70 AF zoom did not have distance data communciation with the camera but this should not affect MF snf probably not AF either.

What is the error message? Is it due to the aperture ring not being set to its highest value (which affects metering). Again, the early version of the 35-70 AF zoom is a little different to later lenses in that the aperture ring lock for aperture priority etc is a button rather than a sliding switch. Is this correctly set? If not set correctly, this will cause a metering related problem that will prevent you taking a photo.