D3200 with Manual Lenses

mcfallison

New member
I have inherited five manual focus Nikkor lenses:
50mm 1.4
50mm Micro
80-200mm 4.5
24mm 2.8
300mm 4.5

My question is whether I should purchase a D3200 to use with them. I know I will have to manually expose.

My other option is to sell the Nikkors and keep using my Sony A55 with a similar group of auto lenses.
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
I have inherited five manual focus Nikkor lenses:
50mm 1.4
50mm Micro
80-200mm 4.5
24mm 2.8
300mm 4.5

My question is whether I should purchase a D3200 to use with them. I know I will have to manually expose.

My other option is to sell the Nikkors and keep using my Sony A55 with a similar group of auto lenses.

I have a D3200, and I also have three very, very old lenses that went with my F2 (still do go with it, I suppose, if I were ever to use my F2). My three old lenses work just fine on my D3200, and I think I can say with a very high degree of confidence that the lenses you have will work just fine on a D3200. In fact, even if they are old non-AI lenses, which Nikon explicitly claims cannot be used on a D3200, they can be used on a D3200.

The one thing you will want to seriously consider is an aftermarket focus screen. Go to eBay and search for “bresson focusing screen d3200”. The stock focus screen in the D3200 is pretty much useless for manual focusing. The aftermarket screens are much better.
 
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mcfallison

New member
Thanks for the reply. Do you think these manual lenses would make use of the 24 megapixel resolution?

I read a review that said the kit lens would not.
 

paul04

Senior Member
I have a D3200 and use a 50mm f1.8 d manual lens, you can get very good pictures like these

cover.jpg

DSC_3439.jpg
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
Bob Bla[y]lock- How is the focusing screen installed?

Unfortunately, it does not come with useful instructions. I found reference to it somewhere else on this forum, leading to enough information for me to figure out out for myself. I don't feel like looking for that now, which is odd given that I did feel like trying to take this picture of my own camera, to show you the most important thing about the procedure.

2014-11-29 13.30.57a.jpg

Seen reflected in the camera's mirror, circled in red, is a wire clip. That clip holds the front (toward the lens) edge of the focusing screen. Gently grasping the middle that clip with a pair of tweezers (my screen came with a pair of plastic soft-tipped tweezers that were obviously intended for this very purpose) you push the clip toward the back of the camera, then it hinges downward, releasing the focus screen. You carefully remove the old focus screen, insert the new one in its place, and then manipulate that clip back up into its original position.

You want to be very careful, of course, not to let anything touch the mirror while you are doing this.

I think Nikon assumed that these who would buy a D3200 would mostly be the type who would never use anything on it other than a modern, auto-focus lens; so they equipped it with a focusing screen that was optimized to give the brightest, clearest display, at the expense of usefully showing what is in focus and what is not. The Bresson screen is much more like a traditional SLR screen, a little less bright, a little less clear, but it much more clearly show in-focus elements in focus and out-of-focus elements out of focus. Even when using my stock autofocus lens, I like this screen much more. There is something satisfying about watching the autofocus mechanism bring the subject into focus.
 

aroy

Senior Member
I have inherited five manual focus Nikkor lenses:
50mm 1.4
50mm Micro
80-200mm 4.5
24mm 2.8
300mm 4.5

My question is whether I should purchase a D3200 to use with them. I know I will have to manually expose.

My other option is to sell the Nikkors and keep using my Sony A55 with a similar group of auto lenses.
The D3xxx and the D5xxx series will not meter with the older manual focus lenses, as they have no CPU. With D7xxx and above the MF lenses will meter properly.

So essentially with D3200 the lenses will have to be focused manually and the exposure setting will also have to be manually set. The best option is to get a refurbished D610, rather than a D3200.

Most of the older lenses have enough resolution for the 24MP sensor, though they may fall short on micro contrast. It is just a question of deciding whether you want to focus manually or not.
 
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