focusing to infinity with old manual Nikkor 300mm telephoto on a Nikon D7000?

Greetings nikonites,

Not too long ago I picked up an old manual Nikkor 300mm f2.8 (ED-IF) telephoto lens to use on my Nikon D7000 camera. The lens generally works fine (nice glass), but I was disappointed to find that it will *not* focus to infinity. I'm wondering, firstly, is this due simply to a well-known (except to me) detail of incompatibility between manual lenses of this type and the D7000, or is it more likely that the lens is defective? Secondly, is there an easy, practical, and hopefully-not-too-expensive means of adjusting either camera or lens for focus at infinity?

Thanks in advance to anyone for any suggestions!

It should focus to infinity on all Nikons DSLRs. It might need some adjustment or a new mount... Hard to say since I'm not a lens repair specialist.

Thanks, Marcel, for your response. So it sounds like the problem lies with the lens, rather than with the camera. The lens mount *appears* to be in good shape (if that's what you mean), so it must be that the focusing is off and needs adjusting. I was hoping not to have to send the thing off for repair/adjustment, but it sounds like that may be the only solution...

Welcome to the forum,are you sure its not just focusing past infinity on the lens barrel.

Thank you, Mike! That's a lovely Tit you have there in your photo-id box... So what happens is that I open the focus ring all the way (it goes just a bit past infininity, in fact), but at that point I can still only focus on objects that are (roughly) 30-40 meters away. In other words, anything beyond that point is out of the focus range. Do you think there's any way to fix this without having to send it away for re-calibration?

Just to clarify some of the older lenses would turn beyond the infinity mark,this was as far as i can remember to allow infinity focus to be maintained for IR photography,i think this meant to focus on infinity you should not go to the end of the focus movement.

Best way to manually focus a lens to infinity is to focus all the way out, than back off slightly until your faraway subject is in focus. Most lenses (not just the old, but the new too) will go past infinity, and they appear to start focusing closer again. But if you start backing off gradually, you'll normally see it settle in. Give that a test and see how it works for you?

And welcome to the forums!

Pretzel said:

Best way to manually focus a lens to infinity is to focus all the way out, than back off slightly until your faraway subject is in focus. Most lenses (not just the old, but the new too) will go past infinity, and they appear to start focusing closer again. But if you start backing off gradually, you'll normally see it settle in. Give that a test and see how it works for you?

And welcome to the forums!

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Never noticed it on the new ones,too long since i manually focused

Thank you, Mike and Pretzel, for your feedback & suggestions. Unfortunately, moving back gradually does not seem to resolve the problem. The thing with this lens is that it focuses smoothly and tack-sharply up to about 30-40 meters, then it loses it (as do I, when I'm trying to shoot a bird that's perching and preening in plain view just beyond that distance). At the same time, if/when, from the same vantage point, I replace it on my camera with my cheaper and optically inferior Tokina 300mm f4, then I can focus well beyond 50 meters even before reaching the infinity mark. Do you think this focusing limitation on the manual Nikkor 300mm f2.8 somehow be the result of compatibility with the narrower DX frame of my Nikon D7000?

Although mentioned before AI and AIS lenses with an ID element or elements focus past infinity

velikiuzhas said:

Do you think this focusing limitation on the manual Nikkor 300mm f2.8 somehow be the result of compatibility with the narrower DX frame of my Nikon D7000?

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Doubt it, or it would show up as an issue on a lot of other lenses. Just my thoughts, anyway...

That makes sense. And I don't think I've seen any other reports or warnings of incompatibilities between Nikkor ED-IF manual lenses and DX SLRs like the D7000.

It is very difficult to imagine it is normal for any lens not to focus at infinity. I think the lens needs to be checked/repaired by a capable repair facility.

Have you tried differeent bodies?
Harle

Wayne, Harle, thank you both for your responses. Yes, I did try it on another body -- an old manual Nikon FE. Same problem: focuses fine up to about 50 meters (with most distant point of focus seeming to be slightly more distant with the manual camera than with the DSLR, but essentially the same), but then cannot focus on points more distant than that, i.e. from (roughly) 40-50 meters to infinity. So I fear that Wayne is correct that a repair specialist needs to look at it. Problem is, I don't know if a repair would be worthwhile for this lens, which is not worth more than, say, $700-$800, I presume. Does anyone have any idea how much a re-calibration (if that's the problem) for an old manual 300mm f2.8 Nikkor lens might set me back? If the repair is $500 or more, then it will be hard for me to justify...

mikew said:

Welcome to the forum,are you sure its not just focusing past infinity on the lens barrel.

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A good suspect as I have Ai lenses that do that. I learned that with my D7100. Since then I try to keep focus under the max, i.e. 289mm. and enjoy that glass!

Thanks, coolbus18, for your response and remarks. The problem is that the lens will not focus at distant ranges. I cannot get a focused image of the moon (for example) at any setting on the lens, be it slightly before infinity, at infinity, or just beyond infinity. And the same problem arises whether I put it on my Nikon D-7000 camera, or on my old manual Nikon FE camera. So I no longer suspect that the issue is one of camera-lens compatibility. In any case, I already boxed it up and sent it out to a repair specialist out in California. Still waiting to hear back from him with a diagnosis, estimate etc....