Aperture control on Nikkor-H 50mm f/2 and D5100?

I remember watching some youtube video about the fact that regardless of what you set the aperture ring to, when you mount the lens on to the locking position, it opens it all the way up and then nothing budges it. Clearly the body doesn't know what the lens is and how to adjust aperture internally, but the lens aperture ring doesn't seem to work either. Everything is fine if the lens isn't locked in all the way or off the body.

That is interesting...

Went back to that youtube video, and it will work just fine in live view, but otherwise it will force the ap wide open. If you only mount the lens half-way, without locking it in, then you can tweak it around just fine.

Might look into simply removing the ap lever as long as it will still work without it

Hmmm, I may be talking out of school here because I will be the first one to admit I am painfully ignorant of pretty much all of Nikon's DSLR's except the D700 (and to be honest I am pretty ignorant of about 85% of what my D700 will do because I don't need it) but since the D5100 does not have an aperture sensing prong/ring like many other Nikon DSLR's, it is true that when the lens is mounted the camera would not have any way of knowing where the aperture ring was set. And with a Nikkor Auto H there would certainly be no way to transmit that kind of data to the camera. Or, for that matter. neither would there be a way any AI or AIS could either, with the exception of the 500mm f/4 AIS P which, although it was a purely manual lens, it actually did have contacts which transmitted aperture ring position. But if I am not mistaken, most digital cameras will fine tune the exposure based on how much light is coming through the lens, right up until the time the shutter curtains open.

Should work fine but only on the M anual setting...5100 should mount non Ai lens.

Eye-level said:

Should work fine but only on the M anual setting...5100 should mount non Ai lens.

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Won't mounting a non-Ai lens on a modern dSLR damage the camera?

Dave_W said:

Won't mounting a non-Ai lens on a modern dSLR damage the camera?

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Only if the camera has an aperture transmitting tab on a ring which goes around the lens mount. For cameras which lack this ring, mounting a non-AI lens will not hurt anything. On the F3 and F4 (pictured below) as well as the Nikkormat FT2/3 and Nikkormat EL, you could actually flip that little tab up out of the way so you could mount a non-AI lens without fear of damaging anything. The little button to the right of the tab is used to unlock the tab so you can flip it up. Honestly, I wish Nikon still did this with their digital cameras which still have that tab. Honestly, how much would it add to the cost of the camera? A couple of bucks?

Dave_W said:

Won't mounting a non-Ai lens on a modern dSLR damage the camera?

Click to expand...

I use non Ai lenses on my D5000 sir. My understanding is that anything that does not have an internal focusing motor can use the non Ai lenses albeit in manual mode only manual focus manual aperture etc...anything that does have the internal focusing motor can use anything Ai and later...

Oh god, now I feel really newbie.......

Didn't realize camera keeps ap wide open until you take a shot for focusing and visibility's sake. Guess no crazy surgeries for this lens.

Ahhh yes that pesky auto aperture...been confused on this one a time or two myself...

Clever gimmick, but really does throw you off if you're just staring into the cam and trying to figure why its still wide awake.

Oh you oughtta try doing what I did for about 5K snaps...wide open till I got focus...then I stopped down...talk about stupid...and I believed it was improving my focusing control the whole time (which it really may have by forcing me to concentrate and be more still)...

Well, reason I got it is to force me to continue mastering manual, everything. Plus it feels sooooo much better than my plasticy 18-70.