Hello, all. My name is Aaron and I’m brand new to the forum. I have a question regarding the use of old school F mount Nikkor lenses on modern EOS EF cameras. I already have a simple adapter that allows for mounting the lens, but I was wondering if any electronic versions exist that allow for auto focusing. I’ve searched the internet but have not found any such adapter. Not sure if it’s because of a technology conflict or that I’m just not looking hard enough. I’m interested because I’ve always preferred the feel (and price) of Nikkor lenses and also like having an aperture ring, but I would very much like to be able to auto focus with them. Thanks.
I'm not a nikon guy,, but isn't f mount pre-autofocus? You can't make a manual lens auto focus, they don't make adapters that turn the barrel of the lens for you.
Many of the lenses are listed as AF lenses, but they are from the SLR age, so perhaps it was a different form of technology, since there obviously was no computer in the camera to perform the autofocus. Most of the adapters I’ve found, however, don’t mention that the lenses aren’t capable of autofocus, they simply state that this is a “manual” adapter and so electronic features such as autofocus are disable by using the adapter. This seems to suggest the a non-manual adapter, ie an electronic one, could utilize the autofocus feature in theory, but I can’t seem to find any such thing out there, so I’m starting to think it’s simply a technological impossibility.
I have used old Nikkor F mount lenses adapted to my Canon digital camera, but they were all manual focus lenses. If you are looking at manual focus lenses there is no adapter to allow them to autofocus. I do not think that even modern Nikon lenses that have autofocus can be used on Canon cameras except in manual focus mode. I have used other old manual focus lenses as well, in OM and M42 mounts. They are very inexpensive and are some of the best lenses I have ever used. It really isn't hard to use manual focus. Is there a reason you want autofocus? If you are doing sports photography or something, you are probably better off with a modern Canon/compatible autofocus lens.
Welcome to the forum, Aaron, what you have is two different makes that electronically do not communicate with each other, like others that have replied I use a adapter and different makes, if you are finding your images a bit soft due to focusing, put your camera in live view and hit the magnify (+) button twice and zoom in to fine focus, hit the zoom (+) button and refocus. its a bit of mucking around but slowing down helps with your images and makes you think more about composition. This also can lead to zone focusing, all part of the fun of photography.
