LeZot Camera is the sponsor of a team in the Greater Burlington Area.  We are looking for a few established players that can run for at least 90 minutes and can score 3 or more goals per game=).  Please contact Jason at 802-652-2400 ext 1 or email jrobinboy@hotmail . com Attn Soccer Info.  Thanks! 

I was talking to an old timer on Saturday.  He came in the shop to just poke around and look at all the old stuff we have in the shop.  The SLR case seemed of extreme interest to him so when I finished ringing up a 25 pack of Forte Fiber-based paper and 2 rolls of Fomapan 120, I asked him what it was he liked so much in the case.  I think he spit out something like "everything" and then went on to tell me the next 20 years of my life. 

You see he once owned a camera shop in California and two years ago he had to close it "because of the money it made"  I assume that he meant the money it didn't make.  He described the shrinking margins on the new equipment, the competition from larger stores and the internet and the trend that many folks today don't realize how low quality the images they are capturing really are and even worse, how many of those people don't care. This I know, however I did not know what it was going to be like to be driven out of my store.  I'll tell you about that later.

 I have read a few articles about how sad someone was when their favorite camera shop went out of business.  Don't get alarmed...LeZotCamera is not closing it's doors!  I love this store.  I love our customers (even the biggest pains in the necks).  I love the way dust collects in every corner of every room.  I love on Saturdays when I know I will see the same dozen folks come in to see mostly the same three rooms of stuff they have been looking at for the past 30 years.  I love that people that bother to walk in our doors are really in love with photography.

We have a few internet customers that we can talk to, but I am sure they have no idea what they are missing on the other end.  The smell of fresh brewed Kenya AA mixed with  Pine-Sol.  The site of four guys who do nothing but talk about and think about cameras all day.  Where else can you find twenty different ways to explain aperture depending on your own personal experiences?  

Gotta go explain TTL metering

 

 

To even seasoned Nikon shooters the lens mount system was the main source of confusion when first starting to build a solid lens system.  Even recently Nikon has not made the issue any easier whith the D40 and the need for AF-S lenses.  This entry is not a solid guide to the Nikon lens mount system but I was just asked a question about whether a non AI lens will work on an Classic N2000 body. 

Here is my understanding of the AI systems:

Original F mount lenses:  These are the ones that were introduces in 1959 with the Original Nikon F system.  Most of these lenses were manufactured with the prong or "rabbit ears" on them.  The prong catches a lever in the Metered Prism Finders  also refered to as Photomic Heads in the F series SLRs. For the time this was a super advanced system for 35mm cameras as it allowed for the metering to be real time with the camera.  As you adjusted the shutter speed or aperture the meter adjusted to the new settings!

However, this system was a bit clumsy as there was an extra step or two needed to mount the lenses.  First to get a smooth mount on the camera the lens needed to be set on F5.6.  Otherwise it was possible to not make connection between the lens prong and the communication lever that  told the meter what aperture the lens is set at.  Not a big deal for most folks as it was easy to take off and try again, but if you can make it better why not.  The other step for the original f prong lenses and the Photomic heads is that you needed to INDEX the meter.  What this means is that the meter that to be told what the maximum aperture of the mounted lens was as a point of reference.  

Auto Indexed (AI) Lenses: These are the lenses that came after the F prong lenses.  What this system did was git rid of the need for the prong and manually indexing the lens mounted on the camera.  Basically Nikon replaced the metal prong with a raised tab along the side of the aperture ring.  This tab moves a spring loaded ring on the camera body to tell the meter what aperture the lens is set at. 

The problem with this is that folks had a bunch of lenses with the prong on them and no raised tab (non-AI).  Nikon could do some conversions to the non-AI lenses and replace the original aperture rings with updated AI aperture rings so that old lenses could be used on new metering systems. 

AI'd Lenses: People also found that some of the non-AI lenses with enough lip could be cut so that the aperture rings made contact with the index ring on the new bodies.  This is now know as AIing a lens.  You will see it described in KEH or eBAy as AI'd.  Be careful of these as not everybody with a dremel tool is qualified to use it.   

So to answer the original question:  Will a non AI lens fit on a Nikon N2000?  Well Yes and NO.  The F mount lens will "fit" on the camera but if the non AI lens' aperture ring puts pressure on the N2000's PLASTIC Indexing ring, it could and eventually will break the tab off the indexing ring.  This leaves your camera without a working meter system.  My advice is don't do it.  Nikon made a few cameras with a metal indexing ring like the FM and the F3.  These cameras allow the user to flip the tab out of the way of NON-AI lenses so as not to damage the camera and use Stop down metering.

Please feel free to correct, add or clean up this post!  Jason

To Describe later:

AIS lenses

AF

AF-S

 

 

Remember when collecting Leica and Nikon bits and pieces was a treasure hunt?  Going to yard sales and junk shops with the hope that you may find a little realized piece of goodness that would add bragging rites to your collection?  Now in the days of instant gratification all I have to do is hop on ebay and in 3-5 days I can have almost anything I want.  And I don't just think it is me that gets really ticked off when shipping takes longer than 4 days!   Reminds me of a wicked ad that Polaroid had a couple of years ago where the tag line was "because instant wasn't fast enough..."  I think they were making fun of us, and who could blame them.