It'll get longer if I go digital - says Nikon

[Den]

I've had an interesting conversation with Nikon Customer Services. I am thinking of getting into the digital age by replacing my venerable Nikon 35mm bodies and beloved Kodachrome 64 with either a D2H or DX1 digital body as they are the only ones that are compatible with my aged 600mm f5.6 IFED manual lens. The nice man at Nikon tells me that due to the size of the smaller size of the CCD in the digital body the lens focal length will be increased from 600mm to 900mm!!! So I won't be needing the teleconverter then.

[Phiggys]

Thats right the 600mm f5.6 will become a 900mm f5.6 and if its a 2x converter you will have a masive 1800mm f11 lens.
Now thats what you call pulling power.

[Adey Baker]

So Nikon are saying that the more affordable D70 and D100 aren't compatible with older manual focus lenses?

This would be disappointing for anyone wanting to change gradually to digital - after all, one of Nikon's main selling points was the continuance of its F mount to provide at least a bit of compatibility.

Not sure that cropping the middle of an image (which is what you're doing, effectively) counts as increasing your focal length by 50%. It's just the same as having a selective enlargement made - mind you, that 600mm lens is a helluva good optic to stretch a bit farther!

[Den]

I bought the lens second hand and it's still bitingly sharp. I've never fussed about camera bodies, regarding them as a box to record the image. The quality of the light and the lens has always been paramount. I find it hard to enthuse with those who seem to be mad about the latest magic box. I wonder if switching to digital will disappoint me with the quality, compared to slides?

[JonB]

Den: One plus with the D1/D2 series is that you can change the focusing screens. You can't do that with the D100, and I find the matte screen difficult to focus manually - I'm hopeless at it. I'd say the D1/D2 series would probably suit you better in that respect, although you certainly pay for the privilage.

[Jay Turberville]

I bought the lens second hand and it's still bitingly sharp. I've never fussed about camera bodies, regarding them as a box to record the image. The quality of the light and the lens has always been paramount. I find it hard to enthuse with those who seem to be mad about the latest magic box. I wonder if switching to digital will disappoint me with the quality, compared to slides?


I haven't used a DSLR. But folks like Nigel Blake swear by them and have pretty much abandoned 35mm film. My understanding is that a 6MP actually resolves a bit less overall detail than a sharp 35mm slide film. BUT - and its a big "but" - the digital has much less noise. So the overall resulting impression of detail and clarity is often better than film.

You can always go to www.dpreview.com and download full resolution JPEGs as taken with the camera being reviewed (usually full resolution "fine" mode) and then print and/or analyze the image(s) to see if the quality is what you desire.

I did this when wondering if a 5MP (cp5000) camera was really that significantly better than a 3MP camera (cp995). So I printed test shots at very large sizes and compared them. The difference isn't as large as one might think, but it was noticable.

[Leif]

I've had an interesting conversation with Nikon Customer Services. I am thinking of getting into the digital age by replacing my venerable Nikon 35mm bodies and beloved Kodachrome 64 with either a D2H or DX1 digital body as they are the only ones that are compatible with my aged 600mm f5.6 IFED manual lens. The nice man at Nikon tells me that due to the size of the smaller size of the CCD in the digital body the lens focal length will be increased from 600mm to 900mm!!! So I won't be needing the teleconverter then.

Den: By compatible I presume you mean that the body will meter with a manual lens? It is possible to have a CPU chip installed in most manual lenses. I had one installed in my 200mm F4 AIS micro lens. You need to contact Rolland Elliott in the US. (A search in google should find him.) Otherwise PM me and I will dig out the link.