.. or was it me. Bought a 2nd hand zoomlens (70-300) for my Nikon and it arrived the day before I went on vacation. It's a G type, zo no aperture control ring on the lens itself. So I put the camera (F601) on A setting and shoot lots of pictures with on my vacation in Australia. Got the films back today and EVERY SINGLE ONE taken with the zoomlens is majorly underexposed. It's like the camera saw too much light with the zoomlens on it. I'm so pissed off right now because there were some very cool shots in there :( somewhere between 1/4-1/3 of my pictures is just darkness. /rant

Hmmm.... ok the thing about those G lenses ..... 1. Are you sure your camera is compatiable? It's my understanding that they are made to work with the newer Nikon models that have aperture control with-in the camera body. Wrong lens on the wrong body will render the meter useless. 2. Did you try shooting in manual mode? Or did the camera go into program mode and you forgot about it? 3. If you set it into some sort of program mode, which one was it? Shutter priority, aperture priority.... or some special mode? 4. Were they flash shots, or did daylight shots also turn out dark? Lots of questions.... no answers... maybe with a little more info?

I set it on "A", aperture priority. At max zoom that automatically gives 5.6. All shots were outdoor, bright sunlight shots with no flash. I tried no manual shots since I thought everything was fine. It's this lens: http://www.nikon-image.com/eng/Nikkor_Lenses/AF_Zoom/af70-300gb.htm and the body is a F-601

G lenses don't work fully with F601 cameras. They're not compatiable. For whatever reason, the only modes it works right with are shutter priority and programmed auto. The F601 can't correctly control the aperture in A or M mode. The reason your shots were underexposed is probably that you were setting it to f/5.6 and getting shutter settings from that, but there's no way to know what the "real" f-stop was when you clicked the shutter. Could have been closing all the way down to f28 or f32. Try using it in shutter priority or program auto modes. That way, the camera will set the proper aperture. -=>Donald

Don't mind me.... I just deleted my guesses at what the problem might be.... but I would bet my last dollar that Donald's answer is the correct one. :~)

The P(m) modes didn't work anyway, the gaven an Fee error. Didn't try the S mode. Damn, I could be stuck with a lens that's incompatible. Wish I'd know that before so I didn't ruin all those shots :( tnx Donald.

Rinze - I have friends who are saying the same thing. Being Nikon-heads like they are, they were extremely pissed off that Nikon came up with a lensmount that has varying levels of incompatiablity with their older cameras. And their absolute biggest gripe, and I think it's a justified one, was in them taking the aperture ring off. Any chance you can take the lens back and exchange it for something else? -=>Donald

Wait wait! You said you have a Nikon, right?? I have the N55 model and if that lens is compadable with my camera, I'll buy it from you...if you'd like :o). He He! Jinx

Hey! I was going to offer to buy it! My post didn't post! grrr Seriously, if you want to sell it, E-mail me. Magick Michael

I probably can't return it. I guess I could email Nikon and ask them if they are compatible (is there a list available somewhere so I don't run into this again), otherwise I guess I could sell the lens or get another body that is compatible. My 601 lost the rewind pin on the bottom when I bumped it so now I need a pin to rewind. If I am going to sell it I'll let both of you know :) This made a dent in my faith in Nikon :(

I can understand it. Canon-ites like myself went through something similar about 15 or so years ago. It was annoying, but at least they did a total departure in mount from the old FD to new EF. That way you couldn't mount the old ones on new EOS bodies (at least, not without a special adapter ring). Back when I was looking at the D100, I tried to find all I could on what the different lens mounts where and what not. Could not find any kind of compatibility list anywhere on Nikon's site. You'd think they'd make that really easy to find. Will give it another looksee. -=>Donald

GAH!
I found something on the Nikon site
quote: "The G-type Nikkor has no aperture ring; aperture should be selected from camera body.
G-type Nikkor is compatible with all exposure modes of the Nikon F5 [snip]... and F-601M.
Other cameras are not compatible."

Apperantly there is another version of the 601.. the M and that one is compatible.

I need an F5 [grin]

ahh...what kind of body is that? LOL. is there such thing as a N55 body? LOL! Jinx

I think the N55 is the F55.. marketing reasons I guess. The F5 is the top of the line body of Nikon :)

See here for more info. Tad expensive though (over $2000) :)

Canon ... you couldn't mount the old ones on new EOS > bodies (at least, not without a special adapter ring). Does that mean that a Canon lens that works on my Canon A1 would work on a Canon EOS digital? What's the model number for that adapter ring?

Attached Link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2985202002&category=30059

Attached Link: http://www.nikon-image.com/eng/35mm/f55.htm

Well Jinx, it is compatible with the F55, but I'm eying a 2nd hand F70 right now. Whether I sell my lens and get a working one for my F-601 or buy the F70 body doesn't matter much money wise so I'm probably keeping it and getting the F70.

Thanks Donald. Knowing what to look for helped ... and google knew where to look. The best reference was here ... http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-manual-lenses/ BTW, the item is an Canon Lens Converter FD-EOS and google did fine with just FD-EOS I found out just how much trouble I might have and that none of my FD lenses could work with an EOS body. In summary, I didn't spend additional money and didn't buy additional trouble.

Okay that's cool! I hope you take a lot of pictures with your new Body.......um,,,errmmm....yeah;.. Jinx

Well it's decided. I bought the F70 :) So I'm gonna test it against my lens to see the results.