Re: The Nikon D3 makes everyone's life better, even mine!!!

TH O <tho@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>In article <f9q5t35juqddjfrufq4hhcipls05e4p7ko@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Tony Polson <docnews2011@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> 
>> Nikon has been doing this for years.  I was very disappointed indeed
>> when the Nikon N80/F80 did not offer metering with AIS lenses.  Within
>> a short time, the only Nikon SLR body options for a photographer
>> expecting to meter with AIS lenses started with the F100, at a price
>> not unadjacent to the equivalent value of today's $1800.
>
>As far as I can see there is no justification for dropping this backward 
>capability except to increase Nikon's sales. 


That was my feeling at the time.  I wasn't happy.


>Is there really any 
>manufacturing cost for allowing a D80 to meter through AIS lenses that 
>were stopped down? How much would adding the features for AIS lens 
>coupling cost to the D80? $3? $5?


I mentioned the N80/F80 film SLR, not the D80 DSLR.  At the time I
think Nikon claimed the extra cost would have been about $80.  The
camera needed a ring to engage with the aperture ring of the lens and
transfer aperture data to the camera's metering system.

 
>> So this is nothing new.  What Nikon did was to improve their lenses
>> incrementally.  First AI, then AIS, then AF (in two attempts), then
>> AF-D, then AI-P, then AF-S, and now VR.  Somewhere in there was AF-P
>> also.  So Nikon offered some backward compatibility, but not the sort
>> of near-total compatibility that the Canon EF mount has offered.
>
>My point is that many of these changes created unwarranted 
>incompatibilities which Nikon has op****tunistically used to make bodies 
>and lens obsolete. Today, my concern is that they are consciously 
>creating incompatibilities so they can increase lens and body sales. 


That's certainly one way of looking at it.  Given Nikon's commitment
to some kind of backward compatibility, I think adding features on the
one hand and taking away some of the backward compatibility with the
other is probably inevitable, given the restriction of using the basic
F mount.


>> However, let us not forget that Canon abandoned its loyal FL and FD
>> customer base (and largely alienated it) with the introduction of the
>> EF mount.  At least Nikon has avoided that, going for step by step
>> changes that keep most Nikon users on board rather than Canon's one
>> step change that turned off a whole community of loyal fans.
>
>Canon certainly abandoned their users with the change. That was what 
>brought me to Nikon.


For me, the N80/F80 was the straw that broke the camel's back.  I also
had serious issues with the optical performance of some of my Nikkors.