I am working on a letter writing campaign for Nikon... (tell me what you think) see below:

To Whom it may concern:

I am writing you concerning the firmware crippling of the Nikon D80's meter in manual mode when using NON-CPU lens. While I understand that you do sell higher priced camera which allow both full metering with these older lens and will manually adjust the aperture I am disenchanted that the D80's meter does not even provide stopped down metering, ie it is turned off via firmware. If I had the money to buy the more expensive camera I would have but I was/am limited to the budget that I have. I do not think it is too much to expect that the meter could supply basic spot or centerweight metering without needing to know what the actual aperture is, my Nikon FE2 can do it and the lowest priced Canon Digital EOS camera can as well. The only reason the Nikon D80 and other lower end Nikon camera can not is that the firmware disables the meter if it does not detect a CPU on the lens.

I do not expect these old lens to work in ' Program ' or other automatic modes and I understand the lack of hardware on the camera to allow automatically stop down the aperture, but if the aperture is adjusted to the desired setting there is no reason that the camera should not be able to measure the available light and set the meter appropriately. When an older AI or AIS len is put on a camera which lacks the hardware to control the automatically control the aperture from the camera, the aperture on the lens adjusts as the setting is adjusted. This means that there is no need for the camera to make any adjustments between the light level it's receiving and the light it would receive when taking the picture as they are the same. All that would be required for the camera to operate in aperture priority mode would be for the camera to calculate the corresponding shutter speed, or in manual mode to determine if the set shutter speed would result in an over or under exposed shot.

If we compare this issue with some of your competitors we will notice the following:

According to this article - “Using manual lenses and telescopes with EOS cameras”

photonotes.org/articles/eos-manual-lenses/

All Canon camera automatically do stop down metering.

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Old and new stop-down metering styles.
The earliest Canon EOS cameras and the later models handle stop-down metering in two different ways. It’s easy to tell which style your camera uses.
Turn your camera on and remove any lens that may be attached to it. With no lens attached to the bayonet press the shutter release down halfway and look at the aperture setting in the viewfinder or top-deck panel.
If the display reads “1.0” (or any number other than “00” ) then you have the old stop-down metering style.
If the display reads “00” then you have the new stop-down metering style.
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If you look at the Pentax 10K, which is comparatively priced:

Manual: [link]

page 210 – Notes on [Using Aperture Ring]
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Aperture Ring Use
When [Using aperture ring] is set to [permitted] in [C Customer Setting] menu (p. 35), the shutter can be releases even if the aperture ring of the D FA, FA, F or A lens is not set to the A position or a lens without a A position is attached. However, the features will be restricted as shown in the table below.

Lens used | Exposure mode | Restriction
...
...
All Lenses | M ( Hyper-manual) mode | Picture can be taken with the set aperture value and shutter speed. In the view finder, [F--] appears for the aperture indicator. When depth of field is checked (optical Preview), AE meter is switched on. Exposure check is possible.
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I have seen references to this feature being added as part of a firmware upgrade to their “*ist D” camera, see here for details: [link]

So, if all Canon camera will automatically provide stopped down metering if they don't detect a CPU lens attached, and Pentax added the ability to meter with non-standard lens via firmware, when is Nikon going to address this issue? This is an issue beyond just old lens, consider “T Rings” and “T adapters” which allow telescopes and other optics to be connected to cameras via a standard connection.

Nikon even has an informational document which describes connecting nikon scopes to nikon cameras, see here:

[link]
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D-SLR to Nikon Fieldscopes
Nikon produces high-quality Spotting Scopes and Fieldscopes designed to be used for viewing far away objects. While these are not specifically designed of use on cameras, Nikon produces adapters to allow SLR cameras to be used with Nikon Fieldscopes. Currently we do not offer an adapter for D-SLRs with Spotting Scopes.
...
...
To use a Nikon D-SLR (D70, D100, D2X, etc.) camera on a Nikon Fieldscope you will need to purchase the Nikon Fieldscope Digital SLR Camera Attachment FSA-L1 (part #8322) or the 35mm SLR Photographic Attachment for Fieldscopes (part #7468). These attachments have a standard Nikon F mount which mounts to the camera and then threads onto the eyepiece connection on the Fieldscope.

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So, Nikon has products which allow some but not all of their scopes to be connected to their cameras. The difference between the two options is that the first includes a CPU so that the firmware
won't turn off the meter on the newer camera. Using a T-adapter and T-ring I can connect almost any scope to any camera, though most of the newer Nikon Camera I can't meter. Why doesn't Nikon's midline DSLR offer the same functionality as Canon's entry level DSLR?

If the above hasn't convinced you that it's a mistake to have metering disabled for NON-CPU lens, please consider the following tidbits:

[link]

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Oddly, Nikon manual focus lenses on most Nikon AF cameras are almost useless and provide no metering. These same manual lenses used with these adapters on Canon EOS cameras provide metering, more function than on most Nikon AF cameras. Strange but true!
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In summary, all but Nikon's highest level DSLR lack a simple functionality that is provided on all of Canon DSLRs. This is not a feature which requires expensive modifications to the camera but rather a feature which has most probably been explicitly been disabled and can be added via firmware. It does not just affect older lens but also usage with telescopes, microscopes and any creative process which doesn't put a CPU enabled lens on the camera. There are enough other functionality on the higher level camera that allowing this feature on your lower level cameras won't discourage sales of your higher level cameras. Lack of this feature is sending sales to your largest competitor because for the cost of an adapter like:

goshotcamera.com/product/LAD003EOSN?meta=FRG for $ 25 or
[link] for $229 or
[link] for $229 or
[link] for $175 etc..

plus an entry level Canon EOS camera such as

[link]

for $500 and use all your older existing Nikon Lens with metering on a new Digital Camera.

When considering all the above, Nikon is holding onto the customers they do mostly due to brand loyalty, and when customers seriously look at the above they have to seriously consider the options.


Could you please fix the firmware in an update or provide a logical reason on your site as to why customers should buy a Nikon D80 which can't do stopped down metering with non Nikon CPU-lens and costs more than the above combination of Canon camera and adapter which can mount and meter with older Nikon lens?

Thanks for your consideration,
Robert Alatalo