I’ve recently been shooting film with an old EOS camera from the 90s I bought used and it was really nice being able to use the EOS lenses I bought for my DSLR in the 2000s and 2010s. It’s a dying standard now but it’s really impressive it lasted as long as it has, with significant technological innovation on both sides of the lens mount while retaining full compatibility. A brand new EOS EF lens still works with an 80s camera and a new 80D from 2017 can still use the lenses from the 1980s without any adapter. 30 years ain’t bad for a standard!
I must be old -- I vividly remember the Nikon crowd crowing loudly online forums (fredmiranda.com I'm looking at you) about how Canon broke backwards compatibility when they moved from FD to EF. Whereas you could slap an F-mount lens from the 1950s on any Nikon DSLR ever made, no problemo. (Remarkably, this continues to be true!)
Except if you mount an old, so called pre AI lens, on certain Nikons, you will have to disassemble the camera to get it off. Many modern Nikons can't autofocus older AF lenses due to not having a motor. And many AF film SLRs couldnt meter with manual lenses. So far from perfect compatibility.
Nikon F mount was introduced in 1959. The oldest mount used today is probably Leica M from 1954
Oh yeah, that’s even better, totally agree, but it doesn’t negate my point. I don’t think Canon’s 30 or 40 years would be matched by a hypothetical present-day camera upstart, let alone Nikon’s 70 years.
As a Canon owner, Nikon has a much longer back compatibility range. Having autofocus motors and IS in body rather than in lens seems to be a part of their trick.
The traditional Nikon mount has a small screw that is turned. The camera autofocus speed is limited by the amount of torque that can be applied to the screw - which can make focusing some of the heavier lenses slower.
The "AF-D" lenses have contacts back to the camera body that communicate distance information (that is in turn used by the camera body to calculate flash power).
The G mount lenses remove the manual coupling for the f/stop which means that only bodies that can control the aperture from the body can use them. My FM3A has no aperture control on the body and so with that camera, I unlock the aperture ring.
The AF-S camera lenses have the focusing motor in the body.
The impressive part of Nikon's compatibility isn't only the "you can use an AI-S lens on a modern (professional) body, but also "you can use any of the F mount lenses on an old body" (the G lenses don't have the f/stop ring and the E lenses have the focus motor in the lens).
While it appears that Nikon has mostly shifted to E and G mount, third party lenses are still being manufactured for the F mount.
Difference between G and E-type lenses is that 'E' stands for Electromagnetic Diaphrapham.
The G type lenses have an aperture tab for diaphrapham control as dictated by the camera body, the E-type lenses leave this to being controlled by the camera electronically.
> you can't jiggle the film around to keep it in the same place.
Contax had an AF solution (Contax AX) that actually moved the entire film plane to focus. I suppose that the same thing could be done in other axises, but I also suppose that there is a reason that only one manufacturer tried it.
> Optical Image Stabilisation is effective with movement across a range of frequencies, so it can cope not only with simple camera shake (0.5Hz to 3Hz), but also with the engine vibrations encountered when shooting from a moving vehicle or helicopter (10Hz to 20Hz).
