Nikon d40 lens help

[Benoby]

Hello!
I just bought a nikon d40 and planning to buy a nikkor 35mm f1.8 lens.
I need help because I do not know what does the d, ed means on nikon lens.
I found a good one with autofocus but it has 1 more connection pins, is it compatible with d40?
Is it close to 50mm with the crop factor of 1.5? I am asking this because somewhere I heard that d lens have the full film eqvivalents printed on them, but it souns silly.

 

[Alexr25]

The D40 does not have a focus motor built into the camera so to auto-focus you will need a "AF-S" series lens as these have a focus motor built into the lens.
This site has a good list of what various letters mean on Nikon lenses Nikon Lens Abbreviations .
Generally lenses for SLR/DSLR cameras have their actual focal length printed on them and its up to you to apply whatever crop factor is appropriate for your camera (1.5 for Nikon DX). Point & Shoot camera lenses are often labeled with their 35mm equivalent focal length rather than their true focal length.

 

[snowbear]

As Alex said, you can use the "D" lenses on a D40 (I used a 50 and 24 for years) but you just have to manual focus and use the rangefinder feature (green don lower left in viewfinder). The "ED" is a coating to improve contrast and sharpness, and the "D" means distance to the subject is captured.

 

[fmw]

D means distance. The original autofocus lenses were improved in 1992 with a "distance" capability to assist the accuracy of flash exposures. It isn't really very important. ED means "extra low dispersion" and refers to the glass used to make the higher end lenses several decades ago. It has no meaning today since most all lenses are marked ED. What is important to you is AF-S, the S referring to the silent wave focusing motor in the lens. Since your camera has no focusing motor you need the AF-S lenses in order to have auto focus with your camera. The D lenses will require you to focus manually. Not a big deal for me but perhaps it is for you.

 

[Derrel]

D means distance. The original autofocus lenses were improved in 1992 with a "distance" capability to assist the accuracy of flash exposures. It isn't really very important. ED means "extra low dispersion" and refers to the glass used to make the higher end lenses several decades ago. It has no meaning today since most all lenses are marked ED. What is important to you is AF-S, the S referring to the silent wave focusing motor in the lens. Since your camera has no focusing motor you need the AF-S lenses in order to have auto focus with your camera. The D lenses will require you to focus manually. Not a big deal for me but perhaps it is for you.

^^^Accrate information above, from fmw.

YES, the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX-Nikkor is one of the fairly few "DX" marked Nikkors, designed specifically for APS-C sized Nikon camera sensors. WIth the 1.5x FOV factor that camera introduces, the 35mm length lens will function similarly to the ways in which a 50mm length lens would function when mounted on an FX-or 35mm film sized camera.

The 35mm lens could be considered the "normal lens" length for Nikon DX-sensored cameras. Not wide-angle, not telephoto, but "normal" in its lens rendering effect.

The lens was always affordable, around $199 when new.

There has just recently been a much more-costly 35mm f/1.8 AF-s G Nikkor announced, but it is not a DX-series model.

 

[Benoby]

Thank you very much, just what I needed very informative

 

[snowbear]

One more thing with the "D" lenses: they have aperture rings, so they can be used on an older camera in the A and M modes.

 

[Benoby]

I have one more question if my camera body has 7 electrical pins to the lens, does the autofocus works with a 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX-Nikkor which has 8 pins?

 

[snowbear]

Yes, the AF-S lenses will auto-focus on the D40 and other bodies that lack the autofocus motor. You can download the manual for the lenses from the Nikon website (support) and look at the compatibility table, before you buy.

 

[KmH]

D lenses do not have an auto focus motor in the lens and are AF, not AF-S, lenses.
The S in AF-S indicates the lens does have an auto focus motor in the lens - a Silent Wave auto focus Motor.
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