Question on AI S on Nikon D40

[LBoard903]

As you can tell, or guess, I'm new to the photography world and purchased my Nikon D40 about five months ago. I was interested in getting a Nikon 50mm F/1.8 AI S and purchased one on ebay for a good price (or so I thought, at the time). Without realizing, after I won the bid, I realized I didn't know what an AI S was and thought they were all the same, after trying to research it, i realized that AI S meant it was a not auto-focus but manual. I also bought the book "Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies" but can't seem to find the answer to my question in the book. My question is, after realizing that this particular lens will fit on my D40 BUT does not have a Meter (I found this on the Nikon Lens Compatibility link), will I still be able to take pictures without using a meter? I'm not exactly sure what the meter does other than calcuate the size or focal range of an object. (At least this is what I think).

I'm planning on taking some photography classes after I graduate college in the spring. I cannot retrack this bid because it was my stupidity and not the sellers so it's not fair to him on behalf of my ignorance. I wanted to experiment on the object and the blurriness behind objects...so would I still be able to do that by using a manual lens with no meter?

Thanks!

 

[PatrickHMS]

Welcome to TPF!

The lens will mount on your D40 ~ BUT you will not have AF, since there is no such thing in that old a lens, and you will not have any in camera metering.

Use the old lens on your D40 with your camera set to manual, and manually focus your shots, and you will do fine.

That lens will have extremely nice image quality, will be great in low light situations, and your images will have wonderful bokeh.

And you will always be able to sell the lens if you do not like it, should sell quickly on Craigslist for a good price without having to pay a ton of eBay and PayPal fees.

 

[LBoard903]

Thanks! Look forward to playing around with different tecniques and subjects. I'm so excited!

 

[djacobox372]

"not having a meter" means that you will be limited to "M" mode, and you won't have the little exposure meter in your viewfinder that helps you select the correct exposure.

You have to set the aperture, iso, and shutter speed without any help from the camera; other then the ability to check your shots for correct exposure immediately after you take them.

It's not all that hard, and it will help teach you about exposure. Heck I still use film cameras with no meter, and I get great results without the ability to check my shots at all on a lcd display. I just use the sunny 16 rule and adjust from there.

sunny 16 rule = in bright mid-day sunlight the correct exposure is f16 at a shutter speed equal to the iso speed. Just use that as a baseline and extrapolate from there.