Nikon D50 and older Nikon lenses

"Fred Anonymous" <anon.RemoveThis@anon.com> wrote in message
news:e8elnc$h4m$1$8300dec7@news.demon.co.uk...
> Hello folks.
>
> I have a friend who had a Nikon F65 and a couple of lenses for it.
>
> She has just bought a Nikon D50 and finds that these older lenses will not
> autofocus on the D50 body.
>
> I don't use Nikon so here is my guess:
>
> The F65 body uses mechanical coupling between body and lens to focus the
> lens.
> The D50 uses electrical coupling to focus the lens (surface wave motor)
> and
> does not have any
> mechanical focusing capability. This means it cannot focus the older,
> mechanically focused lenses.
>
> Anyone confirm or correct this guess, please.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ian.
>
You can go to Nikon's web sight to double check what lenses will work on a
D50, but virtually all AI and newer lenses will "fit' any Nikon DSLR. And
that included older lenses that have been converted to AI. Now, these older
lenses will work, but only in manual mode and will not couple to the meter
or autofocus systems. If you are using an AF lens, make sure the M/A focus
switch is in the A mode. You can see the drive slightly prodruding from the
mount.

According to this, from the Nikon Web site, it should work with all AF
lenses:

High-Quality Nikkor Optics including NEW Compact and Lightweight AF-S DX
Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED Lens: The new D50 offers seamless
compatibility with Nikon's extensive family of high-performance AF Nikkor
lenses, as well as the expanding family of DX Nikkor lenses, providing
superb color reproduction, razor-sharp image clarity and fast and accurate
autofocus performance.
 >> Stay informed about: Nikon D50 and older Nikon lenses