Nikon Lens questions

[dbose]

Hi Guys

I was looking at the Nikon Normal AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D Autofocus Lens and found out that when I attach it to a Nikon D90, the only way it works is by turning the aperture ring (on the lens) to F22 - all other positions show an FEE error on the camera and can not take shots.

Is it because it's a D series lens and the camera can adjust the aperture from the body up to F22 (so any other settings on the lens conflicts this)?Ii realise that for G series lens there is no aperture ring on the lens which is kind of useless if the camera can change aperture from the body itself.

Another question that comes to mind is about Macro (micro) lenses. What is the main difference between (say) the Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G and the normal 50mm f/1.4G lens? The normal lens has a lower aperture (1.4) as opposed to the micro (2.8) so the depth of field can be used better in the normal lens. Is the only advantage of the micro lens is in it's 1:1 magnification and very low minimum focal distance (7.3" as opposed to 1.5'). Of-course there is price difference (50mm f1/8D - USD119, 50mm f1/4G - $429 and 60mm macro - USD539).

Thanks a lot for your assistance.

[I @ M]

dbose, the aperture ring on the 50 1.8 must be set to min aperture (F22) and locked into place in order for the aperture to be controlled by the camera dials and buttons.
I am not sure about the D90 but the d200 - 300 etc. have an option available within the menus to alter the aperture by the lens but otherwise they work the same way with D lenses in having to have the min aperture selected and locked.

Micro lenses have a reproduction ratio of 1:1 (or greater) whereas the 50G 1.4 has a maximum reproduction ratio of 0.15x meaning that it will not do "true" macro work.

[I @ M]

I have borrowed an image from Nikon Australia in the interests of public education which shows the two small orange marked tabs (highlighted in red) that must be aligned when the min. aperture is selected for the lens / camera to function correctly.

[arthurking83]

And to briefly elaborate more on what Andrew said:

the reason you have to set your(CPU'ed) lens to the minimum aperture, is that the camera automatically stops the lens down for you to the (camera dial) selected aperture value.
The lens' aperture is held open by the camera so that you get the brightest possible viewfinder image.

If you had an old manual Ai/Ais lens, without a CPU, then you have to use a full manual exposure and set the aperture value via the aperture ring by hand.

There are a few other issues with CPU'ed lenses and using the aperture ring(by hand), but my brain can't retrieve that info at the moment, and it may even be specific to the D300 series bodies.

[N*A*M]

for one thing, setting aperture by hand means you don't get as fine an adjustment as opposed to setting via the camera dial.