Intelligent NIK/NEX Adapter

[Nirv]

There are several EF/NEX adapters coming to market but so far only dumb NIK/NEX adapters like the novoflex.

I wondered of there was a technical reason why no "intelligent" adapter has been developed for Nikon lens on NEX cameras? It would be nice to have VR working.

Does anyone know if there are technical reasons why this could not happen or legal reasons/proprietary reasons? I would've though there would be demand for it if priced right.

 

[Luis Caffesse]

I would've though there would be demand for it if priced right.

I think that's exactly the problem.... not sure there is enough demand given what it would have to cost.
Look at the novaflex NIK/NEX mount, a dumb mount that already costs about $300.

To create a smart mount a company would either need the cooperation of Sony and Nikon (which probably isnt' going to happen) or they would need to reverse engineer both sides of the mount, which would take many hours of R&D and would need to made up for in the price.

I know that when RED was developing their smart Nikon mount Jarred has posted that the electronics required were much more sophisticated than what they had to do for their Canon mount, so apparently the engineering is much more complicated.

So, in the end, my guess is that the price probably can't be made low enough given that the demand is probably not high enough to begin with.

(I wish that weren't the case though, I have both an FS700 and FS100 and a whole slew of Nikon G lenses)

 

[Chris Johnston]

To create a smart mount a company would either need the cooperation of Sony and Nikon (which probably isnt' going to happen) or they would need to reverse engineer both sides of the mount, which would take many hours of R&D and would need to made up for in the price.
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Sony has been handing out all the tech details/ schematics, etc on their side to all the lens manufacturers at no cost what so ever. (they are trying to expand the viability of the emount by making it as easy as possible for lens makers to manufacture emount glass)
Nikon? I don't know...

I wouldn't imagine there isn't a technical reason for not having a smart adapter for nikons, more of a financial one I would guess.
(the market seems to support the manual nikons well, but r&D for electronic might cost too much to warrant expenditures in such a limited market)

 

[conurus]

A dumb Nikon G adapter, if properly designed and made, would do the job for most users.

A Nikon smart adapter would still need to deal with the mechanical aperture lever. Adding motors to be able to electronically control Nikon G's aperture lever makes it much harder to manufacture than a Canon smart adapter.

So, the Nikon smart adapter would be significantly more expensive than a dumb Nikon G adapter and many cinematographers would actually prefer a dumb G adapter with direct aperture control.

The smart adapter would support AF but most cinematographers prefer manual focus. My understanding of Nikon's VR is that it requires the DSLR camera body's AF sensor to work so it is not clear at all how we could possibly transplant that to a Sony (may be impossible to begin with).

 

[Nirv]

A dumb Nikon G adapter, if properly designed and made, would do the job for most users.

A Nikon smart adapter would still need to deal with the mechanical aperture lever. Adding motors to be able to electronically control Nikon G's aperture lever makes it much harder to manufacture than a Canon smart adapter.

So, the Nikon smart adapter would be significantly more expensive than a dumb Nikon G adapter and many cinematographers would actually prefer a dumb G adapter with direct aperture control.

The smart adapter would support AF but most cinematographers prefer manual focus. My understanding of Nikon's VR is that it requires the DSLR camera body's AF sensor to work so it is not clear at all how we could possibly transplant that to a Sony (may be impossible to begin with).

I have the novoflex (again) but wondered if there could be a way of engaging VR with a powered version or slightly more intelligent version.

If you're right about the camera body and lens having to work together for VR then I can see that would be a no goer. I guess the VR would be tuned for stills applications which limit its appeal for video in any event.

 

[conurus]

Well, to be honest I am not 100% sure myself...

However, when Canon introduced IS, the new IS lenses work all the way back to the original EOS 650 from 1987.

Not the case with Nikon VR which makes me think something is required on the camera body's part. I don't know what that might be but I was probably mistaken saying it was the AF sensor since that would not have worked in video mode.

 

[eheath]

I think its mostly because people using nikon lenses don't have expensive VR versions and such, they either have old D or AIS glass that doesn't have VR. The only demand has been for a G lens adapter which there are a ton of and because nikon made the aperture non-electronic, we only have dumb adapters.