Bought a lens over eBay - who screwed me, seller or Ken Rockwell?

The Nikkor 50mm F/1.8E series does not meter nor will it autofocus on the D40/x/60. However, the Nikkor 50mm F/1.8D is a metering lens. That is the copy that you want for your D40. You still will have to manual focus, but at least it meters.

Did the eBay seller list this as a Nikkor 50mm F/1.8E? If so, he is not at fault.

Ken Rockwell is somewhat correct saying that the 50mm F/1.8 lens will meter, because the D version will, but he did leave out that the "E" version is non-metering. So, I can see how that was misleading.

 

My understanding (as a fellow D40 owner) is the same as yours and Ken Rockwell's, although I'm not 100% on all of the compatibility issues. If the lens was sold as an AF lens then it should meter and the seller is in the wrong. Do you have a link to the auction?

This link also agrees --> http://d40xd60.wikidot.com/lens-compatibility

 

Apparently I was mistaken, the E series is a MF lens, not an AF lens. From the sounds of it, you might have an E series. The E series requires you to change aperture on the aperture ring as well, you can't set it to F/22 and change from the camera with the E series.

The best place to ask your question is probably here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/d40slr/
There are people there with good knowledge on the D40/x/D60 lenses including the E series 50mm F/1.8.

 

That is my understanding, yes. Give it a try. I will say that I thought the e-series said e-series on the front, which I can't tell if yours does or not.

 

Here's the deal. Nikon repackaged the E-Series lens as their normal 50mm 1.8 sometime in the late 80s / early 90s, which is why yours doesn't say E-Series anywhere on it. I have one of the lenses (S/N 4048268). It's a decent lens, but It's certainly not the 50mm 1.8 D-Series AF lens, which would meter but not autofocus on your D40 (as you state). If this was sold to you as an AF lens (as the box suggests), then you certainly did get screwed by the seller. The easiest way to identify a D-Series lens is by the five electrical contact points on the inner flange. As much as I'd like to blame Ken Rockwell, it's not his fault.

 

Can I ask how much you paid for this lens?
the D version typically runs 80-90 dollars, I have one and picked it up, with box and rubber hood, for $80 last year.

 

I'd keep the lens - if you ever were to switch to old school manual film photography, this would be excellent in terms of testing your settings before wasting a lot of film... But of course I don't know if you're even into photography that much

 

Absolutely. No contacts = AIS, AI, or earlier. I have a Nikon lens brochure from 1986 that shows the first two AF lenses that they ever made, the 80mm f/2.8 AF and 200mm f/3.5 AF ED-IF (these are rare indeed). The contact points can be clearly seen in the photos of the lenses.

 

I think you're right to give him the benefit of the doubt. One time I bought a Nikon lens filter on Ebay through one of those businesses that sell stuff for people who can't (or won't) do it themselves. Anyway, when it arrived, there was nothing in the little clear plastic container; it was empty. I emailed the place, and they phoned me right back. It turned out they were so clueless about photography stuff that they thought the container was the filter! Anyway, the story has a happy ending. The agents contacted the actual seller, he found the filter, and it was sent to me. The moral of the story is that anything can happen. Good luck!

By the way, that Celica of yours is a real honey! What year is it?

 

If you are looking for a 50mm AF Lens for your D40 this one should do the trick.

http://nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Camera-Lenses/2180/AF-S-NIKKOR-50mm-f%252F1.4G.html

It is a little bit pricey when you think of the price of a D40 basic kit but this lens is well reviewed.

 

This is the first I've heard of that one. It must be fairly new. You're right, a G-Series lens would have full metering and AF function with the D40.

 

The problem with with standard AF lenses is they will not work on the D40 as that body Nikon deleted the "screwdriver" AF drive from the body so you can only use AF-S or "Silent Wave" Lenses with the D40

Sigma also makes an 50mm EX HSM Lens that will AF on a D40 but it is only about $50 less than the Nikkor 50mm AF-S Lens

 

It is a new Nikkor lens. I would not mind adding one to my arsenal but i have a feeling that it will be collecting more dust than use as the majority of my subjects are in the 100-500mm distance range and that is not factoring in the 1.5X digital crop factor of the Nikon DX Sensor.

 

Of course you know that the 50mm lens on your D40 is equivalent to a 75mm on a 35mm camera body, right? It makes an excellent portrait lens. On a DX camera, a 35mm lens is closest to a so-called "normal" lens.