Wisely, Nikon has not changed their F-Mount lens attachment bayonet for a very long time. That means your D200 can mount, not only the newest AF-S Nikkors and aftermarket lenses, but also most of the older Manual Focus (MF) lenses from just a few years ago.

Since the Nikon D200 has a “professional” heritage, it can do something that many other digital SLR cameras will not. The light meter will remain functional even with older non-CPU manual focus lenses. (non-CPU = no electronic chip in lens). Many of the newer Nikon film and digital bodies will not allow light metering with older MF lenses, even though they will mount them. Instead, they disable the light meter as soon as a non-CPU lens is mounted.

The reason Nikon chose to do this is simple. A non-CPU lens has no microchip inside to inform the camera body of lens settings or distance measurements. This makes it impossible for metering functions like 3-D Matrix metering to function, since it cannot accurately measure the distance to the subject. Light metering in standard Matrix, Averaging, and Spot modes could still work on any Nikon DSLR camera so Nikon allows it in certain cameras, including the D200.

So, as a proud Nikon D200 owner you have a choice of all the new Autofocus (AF) lenses on the market, and virtually all of the older MF Nikkors and aftermarket Nikon-mount lenses.

How does one set the camera to use these older lenses? Will you need to read dozens of manual pages to figure this out? Happily, it is not at all complicated to set your camera for older MF lenses. Let’s see how!

Method One – Setting Lens Specs by Using the Shooting Menu

Below, you'll find both a quick summary and detail on how to set the lens specs using the camera menus.

Method One Summary

Method One Detail

Now, you'll need to set the MINIMUM Focal length, then the MAXIMUM aperture. See Figures 1 and 2 for the steps to set the minimum focal length. Aperture comes next.

As in Figure 1 above, select Focal length from the menu. The next screen will give you a series of focal length ranges. These are 6-45, 50-180, and 200-4000 and N/A. Select the range into which your lens best fits. (Examples: a 50mm or 135mm lens fits best in the 50-180 selection, while a 300mm or 600mm lens fits best in the 200-4000 selection) The N/A setting is used with specialty lenses that need no focal length setting.

Special Note: For more detail see your D200 manual on pages 93-95. For a list of compatible Nikkor lenses see manual pages 174 and 175.

If you are using a zoom lens, there is no difference in the setup. Simply enter the minimum focal length, and there should be good results across the entire zoom range. For example, an 80-200mm zoom would go in the 50-180 range, since the MINIMUM focal length is the important number.

In Figure 2 above, we see how to set the Maximum aperture. The selections run from f/1.2 to f/22, with an N/A selection for specialty lenses with no aperture settings. Look at your lens, see what the largest aperture is, and set it in the menu. For instance, my AI-S Nikkor 50mm has an f/1.8 maximum aperture. If there is no exact match, use the one closest to your lens' actual maximum aperture.

Once again, with a zoom lens, just enter the maximum aperture as you would on a prime lens. As long as the zoom is not a variable aperture zoom (and most pro lenses aren't) you'll be fine. Variable aperture zooms are discussed in the Variable Aperture Zoom Adjustment section at the end of this article.

The Nikon D200 will take the maximum aperture menu setting and detect the position of its aperture ring to know what aperture is in use. As you turn the aperture dial on the lens the Nikon D200 will adjust the meter accordingly.

Special note: Remember that we are only concerned with the MAXIMUM aperture and MINIMUM focal length settings in-camera.