Bayonet is what? Bayonet Nikon F

Bayonet is the scientific name of the lens mount for photo and video equipment. It can be a system of fasteners or a special assembly with which the lens is mounted on the camera. Leading companies that produce cameras have developed their own standards of fasteners, so often one company's bayonet is incompatible with another. However, there are standardized systems and additional devices (for example, an adapter-bayonet) that allow you to install optics from different companies. The most common types of bayonets: Nikon F, Canon EF and Sony E.

Bayonet F of the company "Nikon"

With the development of photography it became clear that the standard optics, tightly connected with the body of the device, is not able to satisfy the creative ideas of professionals. Exit found in the use of interchangeable lenses. The company Nikon was one of the first who introduced the standard for fixing removable lenses. The type of bayonet, introduced by Nikon in 1959, is a bayonet detachable connection used to connect a 35mm camera and a lens.

Lenses with the original F-bayonet system were intensively used until 1977, until an AI-compatible element appeared. Even modern Nikon lenses can be used with an F-type device and work fine with old cameras, although installation may require minor mechanical improvements.

Operating principle

Bayonet is a fairly simple device. In order to connect an F type lens to the camera, you need to manually align the projection on the lens with the antenna of the metering system, which was fixed at the aperture f / 5.6 position. Later lenses of this type also began to be called pre-AI or non-AI.

Compatibility

Nikon F type lenses perfectly work with all modern Nikon cameras at least in manual exposure mode, especially if they are modified for compatibility with AI bayonet. In this case, the operation of the aperture priority modes will depend on the camera model. Matrix exposure metering requires a special upgrade of the bayonet, so it usually does not work with such lenses, even if they are modified to the AI standard.

Design Features

Already starting with lenses equipped with the Nikon F bayonet system, the company used the jumping diaphragm mechanism. That is, this detail is constantly open when you hover to the sharpness and closes only a moment before the moment of photographing. Due to this, the image in the viewfinder does not darken and does not hinder the guidance, even if the diaphragm ring is moved to the closed position. Structurally it is implemented in the form of a lever built into the camera socket, which is lowered before taking a picture. In the lens, another lever is released, which, under the action of the spring, closes the petals of the diaphragm.

Bayonet Nikon type AI

AI (Automatic Indexing) - an improved version of the first Nikon F mount - was offered in 1977. Fans of Nikon products were waiting for the updated system, which made it possible to quickly change optics. Sometimes a masterpiece from a mediocre photograph separates a few missed seconds, wasted spent on replacing the lens. And the photographer presented a new bayonet. This is a modernized design that allows you to put the lens in one hand and do not waste time getting a ring diaphragm in the index cirri.

When used on modern cameras, AI lenses can operate in modes such as manual (M) and aperture priority (A), with spot or center exposure measurement. Some cameras can also use the matrix metering method.

Lenses of the old type (F) are very easy to modify to AI by increasing the performance, which, touching the lever in the camera's camera mount, reports the position of the diaphragm ring.

Innovations

It was expected that the main innovation would be the establishment of mechanical levers, which should inform the camera about the focal length of the lens. Specialists assumed that the new Nikon cameras would somehow use this information. But this did not affect the modernized bayonet. The designers went the other way: modern lenses transmit the necessary information with the help of electronics. This method was much cheaper and more reliable. AI-lenses are now sold for a pittance, although they are little inferior to modern AI-S (for example, they do not have a fast program mode).

Soviet and Ukrainian cameras and lenses

On the territory of the USSR and Ukraine, 35 mm cameras and lenses compatible with the bayonet Nikon AI, produced the Kiev plant "Arsenal". Among the chambers were the following:

• Kyiv-17;
• Kyiv-20;
• "Kyiv-19";
• Kyiv-19M;
• The ruler of Arsat lenses.

Bayonet type Nikon AI-s

This is the next stage in the evolution of removable lenses. Such a device is used today. From AI it is easy to cast it on a specific rounded notch on the bayonet, available on the chrome-plated ring depth-of-field scale (in the AI surface is black), marked with an orange paint designating the minimum diaphragm.

The letter "S" means that the closing ratio of the diaphragm linearly affects the deviation of the diaphragm indicator lever in the bayonet. Thanks to the innovation in autofocus cameras, the accuracy of the diaphragm measurement has increased significantly. For models with manual control this improvement does not matter.

Compatibility with previous types

• All AI-S-lenses are compatible with AI-lenses.
• All AF, AF-I and AF-S-lenses are also compatible with the AI-S bayonet system.
• All AI-S lenses work on Nikon's "mirrors" at least in manual mode.
• Most Nikon SLRs, including digital cameras, can function in aperture priority mode, except for a number of amateur-level devices.

Before planning a purchase, please read the user's manual of the camera, where always information is provided on the support of specific types of lenses.

Bayonet type P

This hybrid standard was introduced in 1988 specifically for long-focus hand lenses that had to hold the Nikon position until the long-focus AF lenses acquired mass distribution. At that time, the best "autofocusers" were models with parameters of 300 mm f / 2 8.

Nikon produced a few P-type lenses. Among them, 500mm f / 4 P (1988); 1200-1700 mm f / 5.6-8.0 P ED; 45mm f / 2.8 P.

P type lenses are manual AI-S with several added electronic contacts of the AF bayonet. This approach made it possible to use the matrix metering mode, which only appeared on autofocus cameras.

Bayonet type AF

Nikon AF autofocus lenses (except AF-I and AF-S) are sharpened by the rotation of the motor in the camera, which is transmitted through a special mechanism to a removable lens. Photographers called this mechanism a "screwdriver". Now this system looks primitive in comparison with Canon's auto focus system, but this design allowed in the far 1980 to keep full compatibility with non-autofocus lenses. All autofocus devices (including AI-S) work perfectly on non-autofocus cameras. However, devices that do not support AI, still require refinement.

Bayonet type AF-N

The AF-N designation was introduced only to distinguish AF-lenses from older series from newer ones. After the release of the first AF-lenses, Nikon decided that having such a convenient technology, no one else would take pictures in manual mode. Therefore, the first AF-lenses were equipped with a thin inconvenient manual focus ring, which it was almost impossible to use. However, it turned out that photographers prefer the good old wide rubberized focus rings. So the engineers brought them back to the autofocus lenses and called the new AF-N modifications. Modern lenses are equipped with comfortable focusing rings, so the designation AF-N is no longer applied to them.

Bayonet type AF-D

Lenses of this category inform the "intellect" of the camera about the distance to which they are focused. Theoretically, in specific situations this should help the matrix metering system to determine the exposure more accurately, especially when using a flash. But in practice, the bayonet AF-D has more marketing value than practical. Moreover, the presence of AF-D can even cause an incorrect exposure detection if the flash and the matrix (film) are at different distances from the subject.

The speed of focusing has nothing to do with the presence or absence of support for the AF-D bayonet. Simply, these are newer lenses, so they function faster than their predecessors. All AF-D-lenses, like AF and AI-S, work perfectly on non-autofocus cameras.

Canon EF

Bayonet is not an exclusive concept of Nikon. Other companies have also developed their interchangeable lens attachment systems. Eternal competitor - the company Canon - is also famous for thoughtful types of bayonets. At a time when Nikon was promoting the AI-S system, Canon was presenting an excellent EF bayonet.

Bayonet Canon first appeared on the camera EOS 650 in 1987, when the company launched a series of autofocus SLR cameras. This element was different from the analogs, first of all, by the presence of electrical contacts, through which the information was transmitted to the lens for control. In the EF bayonet from the mechanical control of the diaphragm, the autofocus drive and some other properties are refused. Much later, this type of control was used by Olympus in the Four-Thirds system.

Canon EF-S

The EF-S option provides a short section from the rear lens to the image sensor. It is partially compatible with the EF standard, since lenses with EF bayonet can be used in cameras with EF and EF-S bayonet.

Bayonet E of Sony

Bayonet E is a proprietary mount for the development of "Sony" for lenses for mirrorless cameras of the Alpha NEX series and for NXCAM video cameras. This is quite a fresh development, introduced in 2010 and implemented for the first time in the products of the Sony α series (NEX-3, -5 cameras). A special feature of connecting the bayonet system E is a ten-pin digital interface.

The bayonet with the "E" index is used in mirror-free compact cameras equipped with matrices that give the quality of pictures at the level of "DSLRs". Simultaneously, for SLR cameras, Sony engineers use Bayonet A for advanced interchangeable optics with a system of translucent mirrors. In addition to some structural features, the two systems differ in the size of the working segment. This is the distance from the focal plane (matrix) to the end of the lens. In mirror chambers, the matrix and the lens divide the mirror, so the working segment is large, the physical size of the interchangeable optics increases. For the device bayonet E mirror is not required, so the lenses are much lighter and more compact.

Compatibility with products of other manufacturers

Surprisingly, Japanese designers did not follow their own path, but chose an openness strategy. Features such a design as the bayonet Sony E, allow you to produce specialized adapters that connect the lens with almost any modern mount from the following companies:

• Pentax;
• Olympus;
• Nikon;
• Leica;
• Hasselblad;
• Exakta;
• Minolta AF;
• Canon EF;
• Contarex;
• Contax;
• Rollei;
• Micro 4: 3;
• Threaded T-mount, type C, M39 × 1, M42 × 1 and others.

In 2011, the company opened the features of such a device as Sony's bayonet, which allows third-party firms to produce their own lenses for Japanese cameras.

Conclusion

At first glance, the bayonet is not technically complicated. However, this node performs several important functions. It allows you to change the types of lenses depending on the tasks to be performed, and the more thoughtful the design, the faster and more convenient the replacement of optics. The second important task is the transfer of digital information in modern cameras by means of electrical contacts on the lens and bayonet, which allows the lens and camera to be synchronized to obtain the highest quality images and video frames.