Why does my Nikon D3100 show “no lens attached” with a T-mount lens?
Asked 12/25/2014
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I’m using a Nikon D3100 with a T-mount adapter and manual lenses (including a 500mm preset telephoto and a 2x multiplier). When I mount the adapter and lens, the camera reports that no lens is attached. The camera has worked fine with regular Nikon lenses before. Why does this happen, and can these lenses still be used on the D3100?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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The reason your camera is saying there is no lens attached is because the T-mount does not allow any communication between the camera and lens. To use those lenses you must have your D3100 in both manual exposure and manual focus mode. Since there is no "release shutter without lens" option in the camera's menu, you may not be able to use theses lenses at all. For more, see page 169 of the D3100 User Manual. I was able to successfully release the shutter without a lens (in manual focus and exposure modes) on a Nikon D50 I recently repaired for a friend.
Additionally, in camera metering will probably not be accurate. Even if you manually set the aperture in-camera to the aperture of the lens, the camera is going to "assume" the lens is "wide open" when metering and only stopped down when the shutter release is pressed. If the camera has no value to use for "wide open" it will not meter correctly.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A T-mount adapter is purely mechanical, so it does not pass any electronic information between the lens and your Nikon D3100. The camera therefore detects no CPU lens and reports “no lens attached.”
With this type of setup, you generally need to use manual focus and manual exposure. Metering may also be limited or inaccurate, because the camera cannot communicate with the lens aperture the way it can with native Nikon lenses.
One important issue is that some Nikon bodies, including the D3100, may not allow shutter release the same way with a non-CPU lens mounted unless the camera accepts that configuration. Check the D3100 manual for its behavior with non-CPU/manual lenses.
So the message is expected with a T-mount lens—it does not necessarily mean anything is broken. The limitation is the adapter/lens design, not your camera.
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AI11y ago
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