A little help needed

[aage]

Hi All. My name is Aki , I live in Iceland and i´m a amator photographer and have been interested in photography since age of 15. I´m now 48.

Well I bought myself a Nikon D3x few wheeks ago, did have a D700 bf that.

I have a Nikon 14 24, 24 70 and 70 200, all fine lenses.

I love landscape work and it became very temting for me to buy a Zeiss and I did so. I started buying a Zeiss 35 F2 and then Zeiss 21 F2.8.

I had some problem with my Zeiss 35 F2 and just returned it to the shop today, they where wery polite and just took it back along with some sample CD with the problem and asked me if I wanted a full refund or another lens.

I told them I want another lens. Then I was asked if I wanted the OLD or the NEW version of it ???????

Well then I found out that this lens is now available with some electric contacts allowing you to set the aperture via the control wheel ,,, ( and then I could probably put the camera on P Mode ???)

Now I´m thinking , isnt it more prone to failure ,,,, having these electrical contacts,,,?.

I´m not sure about what to do. I told the shopowner I liked to think about it for the wheekend and then give the answer which I wanted.

Anyway, one of the charm about the Zeiss in my mind is this Totally manual construction , no electricity,,,, but maby I´m wrong and should take the newer one.

Ok I´m just asking for your opionions of this matter , good vs bad points.

Thank you in advance

Aki

[mfbenedict]

Aki,
The new version of the lens provides convenience, but at a higher cost. If the camera store still has the old version, I'd get that. You have to make a setting for it on your camera as a "Non-CPU lens" telling the camera the widest aperture and focal length of the lens. When you use the lens, you need to make that setting active for metering to work properly.

If that doesn't seem difficult, save the money and get the older version. Pretty soon, only the new, more expensive version will be available, and you won't have the choice.

[Brian]

The "Chipped" version has the contacts, and connects up with the cameras CPU. Reliability? I still use original generation Nikon AF lenses that are 20+ years old now. I've had one 28~85 AF-Nikkor that has a bad circuit, bought that way used for very little money. The AF gear in it was also dislodged. I took it apart, and the flex wiring was broken, probably from a prior repair attempt.