Using Neweer NW-ETZ to get focus confirmation and correct IBIS

[Snoogly]

This seemed a rather nerdy thing to do, but it might be of interest to others. It enables me to get focus confirmation and correct IBIS info for any of my manual F mount lenses, and I just need to use my ancient iPhone to ‘edit’ the text file containing the connected lens’s data.

Connected NW-ETZ to my Mac and copied the lens text file to the Mac. Made several copies and edited them to match some of my Nikon F mount manual lenses. I don’t think you should rename the text file, so I placed each one in a lens-named folder. Then easy to copy a chosen text file to the adapter, opting to ‘replace’ the existing file. Works a treat, and the lens exhibits correct exit data on my ZF, I get the green light (and the traffic lights), and IBIS is correct.

So far it’s not exciting, as many have done this already. But I wanted to be able to do this on the fly without a Mac. So I connected a lightning ‘camera’ dongle to my iPhone 13 mini. This has a USB A socket and USB 3 for power input. I used my smallest USB power bank for power. Then I connected the Neweer USB cable and popped it on the adapter. On the iPhone I navigated to the set of folders where I had saved text files for my F mount lenses (files saved in my Dropbox). Selected a text file and then ‘shared’ to the ‘Files’ app and then on to the connected Neweer adapter. Again chose to ‘replace’ the existing file.

Bob’s yer uncle, it worked, and only took about three minutes. No need for any file editing out in the field, just dropped an existing text file on to the adapter.

I did this with Nikon F lenses, via an F to Sony adapter, but of course it would also work with other types of manual lenses with an appropriate adapter.

[Hugh_3170]

Nice work Richard.

Am I correct in guessing that this combination of adapters will also correctly enable the Nikon image stabilisation features as well as the green focus indicator?

[Snoogly]

I think so, and the word on the streets is that the text file does tell the camera the correct IBIS setting, but until I see evidence it doesn’t I can’t be sure!

But online info is sometimes wrong .. By all accounts it should be possible to edit the text file directly on the adapter, but I tried that and it would not save. However, I think it is more practical to create a bank of edited text files (stored in something like Dropbox), then it is easy to access them from any device, including mobile.

[Jürgen Pfeiffer]

Richard,
That’s a handy and very portable way to edit the text file. Very impressive!

Having a customised text file for each lens is very handy. When I edited the text file directly on the adapter, I sometimes had problems and it only worked the second time round. It seems to work best if you open the file in TextEdit, edit it, and then simply close it with ⌘W.

I can confirm that the adapter supports IBIS; you can try it out yourself, for example by entering a focal length of 200mm in the text file for a 50mm lens. The viewfinder image then becomes very shaky, as the camera thinks it needs to compensate for a telephoto lens.

I’ve personally switched to treating every lens I want to use with a Z-mount camera to its own ETZ adapter. It’s incredibly handy – no more fiddling about with changing adapters; if necessary, the simple E-to-Z adapters can be precisely adjusted to the respective lens using shims.
I’ve created a small table in this post:
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=11247.msg214971#new
 showing the different behaviour of IBIS and focus confirmation with various adapters on a Zf.

[Snoogly]

Yikes! Must have cost a packet! But I can understand why you did it at such scale.

One way of looking at it is that several of theses adapters are still cheaper than a single new Voigtlander Z lens, which may only be a tad ‘better’ than one of your F lenses.

This is really like a modern day dandelion chip, in a way …

PS, do you want to sell me one of your many Neweer USB cables? I worry I may damage mine if it gets a lot of use.

[Jürgen Pfeiffer]

Richard,

Exactly, those were my reasons for fitting all my F-Nikkor lenses with an adapter, just as you say.

I don’t have Neweer adapters, but ones from Funmount; they seem to be identical in construction, and on AliExpress they cost around 100 euros each.
The cable also looks like the Neweer one, and I’d be happy to send you one; the postage from Germany to Japan is about 15 euros, and the cable won’t cost you anything. If you’re interested, just send me a PM.

‘Modern Dandelion’ – every one of my Nikkors was fitted with a Dandelion, but unfortunately the IBIS doesn’t work with it; the fact that I now have to (or am allowed to) adjust the aperture on the lens is more of an additional feature than a limitation.