Will Nikon Drop the Aperture and Meter Coupling Levers Soon?

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Building a mirrorless with the same flange as an SLR appears to make no sense

Nah. You get an easier approach to making the lenses telecentric and optimalised for a digital sensor.

These new lenses could be seated deeper into a classic F-mount. That would allow "long" optical designs requiring less expensive glass (less highly refractive).

However, at this point we just waste time with idle speculations.

[MILLIREHM]

Could have F-Mount, and would require some kind of adapter for 35 mm lenses

Sometimes speculation is fine, and this is a speculative thread. But yes at this point we wouldnt get any further

[Daniel Bliss]

I was completely stumped when Nikon brought out the G lenses and yet not only did they still have a mechanical aperture pin but it was another FOUR YEARS before Nikon brought out cameras capable of dealing with an electronic diaphragm and EVEN THEN it was only tilt-and-shift lenses that made use of it.  And now we're more than eight years beyond the introduction of the D300 and D3 and the very first non-PCE electronic diaphragm lens finally came out, what, a couple of years ago?  Nikon's transition to electronic apertures has been interminable.

Bjorn's note above about mirrorless though makes perfect sense; it's worth noting that Canon have already availed themselves of this feature with their EF-S line of lenses for crop-sensor DSLRs (taking advantage of the lesser mirror depth with products like the 10-22 zoom).