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| Nikon D90 with Nikkor f1.8 50mm Lens |
Earlier this evening, I was over in West Lake shooting some photos for the Christmas card of some friends. I decided to try my
Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor lens for a couple of shots. Unfortunately, when I attached the lens to my Nikon D90 the
error message "fEE" popped up where the f-stop setting usually appears. Not sure what this meant, and not in the mood to stop shooting in order to look it up, I put the 50mm away and went on with a different lens. The message didn't reappear, and thus I figured that the problem lay with the lens and not with the camera body.
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| fEE Error Message |
Needless to say, once I finished shooting the photos I wanted to know what the ominous "fEE" message meant. It turns out that the message wasn't serious in my case. The "fEE" means that the camera can't control the f-stop setting on the attached lens. My 50mm lens has a manual f-stop setting which must be turned to 22 in order for the camera to be able to operate the aperture automatically. I had accidentally twisted the setting ring to 18. As soon as I put the setting back to 22, everything was fine. This was a relief, as I was concerned that a more serious problem might have occurred. Therefore, if you have seen this error message pop up on your Nikon, try the simple steps of checking to see if your lens has a manual f-stop setting ring and then placing it on the top setting. If this doesn't help, the
Nikon support page recommends removing and reattaching the lens. If that doesn't help, or your lens is only automatic and you see the fEE message, then you may have some larger and more expensive problems on your hands.
The 50mm is a great lens for shooting in low light and it can be good for portraiture (when used with a Nikon DX format sensor). My 50mm f/1.8 is the cheapest lens in my kit (I paid $150 for it at
Precision Camera in Austin) but it has proven itself as a great choice for my needs when I want to use a prime lens. You can use the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF lens on auto-focus as long as your Nikon dSLR has its own auto-focus motor. If your dSLR body lacks this feature (e.g., a Nikon D40 or D60) then you will need to buy the internal auto-focus motor equipped
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S Nikkor lens or a third party lens with this feature.
