Travel Photography - Using old Nikkor lenses on new Nikkon DSLR?

I inherited my father's Nikkon F2 and collection of Nikkor lenses about 10 years ago, when I graduated high-school. The collection is fairly complete, encompassing everything from a wide-angle 24mm lens to long-focus 500mm lenses, two zoom lenses in the middle, and a big assortment of filters. The lenses are all manual, however. They are amazing build quality, having survived everything from motorcycle trips through Africa to the dangers of weddings. And the camera takes beautiful pictures, but as an archaic film camera, it gets little use these days. I intend to update to a Nikon D5100 or possibly a D7000 (although I'm open to suggestions).

My question: Can I use the old Nikkor lenses (all with F-mounts) on the new DSLR, despite the lenses being entirely manual? Are there additional limitations besides no auto-focus and so on? I do intend to buy at least one good lens with the camera for regular use, but for more specific demands I imagine the old lenses would work just fine, right?

You can use them, provided they are Nikkor AI or newer. Automatic metering does not work for older lenses.

You can find a compatibility table here (http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/slr-lens.html).

Cheers,
T.

I inherited my father's Nikkon F2 and collection of Nikkor lenses about 10 years ago, when I graduated high-school. The collection is fairly complete, encompassing everything from a wide-angle 24mm lens to long-focus 500mm lenses, two zoom lenses in the middle, and a big assortment of filters. The lenses are all manual, however. They are amazing build quality, having survived everything from motorcycle trips through Africa to the dangers of weddings. And the camera takes beautiful pictures, but as an archaic film camera, it gets little use these days. I intend to update to a Nikon D5100 or possibly a D7000 (although I'm open to suggestions).

My question: Can I use the old Nikkor lenses (all with F-mounts) on the new DSLR, despite the lenses being entirely manual? Are there additional limitations besides no auto-focus and so on? I do intend to buy at least one good lens with the camera for regular use, but for more specific demands I imagine the old lenses would work just fine, right?

Assuming they are AI, AIs, AI-modified, and/or AI-P [you didn't mention if your 500mm was a 500mm f/8 catadioptric or a 500mm f/4 AI-P] and you really want to get the most from these lenses then I would suggest that you get a DSLR that will allow you to use the camera's light meter and give you the ability to shoot in either manual [M] or aperture-priority [A] mode - currently the D7000 or up if buying new.

Having to carry an external light meter for everything can be a pain and yes, you can chimp with the LCD but that is still less than ideal and will drain your battery much more quickly.