In article <5fk837$e2i@lana.zippo.com>, GalenBabcock says...

>I've recently switched from Canon to Nikon, with an N90s and an FG.

Congratulations! Welcome to the world of (almost universally)
great lenses (at affordable prices, used....)! ;-), ;-), ;-)

>In reading Shutterbug ads, and other Nikon lens descriptions, I see
>lens designations of "H", "Q", "C", and "S". These descriptions seem
>to be independent of AI, AIs, Non-AI, and E series lenses.
>Can someone either explain, or point me to some information resource
>that describes these lenses? McBrooms makes no mention of these, as
>far as I can tell.

They refer to "pre-AI" lenses - and indicated the number of elements
in the lens by the letter. I would ignore these letters - the main
differences of interest for you would probably be "AI" (or "AI'd") vs.
"non-AI", and "AF" vs. "MF" (recent [therefore AI] bodies will accept
virtually all AI [including AI/AIS/E/AF/S/P/I] and AI'd Nikkors ever
made - older [non-AI] bodies will accept virtually all Nikkors ever made
[the 21mm f4 requires a body tab that only the F and F2 bodies had]).
Just avoid putting an unmodified non-AI lens on your bodies (non-AI
lenses have a smooth rear edge on the aperture ring - AI lenses have
ridges that extend rearward from the rear edge of the aperture ring).
Hope This Helps