Okay, the old Nikkor AF 35-70mm f/2.8 D is a fast zoom, and is about a 52-105mm equivalent on the crop sensor D1X, which is right in the range where I do most of my shooting. I mounted it on the D1X, popped a Peak Design Slide strap on it, and pedaled off to lunch...
Thing is, the D1X is old enough that it has some serious quirks, relative to modern DSLRs. One of those is that they use old nickel-metal hydride battery packs rather than more modern lithium ion rechargeables. One of the two for my camera is extremely elderly and probably needs replacing. Throw it in the camera and it shows okay, but after about two shots, it ceased functioning. I'm diagnosing the problem as the battery and not the camera, because the newer aftermarket NiMH cell functions it fine.
Another interesting thing is the weird rectangular layout of the pixels on the sensor:
"The D1X's pixel grid layout is rectangular rather than square (though still uses the Bayer GRGB colour filter array), in camera processing turns the 4028 x 1324 raw pixels (5.33 megapixel) into a 3008 x 1960 pixel image (5.9 megapixel). While it's clear that some interpolation is being carried out in the vertical direction (to get from 1324 rows to 1960 rows) there is also compression in the horizontal direction (reducing from 4028 to 3008 columns), this compression is used to add detail to the vertical data."This makes for an unusual RAW file and apparently the latest versions of some third-party RAW converters won't fully support it anymore.
Anyway, long story short, I brought the wrong battery in the camera. I guess I'll try again tomorrow?
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