This is a problem some of you may be having, I know I was! When you buy older manual lenses for your new entry level Nikon DLSR ( d3000, d3100, d3200, d5000, d5100) the aperture ring only works in live view – Fine for video, but if you want to use the lens for Photos too you’re out of luck, unless you only want the lens to be wide open – OR you can try this handy trick and get full aperture control outside of liveview! I hope this helps you out, old Nikon glass is awesome and a great bargain too, if you force yourself to use manual lenses you become better with the settings and improve your skills!
Video and Audio from my iPhone 4s – sorry about the noise – both audio and video noise!
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this good advice i'm looking for
Very good info bro
Now this is  great advice. i almost went to fix it manually. By the way on my 300s i locked it and it is still working.
This is kind of true. It does indeed fully open the aperture. This is only when your looking through the view finder and if you set it to say f16 it wont move. This is so you get a clear bright view of what your taking a photo of. However as soon as you take the pic, it does allow the aperture to move to what ever you have set it to. So to prove this, if you take a photo though the view finder, set it to something like f16, then set your camera exposure time to say 10secs, take a pic and have a look at the aperture before it finished taking the pic. You will see that the aperture had indeed moved to what you set it to. Try it for different aperture settings. Hope this is useful to people.
Same situation. what baffles me, is that the 50mm non-ai used to lock all the way until it clicks, and the aperture closes at f16 just fine. today, this happens…
How do you get the on board flash to work with these manual lens?
Hallo!
If you use the M-Mode you can only focus with max. opend aperture. In the moment you take the picture the camera stop the aperture down to the set aperture on aperture-ring!
So mount the lens normally. Select the aperture by ring, focus and take the shot. Your workarround is pointless – it gets just dark in the viewfinder.
good video, would an extension tube give you control over the aperture?, as from what I understand (i have d700-but want the same things) aperture Indexing is "lost" when no connectors are in the extension tube [exactly what you are looking for] .
Thanks a ton bro for making this video, you really helped me 🙂
Isn't there an aperture preview button you could use to do that temporarily? Or isn't that applicable?
Also you can use something like "Oduvanchik Lushnikov'a", I think.
filmprocess.ru/nikon_spec_en.htm (in english)
Excellent video. I have been using an AIS lens on a D90 with the same issues. Thanks for letting us know about this workaround 🙂
For anyone else wondering about this- it works fine and just like on slr cameras, the set aperture will close down only when you actually take the photo. It stays wide open to help you focus.
Not on cheaper models like 3xxx and 5xxx. Also, don't take much of what Rockwell writes seriously, he even said it himself on his site- its purely his opinions.
or you could just get a canon with a nikon adapter with af confirm, and have a cheap lens that meters, has full aperture control in any mode, and even provide some exif data on aperture setting. I actually prefer using old lenses on my canon to my nikon because of those reasons.
In live view mode the exposure only goes to 1/30 so if you see in live view that it's still to bright even with the aperture closed all the way or you just want a longer exposure like for a night sky then exit live view and adjust. I've read at ken rockwell's site using a manual lens will help you learn your camera because you have to guess until you've done it enough times that you'll be familiar enough with the settings to do it by heart.
This work around is only good if you absolutely need to see your aperture exposure when looking through your view finder. When you take a picture the lens will close the aperture to wherever it's set to for that shot. only difference is in live view you see the aperture exposure when you adjust it and with the vf you don't. I just play with the settings in live and if I need a slower shutter speed then I just adjust it to what I think would work and re-shoot if needed.
I'm using the d3200 and I heard from ken rockwell's site that there is an option in the menu so you can at least have light sensor use for setting your shutter speed, but he didn't really explain it other than it's near the end of the options under the wrench part of the menu to select either a CPU or Non-CPU lens. do you know anything about this?
Please make videos. I bought a 50mm series e lens because of one of your videos and I love it. Thanks for the great info.
Well I hope everything works out well for you, I really enjoy watching your videos.
i wish you would still make videos
Nice Job!
Great Info. not gonna do it cause i cant live with the piece of mind that my lens could crash to the ground! but great video! keep them up
great info my friend