d5200 hack

[yuri]

Who is hacking the d5200? Need to change the aperture while shooting!

[CoolColJ]

A manual lens would allow that

[dahlfors]

And not just manual lenses. Any Nikon lens with an aperture ring will give you the ability to change aperture while shooting: AI, AI-S, AF and AF-D lenses. The ones to avoid are the modern lenses, marked with 'G'. You can read a bit more about the differences of Nikon lenses here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikortek.htm

 

Same thing applies to any third party-lenses from Sigma, Tokina, Voigtländer etc - as long as there is an aperture ring, you can change it while shooting.

 

EDIT: Apparently D5200 is crippled with any lens with a chip. Is there anyone that can confirm that this is the case with D600 & D7100 as well? These cameras might differ since they are built to be used with older AF lenses that need AF motor builtin to the camera body.

[yuri]

And not just manual lenses. Any Nikon lens with an aperture ring will give you the ability to change aperture while shooting: AI, AI-S, AF and AF-D lenses. The ones to avoid are the modern lenses, marked with 'G'. You can read a bit more about the differences of Nikon lenses here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikortek.htm

 

Same thing applies to any third party-lenses from Sigma, Tokina, Voigtländer etc - as long as there is an aperture ring, you can change it while shooting.

 

Sorry folks, that's what I was expecting, when I bought the camera. But actually it does not accept any of my nice old manual focus Nikon lenses. I simply gives an error message, when you connect any old lens without chip to it. Liveview does not work with these lenses. The same thing happens with any AF-S lens, as soon as you start moving the aperture ring in liveview mode. The camera demands to set the aperture back to f 22 and lock it. If you are trying this while recording, it immediatley stops recording. You here the "clack" of the mirror, and that's it. That is why I send back the first d5200 I had bought for the project I am shooting right now - you cannot change the aperture while in live mode. No way. Then I bought the 5D Mark III, because with this it is no proplem. Handling is fine with this Camera, as well as with the Mark II. Also using the Nikon lenses with an adapter by Novoflex works well. But looking at the graded an sharpened footage I had shot, I was very unhappy with the Canon camera. The little Nikon simply has more detail and the image in general looks more natural, no moiree, less artifacts. I am shooting for a documentary for the big screen - so I send the Mark III back and bought a d5200 again - despite all the trouble with the aperture setting - and this really is a problem, i guess you know what I mean. By the way, I also made a little test with the d7100 - same thing, you are not allowed to move the aperture ring manually. The error message on both cameras covers 3/4 of the screen, and it is also displayed on the HDMI-out signal. So you cannot record this pictures externally. You will tough see the effect of opening an closing the aperture on the part of the image that surrounds the error message - it is only, you can not use it. The camera ist capable of doing it, but the software says No! That's why I am asking for a hack!

 

Only for demonstration:

 

[JBraddock]

You didn't mention whether you set your lens' non-CPU data on D7100? You manually enter focal length and maximum aperture. Yet, If you still have this problem, then it is not good.

[yuri]

Actually I only tried a AF-S lens on the d7100 - that lens of course has a chip. By the way - problem only exits in live view, but you need live view for filming.

[JBraddock]

Sorry I missed that. But as far as I know, if your lens has a chip, you can't put it on manual and override the aperture with aperture ring. I've seen a couple of videos showing that. You need a fully manual lens to do that. It could be a hardware limitation on camera side.

[yuri]

this might work for the d7100 - I choose the d5200 though. First it has that little display you can move, which is very important for the project I am on, second, d7100 produces strange artifacts in very fine detail. I saw that in the test I made, and I guess it is because of the missing low pass filter on this camera. The d7100 gives even more detail then the d5200, but these artifacts are a problem - they look like scaling artifacts. On the d5200 it don't find these artifacts, and also I don't see any moiree problems so far. So this is the better camera for filming, but it does not accept any full manual lenses, or anything without a chip.

[dahlfors]

Unbelievable that the aperture issue on the D5200 is that much crippled!

 

The AI / AI-S lenses are all without chips. A few of them are still manufactured and sold by Nikon, others you can find for nice prices used.

 

As a normal lens for APS-C crop as on D5200, I'd recommend these all manual lenses:

 

1) AI-S 28/f2.8 http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/28f28ais.htm

2) Voigtlander 40mm f/2 SL-II http://www.kenrockwell.com/voigtlander/40mm-f2.htm

 

The older 35mm lenses might be alright for HD video resolution, but they are nowhere near these two lenses in optical performance. They tend to have a bit of barrel distortion though, which might/might not impact the APS-C crop.

[joshi]

I shoot with D5200. 
 

when using manual lens, i tried de-clicking the lens... (turning it back from the perfect fit position)
so that the electrical contact is broken, while the lens still fits the body nicely... 
 

I could easily change the aperture ring and the effect was clear in the live view :-) 
 

[vulgatron]

Hi guys, Im looking into getting one d5200 as the video looks quite impressing,

but what's this deal that you cannot change aperture while filming? With any auto lens?

So how this works then? you need to prepare your shot and when you hit record there's no way to do any kind of correction?

What about shutter speed and ISO, can you change them while recording?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Nikkor]

To the ppl who get the FEE error, on all the nikons I have you can use the Aperture ring but you will have to change some option. On the d7000 for example, Menu/CUSTOM SETTINGS/f Controls/f6 Custom command dials/Aperture Settings/Aperture Ring -> OK

 

If the lenses fit they should work, maybe the autofocus won't but that's irrelevant to video. Never had a cheap model so don't know if this also works on the d5200, try out and post!

[Tarek Ahmed]

To the ppl who get the FEE error, on all the nikons I have you can use the Aperture ring but you will have to change some option. On the d7000 for example, Menu/CUSTOM SETTINGS/f Controls/f6 Custom command dials/Aperture Settings/Aperture Ring -> OK

 

If the lenses fit they should work, maybe the autofocus won't but that's irrelevant to video. Never had a cheap model so don't know if this also works on the d5200, try out and post!

 

Hello. Thank you very much for your suggestion. 

 

I'm considering buying my first DSLR this week. I'm mostly interested in documentaries, especially the wildlife/ nature ones. I will probably go for either this D5200 or the Canon 600D ( t3i ). 

 

However, there's one problem about this camera I'm worried about and it's already mentioned here. No aperture change in LiveView shooting.

 

So, I have decided that I will get a lens that has a manual aperture ring. I thought of the Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D.

 

However, in a Flickr page ( click here ) I read that you can't "operate your D5200 unless you lock the aperture ring at the minimum aperture (largest f/-number)." 

 

I'm a newbie, and I have difficulties in understanding what he meant to say. 

 

Does he mean you can't set your aperture at any other value other than its minimum? Then it would make no sense to buy an f/1.8 lens if I can't use it at f/1.8 which would give me fantastic low light images. 

 

Another person in that page said that a non-CPU lens would do the trick. 

 

Would you please care to help me understand?