Using a non CPU lens with Live View

Has anyone had any experience using a non CPU lens in Live View mode?

I want to be able to rotate the aperture ring on the lens and watch the change in the depth of field of the image while in live view mode. I have tried doing this with a Nikon "D" series lens, but the camera becomes inoperable and flashes the "EE" error message if the aperture ring is rotated off of its minimum aperture value (i.e f/32). The camera I'm using is a Nikon D7100. I was curious if it would be worth getting a non CPU lens to be able to use it with this camera's live view mode in this fashion.

Thanks,

Bill

Since you are using a D7100, which has an aperture follower tab, you have the option to use the aperture ring to control the aperture when you are using a lens with one. Therefore you can already do what you want with your AF-D lens that has an aperture ring. There is no need to get a manual-focus, non-CPU lens only for that purpose.

 

Go to Custom Settings, Section F the Controls ->

Customize command dials -> Aperture setting -> switch that to "off" to use the Aperture ring instead of the Sub-command dial.

 

After that, when you rotate the aperture ring to change aperture, the camera will not display FEE any more.

Edited January 14, 2021 by ShunCheung

As Shun says, you can set F7 to "aperture ring" and the depth of field will now respond to the aperture ring even though the DOF button is disabled in Live View. Remember too that the Live View comes on at whatever aperture you set before entering it, so you can also get around this (if clumsily) by exiting LV, selecting and aperture, and re-entering it, whereupon you'll get the DOF of the aperture you chose. Thus you can get a kind of DOF preview in Live View even with G lenses. Also remember that LV will never give you accurate exposure information, since it has its own light meter.

So, what you want is a non-auto aperture lens. You rotate the aperture ring and the aperture opens and closes, with the resulting realtime change in DoF and brightness.:cool:

On d7100 at least, when you shift to Live View, the aperture lever in the camera drops and has no function. Thus, even auto-aperture manual lenses behave as if they were completely manual, and their DOF changes immediately register. This is also true of AF and AFD lenses when you use the aperture ring option in D7. Why Nikon does this is anybody's guess, but it does then make DOF preview possible in Live View with any lens that has an aperture ring, while impossible with any lens that does not.

 

e.t.a....by the way, the above is true also of the D3200. Probably of others too, but I don't know for sure.

This is also true of AF and AFD lenses when you use the aperture ring option in D7

I must go and play with this....:)

 

I got very 'confused' about the actual aperture used when in LV as opposed to the actual aperture set for the taken image.... ie when in the sequence the blades actually close.

The behavior seems odd and complicated, since in LV with F7 set normally, any AF lens with an aperture tab must expose as an automatic lens even if the viewfinder doesn't see it. If you take the lens off and look at how the camera's tab behaves, you'll see that when viewing in LV the tab drops down, but when you operate the shutter it pops back up briefly.

 

So, for example, if you have a G lens with an aperture tab or are using an AF or AFD lens with the aperture ring locked, the Live View will always be, and stay at, whatever aperture the camera showed before the LV button was pushed, until you fire the shutter. If you change the aperture, it will change the exposure but not the view, but when the exposure is done, the view will return at the aperture of the last exposure.

 

E aperture lenses behave differently: with those, the Live View changes with aperture change, a preview by default.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Matthew Currie

Thanks for the info. I tried what Shun Cheung suggested, and with the change of the F5 option for Aperture Setting to OFF, I can rotate the lens' aperture ring and see a preview of the depth of field at various settings in live view without having first exit live view, change the aperture setting and then reenter liveview.

I can get the same functionality when viewing the image through the prism finder by continuously holding down the depth of field preview button while rotating the aperture ring.

This is with a Nikon D type lens.

Glad it is working out for you. I still have both a D7100 and D7200, but my D7100 is in storage so that I tested a "screwdriver" AF lens with the D7200 to verify that it works before I posted my reply above.

I don't know why I kept saying F7 when it's F5 on the menu. I was doing it and looking at it and still wrote it wrong. Duh.

 

Glad it works as you like.

F7, your next film camera purchase....:D