DIY Declicking an Old 50mm f1.4 Nikkor

Due to the popularity of HDSLRs being used for video, people have been using old manual still lenses for video.

Aamong the popular choices are old Nikkors with manual aperture rings.

Traditionally videographers adjust aperture/iris in run and gun scenarios where lighting conditions change, like from outdoor to indoor for instance. Unfortunately, unlike dedicated video lenses, the aperture rings of these still lenses which control the iris blades do not change from one setting to another smoothly but "click" abruptly from one f-stop to the next.

One way to go around this is shoot with fixed aperture and adjust exposure using other parameters or to de-click your lens.

Using almost the same procedure, I was also able to declick the 50mm f1.2 and a 105mm f2.8.

Below is a video showing a scenario where a declicked aperture ring is useful.

Hope you find this post useful.