Canon 5D mark II with Nikon Glass
 

I'm doing reshoots for another DP who used a 5D mark II with Zeiss ZE glass for canon. They had some problems with the footage and the DP is back in LA so I was asked to reshoot some footage. I was asked to reshoot two scenes with my Nikon lenses, on a their 5D mark II. I was playing around with the camera and I noticed it would not get out of auto iris, I would make aperture changes and it the camera would just re-adjust for the light. I shoot mainly on the 7D with my Nikon's and this does not happen. It's probably a stupid question and I only had 5 minutes to play with the 5D, but just asking if anyone knows what setting is causing it, because I thought it was in manual like the 7D but the camera did it's own auto lighting.

That camera might have the old software..?

-- peer

I upladed the new firmware to it, but it still does it.

The camera can't adjust a Nikon iris

Is exposure actually changing or is it just the LCD? I assume the camera is in 'M'

the exposure is actually changing. When I moved the camera do dark area it adjusted. When I closed the aperture on the lens, the Canon adjusted. It was in M. I'm wondering since it can't read what f stop it at it to auto?

Are you sure you're not using Auto ISO?

My MarkII with a Canon lens was doing this in Manual mode. I switched to Shutter Priority (Tv) and set it to 1/50sec. (filming in 24fps) and I haven't had the problem since. Give it a try with the Nikon glass. Let us know if you figure it out.

Cheers,
-Paul

I pretty much have them settings in the camera Paul, except maybe the Shutter priority? I'm keeping the ISO at 640. Where in the menu could I look to make sure auto ISO is off?

Go into the live view settings and make sure it's set for "Movie Display" and NOT "Exposure Simulation". On the 7D, you don't have to deal with that since it has a dedicated video mode. Also make sure your LCD brightness is set on manual and in the middle for best contrast ratio. Make sure your ISO is not set to "A". Shoot in "M" mode on the dial. Use "Kelvin" white balance or a preset, but not AWB.

In addition to that stuff...
Disable Highlight Tone Priority, Auto Lighting Optimizer, peripheral illumination correction, and noise reduction.

From what I have read (can't testify if it's true or not, but doesn't hurt either way) you should have the metering mode set to "spot" and the color to "Adobe RGB".

Hope this helps!

Canon 5D mark II with Nikon Glass
 

I had exactly the same problem the first time I used a Nikon 20mm (with adapter) on my 5DMkII. It turns out that I had the ISO set to auto. I think its likely that was your problem as well.