If I have a camera that does not have any electronic connection to the lens, is there any way to adjust the aperture on the lens if it does not have a physical aperture ring?
We're using a scientific camera (Imperx Bobcat) which does not have any electronic connections in the mount for the lens. It mounts Nikon lenses, but the mount doesn't have the necessary electronic connections. This has been fine for us in the past, as we have always used lenses with a physical aperture ring. (We manually focus the lens for our experiments, so autofocus isn't a concern.) We recently gained access to a AF-S NIKKOR 200mm f/2G ED VR II lens, but it lacks a physical aperture ring.
Is there some sort of adapter or 'smart' extension tube that would let us adjust the aperture manually on a lens without an aperture ring? (We typically use extension tubes, so the extra distance is not a concern.) The easy answer is likely to just use a lens with an aperture ring, but we wanted to see if there were any possible options for the above scenario.
Answer
Ultimately, we decided to use a Nikon BR-6 Auto Diaphragm Ring combined with a BR-2A Lens Reversing Ring, plus a Nikon AR-10 cable release for setting the aperture.
This was the setup: A Nikon lens (lacking an aperture ring) connected directly to the BR-6 F-mount socket. The 52mm threaded rear of the BR-6 connected to the BR-2A 52mm threads. The other side of the BR-2A attached to the F-mount of the camera body. The Nikon AR-10 cable release connected to the BR-6 for manually setting the aperture.
This was admittedly an ugly solution. The BR-6 and BR-2A act like extension tubes (hurting far focus), and you cannot readily set the aperture accurately to a known value (other than wide open or closed). However, for our specific application, these tradeoffs were acceptable. Be advised that in a more conventional photographic setting, these compromises may be far more unpalatable / problematic.
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