Nickolaus began his career as a camera operator for MGM in the late 1940s. By the 1950s, he was working as a director of photography in both film and television. He worked on such popular television series as Perry Mason, Rawhide, and Gunsmoke. Together with Conrad Hall, he helped establish the visual style of the original The Outer Limits (1963 – 1965).
He continued to work in television until shortly before his death in Malibu, California in 1985.