Jack OBrien
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 p.1 #1 · PC-E NIKKOR 24mm ... UPDATE | |
I've just started using this lens, haven't done a client shoot with it yet, but I am having a bit of fun getting familiar with it. For those of you that don't know what lens I'm talking about, click here. FWIW, I'm using the lens on a DX body, and for all intents and purposes it works just fine on my D2x's. There are a couple of nits, but I'm not writing a review at this time.
Of course, 24mm is giving me a 36mm FoV, and for the buildings that I shoot for my client, this is going to be a good focal length. Just for grins, I thought I'd share a few pictures that show off some of the capabilities of this lens. Since I haven't had time to work with it like I want to, I'll only talk about the 'Shift' function for now. I haven't had time to shoot with the 'Tilt' function yet.
Here's a "final" shot using the shift function. The lens is shifted up so the top of the water tower is visible....
This is the same shot, with the lens shifted all the way down....
and this is the same shot, with the lens shifted all the way up..
Just for grins, I made a composite of the two shots that shows the full 'shift' of the lens. The 'marching ants' show the frame 'unshifted'.
Another example shot using the 24mm PC
Here's a corner crop of the above shot
This shot is a slight exaggeration, but this is what you get when you tilt your 'up' or the back is not parallel with the building...
Of course, shots like this can be corrected for perspective in Photoshop, but I just got tired of doing that, and I didn't want to lose pixels. It's really nice being able to get the shot in-camera and not having to do any corrections in post.
I am quite pleased with the shift range of this lens, 24mm is extremely useful on the DX format. Did I mention that it's sharp? Well, it is an amazingly sharp lens, and exhibits wonderful color as well. If you'd like, I'll update this post with pics from shooting with the lens 'tilted'. FWIW, this lens appears to be very well made (and it ought to, considering how expensive it is). The focus is smooth and damped well, and I like the positive detents on the aperture ring.
There are some 'gotchas' using this lens on a D2 body, and on a camera besides the D3/D/300, but I can live with the gotchas. It's certainly a manual focus (and manual exposure on my D2 bodies) lens, but for the type of shooting it was designed to do, that's not a big deal for me.
Later....
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Ok, here's a bit of an update 
I've put together a few more images that hopefully demonstrate the shift and tilt capability of the 24mmPC Nikkor. I'm copying the ideas/demonstration that are in the manual for this lens, kind of loosely
This first image is of my Roland piano. The camera is in Landscape orientation and I have rotated the lens 90* so the Tilt function is in landscape. Camera is tilted down, lens is tilted down (See next photo). Hopefully you can see the almost infinite DoF. If I wasn't half blind I could have gotten it sharp from end to end 
Here you can see the camera, and the lens has been rotated 90* (the Nikon logo is normally at the top, which is now at the side).
Now I've changed to Portrait orientation, and I'm tilting the crap out of the lens. As you can see, I've focused on the name Roland, which is razor sharp, and the rest of the keyboard goes soft to completely out of focus
In this shot, I've tilted the lens more parallel to the keyboard, so nearly the entire subject is in focus. Considering the front of the lens is about 1 foot away, I think this amount of DoF is incredible...
How about some fake buildings?? Ok, use your imagination, this could also be a product shot, something that you don't want to be distorted. In this shot, the camera is positioned above the boxes, and tilted down. The lens is not shifted or tilted, and you can see how the front and rear box are distorted...
Now I've shifted the lens and put a little tilt on it (to the left). This eliminates the distortion, and the entire image is in focus. Forgive me if I've missed it a little, but where I was working was not ideal, including sweat in my eyes
Here's a view of the camera with the lens fully tilted 'left'. It's hard to get an idea, but 11* is really quite a bit of shift, and 8* tilt is a bunch of tilt
This is a view with the lens fully shifted down. Hopefully you can see this.
Hopefully this sheds a bit more light on this wonderful lens. I hope to get out and shoot some images for my client this week.
Edited by Jack OBrien on Aug 10, 2008 at 02:55 PM GMT
Edited on Aug 10, 2008 at 07:55 PM
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