Do you need a Nikon 24mm PC-E if you already have a 19mm PC-E?
Ventsislav Filipov
October 14, 2018 9:12 pm
Hello. Please say something about sharpness and picture quality when the lens is fully shifted to the end. This is the most important thing about this lens. When someone buys TS lens is not about using the only center of the lens.Thank you.
David Burns
February 11, 2018 10:31 am
I used to own a 24mm PC and used it for several years, mainly for architectural jobs. It did the job mostly but simply did not have a large enough projected image circle to cover when used radically off axis, ie. with rises and tilts and I sold it.
With full rise for instance (a major use for such a lens), it simply did not cover adequately and was noticeably soft at the top edge of the image. On the odd occasions when I used it with tilt movements, I noticed the same. It was not so bad that it was visibly vignetting but it certainly was outside the sharp image area. I do not think that measuring the sharpness in the lab at the edges would necessarily inform you sufficiently about this possible problem as the issue is not quite the same as edge sharpness (although related of course) but with the size of image circle behind the lens and whether it is sufficient for full movements.
As a comparison, most LF lenses for 4X5″ ‘view’ cameras, cover an area much larger than the film area to allow for full off axis movements without running out of sharp coverage of the image circle. I would be interested to know if the 19mm PC actually does have an image circle that allows full movements on the lens. In my experience, the 24mm PC did not. I have not undertaken any research on this and it is possible that the information is readily available somewhere!
I suggest the ultimate solution for this (other than film capture) is the Sinar Lantec with top-notch German lenses and a medium format back, but the price will approach that of a luxury automobile. There are also precision-built solutions for FF and MF MILCs available from HCam . A far less costly approach is to use DSLR T-S lens capabilities within the adequately sharp part of the lens’ image circle, then if necessary tilt (or turn) the camera to allow some convergence, and then use software correction to take over from there. I doubt most clients will care if the edges are slightly less sharp, and it’s even more doubtful they would be willing to pay the extra price for the “ultimate” solution anyway.
As a view camera user, I was interested in this lens for use as a falling front for multi-row panoramas on my D810. This would let me avoid the distortion inherent in tilting the lens down for the lower row.
After looking at this review, I am probably better off using an 11mm Irix or 15mm Milvius and keeping the body vertical.
Bruce Stenman
August 28, 2017 4:25 pm
What was not mentioned is that with all the Canon tilt-shift lenses the user can easily change the shift tilt axis so that they are in same which is useful for landscape photography. The Nikon 19mm PC-E is the first tilt shift lens from Nikon with this capability.
Malan
July 14, 2017 11:44 pm
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the informative review! I have the 35mm f3.5 PCE which I use for architecture exteriors and 14-24 f2.8 for interiors. I shoot with D800. I’m considering this 19mm but at our exchange rate of 15x the US price, it is a HEFTY price tag…. I would be interested to use it for interiors as well but I’m concerned about lens flares. I shoot a lot of commercial interiors and there are a lot of lights sometimes which cause lens flares even on the 14-24. With the 19mm it will be much worse due to that bulging glass?
Hi Malan. Like most wide-angle lenses, the 19mm is prone to flaring from strong, direct light. The bulbous front element does not have a hood to protect it, but nano crystal coat helps. From my experience with both the 14-24mm and 19mm, I feel that they are about equal in the amount they flare.
Regarding interiors, the 19mm does a great job of keeping lines straight, but the 14-24mm has a wider angle of view.
Warwick
June 15, 2017 11:00 pm
Hi Matt. Thanks for the review. As a former 5×4 photographer I had bought a PC 24 mm for my D800E, and was so disappointed I sold it again. One of the things I have never seen in any test of a PC lens is an imatest of the performance when shifted. Perhaps it is too hard to do. But with a large format lens the circle of coverage was good enough to use movements with a 10×8 camera, so with a 5×4 there was minimal loss of image quality when shifted. The Imatest results for this lens show a marked drop in sharpness at the corners from 2850 to 1795 when the lens is centred. So I imagine it gets rapidly worse as the lens is shifted into the poorer performing peripheries of the circle of coverage. Any thoughts ?
Hi Warwick. You’re right that the 19mm’s sharpness drops in the corners, but I didn’t notice a problem with softness when shifting the lens. The corners on the 19mm are about the same as the 14-24mm which is regarded as a very sharp lens. At f/5.6 and above the 19mm is one of the sharpest wide angle lenses I’ve used.
I also would like to see the resolution of this lens when shifted as that would be the main reason for me purchasing such a lens.
I need a lens of this focal length that gives excellent IQ when fully shifted if thats possible.
Regards Michael
colin gift
June 6, 2017 4:25 pm
This is comment regarding bjorn vink’s thoughts on using the 19 mm with a mirror less camera…. I own both the 24 mm PCE and the older 85 mm D tilt shift. Even though the newer PCE lens has an aperture ring the aperture is controlled electronically and if you try to use that lens with an adapter, you can’t stop down and everything is shot wide open. With the older D lens this is not an issue. I was disappointed to find this out when trying to use my Sony’s because focus peeking is such a huge advantage. I haven’t read the specs on the 19 mm PCE yet, but assume they have the same electronic aperture control. I understand that there are some smart adapters in the works that should solve the problem, and if that’s the case I might be in the market. Darn! After reading your article, it was surprising to see the difference in resolution between the 19 mm and 24 mm. I do shoot within an D810…
Niteen Kasle
June 4, 2017 12:55 am
Hi Matt thanks for the in depth review of the 19mm f4 Pce. I would like to know if you have noticed any focus shift while shooting with 19mm pce as mentioned by digilloyd diglloyd.com/prem/…Table.html Regards Niteen
Hi Niteen. I couldn’t read the full article because I’m not a subscriber, so I’m not exactly sure how the author was testing his lens for focus shift. I didn’t encounter problems with focus shift during my usage. My understanding is that focus shift occurs mostly with very fast lenses. The 19mm has a max aperture of f/4, so I don’t think this should be a big problem. I would also recommend stopping down the 19mm to f/5.6 or f/8 for best results; in which case your depth of field would be large enough to almost totally avoid focus shift.
Thanks for a thorough review. I wish Nikon had built this with a mechanical aperture to make it more compatible, especially since it’s a manual focus slow-working lens to begin with. That would have made it adaptable to mirrorless cameras such as Sony A7x.
BTW convergence correction with software entails cropping which can severely diminish image size (down to as much as 1/3 or less). DxO’s Viewpoint 3 does not permit scaling, which means there is no loss of sharpness but downsizing occurs upon cropping (loss of sharpness would only result from subsequent up-sizing).
Hi John. I’m sure you’re not the only one wishing for more compatibility for this lens. On the upside it should remain relevant for a very long time. Thanks for the info on software correction.
Do you need a Nikon 24mm PC-E if you already have a 19mm PC-E?
Hello. Please say something about sharpness and picture quality when the lens is fully shifted to the end. This is the most important thing about this lens. When someone buys TS lens is not about using the only center of the lens.Thank you.
I used to own a 24mm PC and used it for several years, mainly for architectural jobs. It did the job mostly but simply did not have a large enough projected image circle to cover when used radically off axis, ie. with rises and tilts and I sold it.
With full rise for instance (a major use for such a lens), it simply did not cover adequately and was noticeably soft at the top edge of the image. On the odd occasions when I used it with tilt movements, I noticed the same. It was not so bad that it was visibly vignetting but it certainly was outside the sharp image area. I do not think that measuring the sharpness in the lab at the edges would necessarily inform you sufficiently about this possible problem as the issue is not quite the same as edge sharpness (although related of course) but with the size of image circle behind the lens and whether it is sufficient for full movements.
As a comparison, most LF lenses for 4X5″ ‘view’ cameras, cover an area much larger than the film area to allow for full off axis movements without running out of sharp coverage of the image circle. I would be interested to know if the 19mm PC actually does have an image circle that allows full movements on the lens. In my experience, the 24mm PC did not. I have not undertaken any research on this and it is possible that the information is readily available somewhere!
Hi David,
I suggest the ultimate solution for this (other than film capture) is the Sinar Lantec with top-notch German lenses and a medium format back, but the price will approach that of a luxury automobile. There are also precision-built solutions for FF and MF MILCs available from HCam . A far less costly approach is to use DSLR T-S lens capabilities within the adequately sharp part of the lens’ image circle, then if necessary tilt (or turn) the camera to allow some convergence, and then use software correction to take over from there. I doubt most clients will care if the edges are slightly less sharp, and it’s even more doubtful they would be willing to pay the extra price for the “ultimate” solution anyway.
johngaylordphotography.com
As a view camera user, I was interested in this lens for use as a falling front for multi-row panoramas on my D810.
This would let me avoid the distortion inherent in tilting the lens down for the lower row.
After looking at this review, I am probably better off using an 11mm Irix or 15mm Milvius and keeping the body vertical.
What was not mentioned is that with all the Canon tilt-shift lenses the user can easily change the shift tilt axis so that they are in same which is useful for landscape photography. The Nikon 19mm PC-E is the first tilt shift lens from Nikon with this capability.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the informative review!
I have the 35mm f3.5 PCE which I use for architecture exteriors and 14-24 f2.8 for interiors. I shoot with D800. I’m considering this 19mm but at our exchange rate of 15x the US price, it is a HEFTY price tag…. I would be interested to use it for interiors as well but I’m concerned about lens flares. I shoot a lot of commercial interiors and there are a lot of lights sometimes which cause lens flares even on the 14-24. With the 19mm it will be much worse due to that bulging glass?
Hi Malan. Like most wide-angle lenses, the 19mm is prone to flaring from strong, direct light. The bulbous front element does not have a hood to protect it, but nano crystal coat helps. From my experience with both the 14-24mm and 19mm, I feel that they are about equal in the amount they flare.
Regarding interiors, the 19mm does a great job of keeping lines straight, but the 14-24mm has a wider angle of view.
Hi Matt. Thanks for the review. As a former 5×4 photographer I had bought a PC 24 mm for my D800E, and was so disappointed I sold it again. One of the things I have never seen in any test of a PC lens is an imatest of the performance when shifted. Perhaps it is too hard to do. But with a large format lens the circle of coverage was good enough to use movements with a 10×8 camera, so with a 5×4 there was minimal loss of image quality when shifted. The Imatest results for this lens show a marked drop in sharpness at the corners from 2850 to 1795 when the lens is centred. So I imagine it gets rapidly worse as the lens is shifted into the poorer performing peripheries of the circle of coverage. Any thoughts ?
Hi Warwick. You’re right that the 19mm’s sharpness drops in the corners, but I didn’t notice a problem with softness when shifting the lens. The corners on the 19mm are about the same as the 14-24mm which is regarded as a very sharp lens. At f/5.6 and above the 19mm is one of the sharpest wide angle lenses I’ve used.
Thanks. Out of interest is it possible to do a resolution test with Imatest with the lens shifted, or is it technically not possible ?
I think it should be possible, but Nasim is the one who does those tests. I’ll talk to him about it next time we review a tilt-shift lens.
I also would like to see the resolution of this lens when shifted as that would be the main reason for me purchasing such a lens.
I need a lens of this focal length that gives excellent IQ when fully shifted if thats possible.
Regards
Michael
This is comment regarding bjorn vink’s thoughts on using the 19 mm with a mirror less camera….
I own both the 24 mm PCE and the older 85 mm D tilt shift. Even though the newer PCE lens has an aperture ring the aperture is controlled electronically and if you try to use that lens with an adapter, you can’t stop down and everything is shot wide open. With the older D lens this is not an issue.
I was disappointed to find this out when trying to use my Sony’s because focus peeking is such a huge advantage.
I haven’t read the specs on the 19 mm PCE yet, but assume they have the same electronic aperture control.
I understand that there are some smart adapters in the works that should solve the problem, and if that’s the case I might be in the market.
Darn! After reading your article, it was surprising to see the difference in resolution between the 19 mm and 24 mm. I do shoot within an D810…
Hi Matt thanks for the in depth review of the 19mm f4 Pce.
I would like to know if you have noticed any focus shift while shooting with 19mm pce as mentioned by digilloyd diglloyd.com/prem/…Table.html
Regards
Niteen
Hi Niteen. I couldn’t read the full article because I’m not a subscriber, so I’m not exactly sure how the author was testing his lens for focus shift. I didn’t encounter problems with focus shift during my usage. My understanding is that focus shift occurs mostly with very fast lenses. The 19mm has a max aperture of f/4, so I don’t think this should be a big problem. I would also recommend stopping down the 19mm to f/5.6 or f/8 for best results; in which case your depth of field would be large enough to almost totally avoid focus shift.
Thanks a lot for the tip.
Thanks for a thorough review. I wish Nikon had built this with a mechanical aperture to make it more compatible, especially since it’s a manual focus slow-working lens to begin with. That would have made it adaptable to mirrorless cameras such as Sony A7x.
BTW convergence correction with software entails cropping which can severely diminish image size (down to as much as 1/3 or less). DxO’s Viewpoint 3 does not permit scaling, which means there is no loss of sharpness but downsizing occurs upon cropping (loss of sharpness would only result from subsequent up-sizing).
Hi John. I’m sure you’re not the only one wishing for more compatibility for this lens. On the upside it should remain relevant for a very long time. Thanks for the info on software correction.