Nikon 19mm f/4E PC
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Matt, a very well written review of an interesting lens. Although I am not in the market for one of these lenses (I already own 3 view cameras and a plethora of large format lenses), I am very pleased whenever I read the Scheimplug Principle invoked in modern day photography articles, which IMHO is one of the greatest rules/inventions ever made in photography.
In addition to the traditional tilt and shift functions of these ’tilt-shift’ lenses, from your description it sounds like the rotation function of the Nikon 19mm f/4E PC is the equivalent of the “swing” function of the front and rear standards of a view camera, in which swings are essentially tilts in the horizontal direction.
I am curious about the DOF scale on this lens, which for a modern day Nikkor lens appears to be reminiscent of Nikon’s Ais line and certainly more complete than the skimpy DOF scales on some of Nikon’s G lens series. Historically, as you and our Readers may know, DOF scales on many camera lenses from various manufacturers and various formats are flawed due to camera engineers’ poor assumptions/interpretations of DOF (I personally recalibrate the DOF scales on my 35 mm and medium format lenses). In your tests and real world experiences, have you found the DOF scales on this Nikkor 19mm f/4E PC lens to be accurate?
I have also noted that the aperture of the Nikkor 19mm f/4E PC lens can be stopped down to f/32, which is an aperture typically found in Nikon’s macro lenses. I am curious if you (or maybe some of our Readers) have any thoughts on why a tilt-shift lens (a wide angle one at that) would need to be stopped down to f/32? (there is actually a reason, which is based on view camera geometry).
Great work!
– Rick
Hi Rick, thanks for the kind words. Using this lens was a big learning experience for me, both creatively and technically.
Regarding rotating the lens barrel, yes it allows you to adjust tilt in all directions just like swing on a view camera.
I did not specifically test the DOF scale on this lens, so I can’t give you a good answer on that one.
Stopping down to f/32 is not recommended because diffraction would completely soften the image. My guess is that the diaphragm mechanism is capable of this small aperture by default and Nikon does not bother to change it.
Thank you for sharing your experiences in this article of great detailness and accuracy. You state (correctly of course) above that using software to perform a keystone correction ist resulting in loss of resolution. Is that the only drawback? I once used for a very short time an older manual PC-Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 out of curiosity. But my limited experience and time with this lens did not really help to learn about it. So if I use a 36MP camera and the 14-24m f/2.8 you mentioned above and software keystone correction this would give me basically enough resolution for the final image. Are there other differences?
I like your example images. They show perfectly what this lens is about. While at it: Image 19mmReview18.jpg (the tower with clock showing 5.28 p.m.) is a little irritating: You have the impression to look horizontally to it, all lines are vertically straight, but you can discover that you look from underneath by looking at the top of the tower.
Hi Jan. Yes, you’ll lose some resolution when correcting keystoning in software, and you could lose a bit of sharpness depending on how extensive the manipulation is. Of course, if you’re not trying to make huge prints this should be acceptable.
Thanks for this interesting review. I’ve had my copy of the 19/4 for a couple of weeks and I concur with most of your findings. I was especially interested to see the results of your comparison with the 24/3.5, which I also own, and which confirm my own impression.
The 19/4 is indeed a great lens.
I regret that it does not seem to have a profile in Lightroom yet… Is that because it is a tilt-shift lens, so it is not meant to be profiled by Adobe, or should we just be more patient?
Hey Dominique, thanks for the comment. I noticed the same thing. I think software providers have not yet updated their list of profiles. The lens has a CPU chip, so it should be giving metadata.
There isn’t – and probably won’t ever be – a Lightroom/Photoshop profile for this lens, just as there never has been for the Nikon 24mm PC-E lens. The optical axis for any distortion correction will be moved by any shifting of the lens, rendering the correction useless. It would only work when set to 0! Any correction therefore needs to be done manually; if shifted you have to do the correction by placing the optical axis in the middle by creating a wider canvas around the image on one side to counterbalance the direction of the shift. The only tilt/shift lens that corrects distortions automatically, I believe, is the Hasselblad HTS adapter, as the amount of shift and tilt is conveyed to the camera electronically via the Exif data. Nikon, Canon or other cameras can not do this sadly!!
Just an idea, if you’ve bought the latest Fuji GFX 50s camera, there is room for an adapter since the flange distance is shorter than a Nikon DSLR. And this PC-lens has even some space left to shift or tilt a little bit. So this is maybe one of the most interesting wide-angles for Fuji GFX 50s owners and some Hasselblad X1D fans waiting for bodies or lenses.
Or Nikon comes with a simular mirrorless body with a larger sensor… maybe a smart move to enter the mirrorless world..
Nice review of a great lens
Bjorn
Thanks, Bjorn!
Great work Matt! It came out same time with 70200fl which had already has updated profile in Lightroom, I have also checked the previously 24, 45 and 85 ts which do not seem to have profiles at all in adobe cc. Would that suggests tilt shift lens do not need a profile as not necessary for profile correction?
I am looking to apply filter on it which only for now nisi does that, do u think the lucroit is going to update the 165 holder so that formatt hightec user can utilise the system?
Ps I enjoy using this piece of art!
Thanks, Keith. I did a little reading on an Adobe forum, and it seems that lens profiles are not available for tilt-shift lenses because the profile would be valid for only one tilt or shift position. I believe you can create your own, but it may not work well for tilted or shifted images.
I’m not too familiar with the filter systems out there (Nasim seems to be the expert there). All I can say is that this is a specialized lens that will be sold in limited quantities, so accessory manufacturers may not prioritize it.
Since I only look at photographs and not MTF graphs, I would love to see some comparison pictures of the same subject shot with the 19 and the 24 in order to compare sharpness. Bench testing seems very precise, but let’s not lose sight (literally) of the end result.
Anthony, such a comparison would not be meaningful due to drastic differences in focal length. You would literally be looking at two completely different images. If you only want to see sharpness differences while ignoring differences in focal length, I can tell you upfront that the 24mm would not look very good when used on a high resolution camera like the Nikon D810. Try a 24mm PC-E and take a look at the corners – it fails to resolve details at pretty much all apertures.
Sorry, Nasim, but this review is a dismal failure at assessing how well this lens does what it was made to do: tilt!
1. You could show pictures of brick walls taken straight on, and tilted using both lenses to demonstrate differences at corners between 19 and 24.
2. You could move the 19 closer to the subject to compensate for focal length difference, and get same field of view as the 24.
3. It seems that there were no photos shown with the lens tilted, right? In other words, the reviewer did not show what this lens could do in its area of expertise: tilting!
3a. There are photos which BEG for tilt (#3: lights in front of skyscraper, looking up, with bottom and top of building out of focus; #5 : tile floor in subway station, near tiles in focus, far tiles blurred; # 16: long pier, near and far end and boats in distance blurred, only middle distance sharp.
The review totally fails to SHOW how this lens fails or succeeds at its very reason for existence. Nobody buys this lens to shoot it straight.
Hi Anthony, I’m sorry that you do not like the review. Please let me answer some of the questions you have raised.
1 and 2. I did not have access to a 24mm PC-E lens when I was working on the review. If you’re just concerned about sharpness, then the charts are the most accurate place to look. I know you would have preferred a visual inspection, but that was not possible for this review. I apologize for that.
3 and 3a. Most of the photos that you say beg for tilt are actually using tilt to selectively limit focus. I think you’re looking for examples of the opposite, using tilt to keep all subjects in focus. I do not have any examples of this because a wide-angle lens like the 19mm tends to keep everything in focus unless you have a subject that is just a couple of feet away. Again, I apologize for this omission, but my use cases may not have matched yours. The subway station photos do have everything in focus. I can email you full sized images if you’d like to check.
Matt,
I’m looking at this lens from my point of view as a landscape photographer who wants everything in focus from near to far. I have no interest in the so called toy camera effect limiting focus. Apparently I misinterpreted what you were showing, for which I apologize. It would have been good if you labeled the photos regarding what effect you were showing.
I can only guess, but I’d guess the readers of this review are more interested in sharp focus from near to far, like a view camera. The fact that you did not show one example of this feature of this lens is a major omission, I think.
The skyscraper and lights, #3 , would have been great to demonstrate tilt to keep the whole thing in focus, and shift, to fix perspective.
I do agree that a 19 mm has enormous depth of field: from 5 feet to infinity when focused at the hyperfocal distance of 9.9 feet at f/4, and even more at f/11. I guess the subway photos demonstrate that. I was viewing them on an iPad which doesn’t do sharp focus well sometimes. My error. Of course, the selling point of the tilt/shift is that you can have everything in focus at a wide f-stop thereby permitting faster shutter speeds to eliminate blurring moving flowers,etc.
Since Part 11.3 is labeled Nikon 19 vs Nikon 24, I assumed you had a Nikon 24. Readers who might be contemplating buying one or the other, or trading their 24 in for a 19 would like to compare the photos produced by the the 2 lenses side by side, differences in focal length notwithstanding. That was the main thrust of my comment. I think we rely on Imatest numbers as a proxy for sharpness too much, and should revert to looking at the photos, but maybe images sent over the Internet and viewed on iPads and multiple different screens, without downloading high res images, is worse.
Thank you for your efforts and prompt response!
Anthony
Thank you for your feedback, Anthony.
As Anthony points out, I would much prefer to see photographs taken with both lenses side by side in order to understand and appreciate the difference in quality. What “would not look very good” to one person may be acceptable to another, if not quite at the quality of the 19mm version.
I have been considering a tilt and shift lens for the purposes of landscape photography and this is the first review I’ve read which comes across as being particularly negative regarding the image quality of the 24mm when using it with a D8xx series camera offering >36MP.
Thanks for the review – very much enjoyed reading it.
Excellent review here. Thanks again for your efforts with PL, Nasim.
Hi Matt , I have a question? Is this lens is also suitable for use photography of a lots of persons ?
When I take a photo with a wide-angle lenses from the lots of persons who stand together, for persons were on both sides , almost the faces of them deformed and oval slant shown.
Whether using this lens, do this problem occurs again for the faces of persons on both sides or not?
Hi Behzad, I would not recommend this lens for photographing people. I did not test it in the exact scenario you are referring to, but in general the 19mm behaves like other wide-angle lenses with the addition of tilt and shift functions.
Thanks a lot dear Matt
hello Matt , thanks for the review.
I had the lens on test some days and i find it very good indeed.
Strong point is the almost lack of distortion even when tilted.
( for distortion correction on TS lenses i always use ptLens)
Other strong point is the sharpness that is there even in the corners when fully shifted. ( f8 needed)
Third is the flare resistance of the lens – much better than the 14-24mm.
As is written the 24mm-pce is the weakest link and should be replaced.
Thanks, Pieter. I’m glad that you like the lens. I agree that the optical quality is very good. I agree that stopping it down is very helpful. I was not super impressed with the performance at f/4, but at f/5.6+ it’s great.
Hell Matt,
I made a little mistake; wanted to say:
Strong point is the almost lack of distortion even when fully SHIFTED.
And that is remarkable for a 19mm lens – that becomes a 13mm lens fully shifted…
Yes i understand that this lens costs some money, but it is something special.
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.
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.