The PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED is the first tilt-shift lens from Nikon. While the company was first to offer a shift lens for a 35mm system camera, its PC (Perspective Control) lenses lacked a tilt functionality until this lens came along. Tilt-shift lenses are specialised tools that allow some view camera movements to be replicated on an SLR camera, and are thus of great interest to architectural and landscape photographers. At nearly $2,000 the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D is not a cheap option, so we were curious to find out how it performed at the tasks it will most often be used for.
The Nikon PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D is fairly big and heavy for a medium-speed wide-angle lens, but not for a tilt-shift lens - it's actually 60 grams lighter than Canon's comparable TS-E 24mm f/3.5 II. Still, it feels very robust and dense with metal and glass. If you've never seen a tilt-shift lens before, it may even appear somewhat intimidating at first sight with its strange protrusions, knobs and locks. Our review copy has already seen a lot of apparently heavy use, as you can see from some of our product images, but worked flawlessly in the field. The lens comes with the HB-41 hood, which you can also see in the photo above.
Aperture ring
Unlike most other recent lenses from Nikon, the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D features an aperture ring. The ring is electronically coupled to the iris diaphragm, and is way too easy to spin, so you always need to double-check if it's in the intended position before taking a shot. The lens has its own depth-of-field preview button, which stops it down to the working aperture.
Distance scale
The lens also has an engraved distance scale, with depth-of-field marks for f/8, f/16 and f/32. The focus ring is wide and ribbed, and very smooth in action. Focusing is internal, meaning the length of the lens does not change, and the filter thread does not rotate on focus. Autofocus is not available with this lens.
Holding down this release lock allows you to rotate the lens
Besides shifting and tilting, the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D also rotates 90° in each direction from its zero position. The small release lock seen above has to be held down in order for you to be able to turn it. Note that this lens has only one such tab, whereas its Canon counterpart has two, allowing for independent rotation for tilt and shift. We have found that the one on the Nikon lens is a bit too close to the lens release button on the camera – watch out for this in order to avoid pushing the wrong button.
There are a number of movements made possible by this lens, whose purpose may or may not be clear to you. In the following sub-sections we will try to explain these to those unfamiliar with the terminology.
First and foremost, the lens can be shifted up or down by up to 11.5 millimetres. The upward shift is commonly referred to as 'rise', whereas the downward shift is called 'fall'. A large knob, coupled to a worm drive mechanism, is used to shift the lens while a smaller locking knob on the opposite side of the lens allows you to lock the lens in the desired position. Next to the shift control knob is a scale marked in 1mm increments.
This is all nice and well, but why do you need this functionality in the first place? Well, if you have ever photographed buildings, especially tall ones, I bet you have encountered this problem at least a couple of times: the buildings seem to be leaning backward, with their originally vertical lines converging towards the top. This is caused by tilting the camera upward to get rid of the foreground and allow the building to fit in the frame. When you tilt the camera, the sensor plane is no longer vertical, and this is what causes this so-called keystoning effect. In order to keep your verticals vertical, you have to hold the camera perfectly level, but with a regular lens attached, this may mean that the top of the building won't fit in the frame and you'll get too much unwanted foreground. (Or, if you are shooting from a vantage point, you may lose the bottom of the building and get too much sky in the frame.)
Enter rise/fall. A shift lens projects an imaging circle that is oversized relative to the sensor, allowing it to be shifted without vignetting raising its ugly head (except at full shift – more on that later). Now, how can a movement of just a few millimetres make such a difference in framing? The following illustration, where the circle represents the lens' imaging circle and the red rectangle denotes the sensor or film frame, hopefully makes it clear. (Taken from our article, How to Avoid Converging Verticals)
The reason the house is depicted upside down is that this is how the lens projects its image onto the sensor. Notice that the red rectangle, which represents the sensor or film frame is at the same height in both illustrations – just as in reality, where it stays put while the lens is shifted upwards. The projection of the scene shifts along with the lens and its imaging circle, so a different part of it falls onto the sensor – in this case, the entire house from top to bottom rather than the bottom part of the building and some foreground, as is the case with the lens un-shifted.
For best results, you will want to mount the camera on a tripod with a three-way head complete with bubble levels, but hand-held photography is also possible. Most of our sample images found on the third page of this review were taken using various amounts of 'rise'.
If you rotate the lens by 90°, you'll get horizontal shift instead of rise/fall. If you need to shoot a mirror – or any other highly reflective object that works like a mirror – front on without the camera's reflection being seen in the picture, a bit of shift to the left or right can come in handy. For example, have a look at the following image that has a telly in the middle.
Uh oh. You can clearly see the photographer's reflection in the TV screen. Now let's see what happened when I moved a bit to the left, and applied some shift to the right!
While my change in position has brought some foreground objects into the frame (this wouldn't happen in a more spacious room), the shift to the right allowed the TV set to remain in the middle of the photo. And my reflection is now gone.
Other uses for horizontal shifts include stitched panoramas. Instead of turning the camera around as you normally would to capture the source images for the final panorama, you can simply shift the lens once to the left and once to the right, and stitch the resulting images with ease.
Tilting the lens sideways is termed a 'swing', and changes the plane of focus, which is normally parallel to the sensor plane. This has two uses. Firstly, you can have only a very thin slice of the image in focus for creative/artistic effects.
Secondly, you can have a plane that is at an angle to the camera, such as the wall of a building, completely in focus without having to stop the lens down too much.
On the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED lens, there is a knob that controls swing, with firm detents at the zero position and the two extremes. The maximum swing is 8.5°.
Strictly speaking we talk about a 'tilt' when you tilt the lens up or down. In order to access this functionality, the lens has to be rotated by 90° from the zero position. After that, you can use the same knob that controls swing to set the desired amount of tilt.
Similarly to the sideways swing, tilting the lens up or down moves the plane of focus relative to the sensor plane. With a downward tilt, one can take advantage of the Scheimpflug principle. This says – in its simplified form – that when the sensor plane, the lens plane and the image plane intersect in a single point (actually, a single line, but never mind) at somewhere near your feet, everything in the image plane will be in focus. This is a real boon to e.g. landscape photographers, who can have perfect near-far focus without having to stop the lens all the way down and losing resolution due to diffraction.
Here's an example: the first shot was taken with no tilt, and the lens stopped all the way down to f/32 for maximum depth of field.
Have a look at these crops – as expected, they are uniformly sharp but lack resolution and fine detail due to the massive diffraction that occurs at f/32:
Now let's see what happens when we tilt the lens downward by just the right amount for Scheimpflug:
The framing is slightly different due to the tilt, but the difference is not nearly as dramatic as with rise/fall. Let us now examine the details at f/8, which is the sweet spot of this lens:
If we hadn't tilted the lens, one of these crops would be massively out of focus due to the relatively limited depth of field at f/8. Tilting the lens by just the right amount, we get both uniform sharpness AND much better resolution/detail than at f/32.
You can combine tilt with shift, and swing with rise/fall, but you unfortunately can't combine tilt with rise/fall – this is a design fault that could have been avoided if the lens allowed independent rotation of the tilt and shift axes, as is the case with the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 II, for example.
As you would expect from a lens designed for architecture, chromatic aberrations are kept in check – although you can spot them in a few photos if you look closely.
With the lens un-shifted, there is actually less corner shading than we've got accustomed to seeing with full-frame lenses – no surprise given the oversized imaging circle. At maximum shift, however, one can see very obvious vignetting, as shown in the example below. For more examples, have a look at our sample images.
Houston, we have a problem
The PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED lens works without limitations on the Nikon D3X that was provided for this review, but this cannot be said of other Nikon cameras. If you mount it on a body that has a pop-up flash – like the Nikon D70 shown in the shot above – you will not be able to shift it all the way up, because the flash housing gets in the way. In other positions, you'll have problems with the tilt/shift control knobs. This is sad because the lens would make perfect sense on a DX body as well (the 11.5mm maximum shift is actually greater relative to the smaller DX sensor, and the reduced angle of view still makes sense for architectural photography). I suppose that the D1, D1X, D1H, D2X and D2H bodies, which have no built-in flash, work well but these models were discontinued long ago.
The other compatibility issues concern the diaphragm control. Modern pro Nikon bodies like the D3X have no problem stopping down the aperture to the f-stop selected on the aperture ring for exposure, but older and cheaper DSLR bodies require you to use the depth-of-field button on the lens manually before hitting the shutter release (this was certainly the case with the D70). On old film bodies, this solution will not work because the button is not mechanically coupled to the iris diaphragm.
These limitations mean that you effectively have to own a Nikon D3. D3S or D3X to have the lens work the way it should. On some other current camera models, the lens can be used with the caveats mentioned above, while on older film bodies, it is just about useless.
In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.
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PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. It’s the time of year when family and friends come together for a meal or two celebrating any number of special occasions. No matter the holiday, family gatherings are a time worth sharing and remembering through photography. In this post, Peter Carey takes a look at eight ways to capture great candid photos of your loved ones.
We’ve all seen the posed family photos around the dinner table, in front of the hearth or in any number of places. These types of shots are great and have their place in preserving your family memories. But some of us are looking for a more realistic representation of what went on at that meal or gathering. We want to convey the sense of laughter around the table, the craziness of having ten nieces and nephews under foot and the joy in sharing gifts. And posing doesn’t work well for these real world shots. That’s where candid photography comes in! Practice with these eight tips and you’ll be well on your way to preserving family get-togethers in a compelling, engaging manner.
Tip #1 – Let Them Know You’re Coming – At any family gathering someone is always taking photos. Most people like to ham it up for the camera or will avoid it like the plague. Letting your family know before hand that you’ll be taking some photos and to ‘act natural’ will greatly increase your odds of capturing the essence of the moment. Not everyone will heed this request, but it’s good for people to know they should generally ignore your photo taking to keep the photographer from distracting the event.
Tip #2 – But Don’t Let Them SEE You Coming – Now that you’ve prepped the crowd and they know what to expect, it’s ok to be a bit sneaky with the photo taking. Hide around corners and near the back of the crowd. Be polite. But don’t draw attention to yourself. Chances are someone else in the family already has the ‘Look over here!” photo responsibilities and you should capitalize on that by hanging in the wings. After people have posed for the standard photos, they’ll be more relaxed, acting like themselves and that’s a perfect time to be waiting in the background ready to capture family interactions.
Tip #3 – Use A Long Lens – If you have options, choose a 80mm lens, or slightly longer. A zoom is preferable but we’ll see the challenge with that in the next tip. Once in a while a wide angle will be helpful, but for the most part you’ll be capturing facial expression of those around you. And quarters may be a bit close so being able to zoom close from behind your other family members is crucial. With a telephoto lens (zoom or otherwise) you’ll be able to isolate one or two family members as they interact, open presents or prepare meals. This is all you’re really aiming for with candids. Too wide of a lens and you’ll miss the individual expressions.
Tip #4 – Use A Fast Lens – I realize a nice low f-stop lens may not be in everyone’s camera bag, mine included. But if you can take just one lens, bring your fastest one. Using a low f-stop and a slightly higher ISO of around 800-1000, you will be able to avoid using a flash and attracting more attention to yourself. Consider renting a fast lens for the holidays from any number of vendors online. Check out DPS’ post Where To Rent A Lens Online for more information and prices.
Tip #5 – When In Doubt, Shoot In Raw – Now that you’re not using a flash for your candid photos, light color will be a larger issue. There’s good news and bad in this, depending on your point of view. The good news is chances are most of the light will be from the same color temperature, such as incandescent or fluorescent lights. The bad news is it may change room to room, or indoors to out. The easiest way around this problem is, when in doubt, shoot RAW. Shooting in RAW will ensure you have a great chance of correcting for certain lighting conditions in the post processing. If you can set your camera accurately to the lighting situation, by all means, please go that route as it saves time later on. But if you’re not quite sure of colors, shoot in RAW.
Tip #6 – Focus On The Eyes – As with most any photo of people, tight focus on the eyes is a must. Eyes convey so much more than what is being said at the moment, which is good when you’re not recording sound. While some blurring in images is fine, especially when not using a flash, try to keep the eyes of the main subject sharp.
Tip #7 – Hang Out In The Kitchen – More and more, the kitchen in a home is becoming the default gathering place. People either want to help out with meal prep or just want to make sure the cooks in the family are involved. Plus the kitchen is usually more relaxed than a formal dinning room and a great place to capture family having fun.
Tip #8 – Have Fun! – This one should go without saying. But having fun is what family gatherings are all about. Don’t get too wrapped up in the photo taking that you forget to relax, enjoy some conversations and great food. Take a moment to reflect in the moment what it’s like to be surrounded by the people you love.
Now it’s your turn to share your favorite family gathering candid advice. Below you will find a comment box just waiting for your ideas and suggestions!
Are you looking for daily photographic inspiration? Peter hosts a Photo Of The Day RSS/Atom/email feed on his site, The Carey Adventures. Get inspiring photos from the world of travel and adventure delivered daily to your mailbox!
Post from: Digital Photography School
With much of our recreational time spent outdoors it?s surprising that so few dedicated digicams address this sector.
Ricoh?s entry comes with all the right creds: shock resistance, depth ability, chemical impermeability and password protection.
Cosmetically, it ticks most of the boxes: black outer casing, large, textured control points highlighted in orange and grey. I could only feel that maybe the colour scheme could be reversed, with the overall colour in a light tone with the controls in black… along with an overall textured surface to help glove wearers.
But… there?s a few extra surprises that should attract the corporate world. Sure, this is a mighty unusual camera!
Aside from the ?tough? specs, the camera is basically a point-and-shooter, with only Program AE exposure and JPEG capture.
The lens is a slowish f3.5 job, with a 5x optical zoom that has a wide end that equates to a 35 SLR figure of 28mm. For underwater use, this will become an effective 40mm… a bit long for serious wet use.
The viewfinder is 7.6cm in size, with a high res count of 920,000 pixels. An optical finder would have been nice…
The maximum image size is 4000×3000 pixels, which leads to a final print size of 34×25mm. Movies are moderately well served: 1280×720 pixels, with no running speed (fps) given; so let?s assume 25 or 30 fps.
However, the tough credentials are why we?re here: the G700 can withstand damage from a two metre drop; when the wide conversion lens is attached, the drop factor shrinks to 1.5 metres; it?s capable of shooting for up to two hours at depths down to five metres; cold resistance applies down to -10?; there?s a level of dust resistance that satisfies the JIS/IEC protection grade 6 standard. Additionally, the camera has added chemical resistance to ethanol and hypochlorous acid, a useful feature in medical and production of food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, where hygiene management is necessary.
There?s more that indicates the G700 is intended to serve industrial needs: the camera will take SD and SDHC memory cards as well as a new standard ? SD WORM, which appears to perform similarly to a CD-R or DVD-R: Write Once, Read Many times. You?ll find more info about this at www.sandisk.com/business-solutions/sd-worm
Additionally, the G700 has security functions, in the form of password-protected camera operation. This prevents access to camera functions: at camera startup you enter a password; if an incorrect password is entered, the camera will shut down. The same restriction is applied to a memory card and the internal memory, all 103 MB of it; I can see this feature as being of enormous value when the camera is used in corporate or government worlds.
More: Windows users can use the bundled EC1 software to detect any image manipulation that was made after the image was shot. This makes it possible to provide digital photographic images with a high degree of reliability as evidence. One and two dimensional (QR codes, etc.) bar codes can also be read with the lens. The data read can then be recorded in a camera memo. I was unable to test the latter two functions.
Power-wise, the G700 will appeal to travelers, occasionally unable to stock up on lithium ion batteries; the camera accepts Li-Ion as well as single use AAA alkalines.
As it should be: shots taken at ISO 64 and 400 (above) are OK in the noise and definition departments.
The ISO 1600 level is starting to show noise at a near-unacceptable level, but what is more disconcerting is the drop in definition.
ISO 3200? Give it away, unless you like the effect of noise that you could almost scratch your fingernails on! And definition?s out the window!
A little slow, I was able to take my first shot three seconds after power up; following shots came in at about two second intervals.
The camera?s lens is well-corrected with no sign of any problems at the wide or tele ends of the zoom.
Quality: picture quality was about average, IMHO. I found the camera to suffer badly from sunflare; a lens hood or some protection would be essential in bright conditions.
This shot is highly corrected to counter severe sunflare.
Why you?d buy it: robust build; unique security features.
Why you wouldn?t: you may find it is a little large for some pockets. That?s all.
Image Sensor: 12.0 million effective pixels.
Metering: Multi zone, centre-weighted average; spot.
Sensor Size: 11mm CCD.
Lens: f3.5-5.5/5.0-25mm (28-140mm as 35 SLR equivalent).
Shutter Speed: stills 8 to 1/1500 second; movie 1/30 to 1/10,000 second.
Memory: SD, SDHC, SD WORM plus 103 MB internal memory.
Image Sizes (pixels): 4000×3000 to 640×480. Movies: 1280×720, 640×480, 320×240 fps.
File Formats: JPEG, Motion JPEG.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 64 to 3200.
Viewfinder: 7.6cm LCD screen (920,000 pixels).
Interface: USB 2.0, AV.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, 3AAA alkaline batteries.
Dimensions: 118.8×71x41 WHDmm.
Weight: Approx. 310 g (inc card and battery).
Price: Get a price on the Ricoh G700 at Amazon.
Post from: Digital Photography School
