24mm PC Lens

<p>I am seriously considering purchasing this lens for architectural photography, has any one any experience in use of this relatively new perspective control lens, thanks, Mike</p>

<p>I rented one for a week vacation in west Texas. I am not sure I would use the PC part enough to justify 2K but it is a great lens. You might consider renting for a week to see how you like it.</p>

<p>I bought one of the very early, shift-only, PC-Nikkors back in 1971. In fact it was the reason I switched to Nikon at that time. I have used that lens ever since, and it is still one of the determinants of what equipment I buy.</p>

<p>If you do architectural photography, this is a <em>very good thing</em> to have. If used properly, it does not scream out that it was used, but not having it produces architectural shots that are less worthy. Post processing can help, but it is not really up to what you can achieve in the camera in the first place.</p>

<p>If you photograph architecture, particularly exteriors from street level, the 24 PC-E is extremely useful (assuming you use FX format). I do not think wide angle architectural images without perspective control can be really presented as serious work since most of the time what catches the eye is the obvious keystoning, which is very distracting from the content of the image. If you <em>want </em>architecturals to appear with converging verticals then you don't need one. If you don't need the highest quality, you can also take images from a superwide like the 14-24 shot parallel and crop. IMO that's a waste of all the hard payed cash spent on the body.</p>

<p>I also use the 35 PC, 45 PC-E and 85 PC-E but for architectural photography would only consider the 24 necessary; the rest are useful but you can make do without. I do use the others also, of course, since I have them but I bought the 45 and 85 more for close-up and landscape photography than architecture. The 35 PC gets not so much use these days as IMO it is not at the same quality level with the others (it's good but not brilliant). It does take less space in the bag which makes it good as a travel lens.</p>

<p>Fabulous lens. For landscape work it needs just a tiny bit of tilt since it is so wide and has large depth of field anyway. Those of us who come from the world of 4x5 have an intrinsic understanding of the workings of these wonderful lenses, others can just do some reading, do some experimentation and learn. It's easy and inexpensive to do this learning with a digital camera.<br>

Since I got the 24 and 45 PC-E lenses for my D700, I have not used my view camera. This saddens me a bit but I'm happy with the images. Some argue that corrections in Photoshop for perspective and the new focus combination software decreases the need for primary solutions, but I disagree. I feel great when I have an sharp, flexible manual focus lens on my camera.<br>

Good luck.<br>

Eric</p>

<p>Thanks everybody for your useful comments, I do use the FX format with a D3, but still have an F5 for the occasional film useage that I have these days. I am increasingly taking photographs of churches in the main, and of course many of these possess quite high steeples, but if not even the square Norman towers can be quite high, and the results taken with my 24-70 just disappoint perspective wise, I therefore gave the 24mm PC lens some thought, but as this lens is very expensive, and also more of a specialist lens I had no one to ask relating to personal experience. I accept most photography with this lens would have to be tripod based, but wonder how it stands up to hand held shooting when a tripod is not immediately available, or in some instances impractical. I am</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Not sure what happened there, I wished to say that I am going away on a field trip this week and on my return I intend to order a lens, though think I may wait a while for one to be obtained for me as I am informed they are not a stock item, I hope this works but I am hoping to attach an image of the type of photography I wish to use this lens for, regards Mike</p>

<p>Hopefully the image will work this time!!!</p><div></div>