Nikon 24mm PC-E on a D700 body?

[aaron d]

Anybody have experience using the Nikon 24mm PC-E on a D700 body? Ken Rockwell warns that the lens’ knobs

whack the camera body when you turn it for a vertical shot at full shift, and a photo he posts looks to confirm it. But

Nikon says, “Note: These lenses can be used with the D3, D700 and D300 without any limitation…” Read here:

 

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/index.htm

 

The D3 is much faster than I need for photographing very, very slow buildings – but I’d hate to find that my $3000

camera will only do landscape oriented photos…

 

Thanks!

 

-A

[ShunCheung]

I have checked with Bjorn Rorslett and Ilkka about this. Since the viewfinder for the D700 sticks out further than that for the D3, this can be an issue. Bjorn told me that in that case he would simply use the D700 upside down to solve the problem. Whether you would like to use the D700 upside down or not is another issue. Given that there is live view now, it is a bit easier to use a camera upside down.

 

Incidentally, the 24mm/f3.5 PC-E seems to be out of stock everywhere in the US.

[ilkka_nissila]

The lens has shift in two directions up to about 11.5mm. However the image circle doesn't fully cover the image at full

vertical or diagonal shift, so you are sometimes limited to e.g. 10mm.

 

There are rotational click stops at 30 degree intervals. If you stay within the click stops, you can achieve all the shift

settings that are covered by the lens i.e. there are situations where the viewfinder blocks movement, but at the point of

contact you already have exceeded the image circle and there is a black corner in the image so the optical limitation comes before the

mechanical one.

 

Between the rotational click stops, there is one pair, between which your shift is limited. This means that if you want

a lateral shift to the right and 15 degrees up, and you have the camera in the horizontal orientation, you cannot shift the

lens fully. To achieve this rather exotic movement, you'd need to turn the camera upside down. In the vertical

orientation, the corresponding movement is shifting up with 15 degrees to the left. This movement, however can be

achieved by turning the camera so that the base plate is to the other side.

 

Anyway, at all click stops, and between all the other click stops but this one pair, shift is only limited by the dark corner

that results as you approach the extreme setting.

 

Tilt is not limited in any way.

 

In conclusion, I would say that the D700 is compatible with the 24mm PC-E, and the one movement which you cannot

do (without turning the camera upside down) is one which I don't think is useful in any case. In other words, don't worry about it. Using the

24mm PC-E is more convenient on the D3 though, but I haven't taken a single picture with my D3 since I got the D700, so that should tell

you something.

[aaron d]

Ilkka, that seems to jibe with (and explain) what Shun heard - that the one "diagonal" shift means turning the camera

over. So is it the case that the smaller of the two knobs clears the camera body, but the larger one doesn't?

 

Also, what do you think of the lens otherwise? I'm familiar with Canon's 24 TS - can you compare it to that, sharpness

or picture quality-wise?

 

Thanks both of you for your help!

 

-A

[ilkka_nissila]

Yes, the larger knob hits the viewfinder, the smaller one doesn't, so for vertical shift need to rotate the lens

the other way around.

 

I have not used the Canon 24 TSE. I do have the 35mm PC, which is a nice lens but not in the same class with the

24 PC-E.

 

The 24mm PC-E is optically excellent, I typically use it at f/8 to f/11. The image quality is remarkably even

across the frame even when shifted until you reach the limits of the image circle, at which point there is a

rapid drop into darkness (i.e. beyond 10mm vertical shift). I haven't seen any CA and it resolves very well on

the D300 too. The color rendition is quite beautiful. It's not a PJ type lens and has a bit of falloff at f/3.5.

There is a bit of barrel distortion, which doesn't bother me but in some situations it can be seen.