PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED

This is a great lens and so sharp and accurate it´s a dream come true. We waited for this lens and it lived up to all expectations..

Very little distortion, vignetting and lateral color fringes.
Using Lightroom and Photoshop I developed scripts to batch correct the very little distortion their is on this lens ( just about .5 ), color fringes and vignetting also are corrected very easily since their is none at center point ( no shift/tilt ). As for tilt and shift movements, when they are applied, I leave a comment on pictures with rise/fall and left/right shift to correct them accordingly. So what´s left to say is that this lens is perfect for architecture. The drag and feel of all the adjustments (focus, aperture, rise and tilt) is just perfect. Someone did their homework. Everything is easy to move and it stays put. Controls do feel like they could be bigger, but if you consider replacements are available from Nikon then this is no problem. They did consider the fact that not everybody owns a D3 ( for clearance ).

This is a great daily workhorse for architectural assignments, and a must have lens. Terrific optics and lots of shift latitude. On a D3X with heavy tripod and pre-released mirror mode the results are stunning. That said, I prefer the old 28 and 35mm pc design, as the mechanical features of this unit slow me down. The shift lock often slips and clunks the adjustment fully to the negative end, which I´d never use anyway. The old design allowed me to rotate either direction from a vertical format for a quick combination adjustment of rise and ´´shift´´. I´d buy a Nikkor 18mm or wider pc if offered.

I do a lot of architecture and high end realty. I use the 24mm PC a lot, in all conditions. Although I love the lens for its optical quality, mechanically I have problems with it, especially working outside in the cold in Montreal often with gloves on. The shift and tilt knobs are too small. In the different temp. conditions, the shift lock sometimes jams completely. I now find its difficult to keep the shift locked, it slips sometimes while focusing. I use the tilt mainly with very small increments around zero and its difficult to control accurately. Other manufacturers have done a better job mechanically in-spite of the obviously challenging size constraints.

This is an excellent lens overall. Used with NX2, it controls fringing very well. The manual isn´t very helpful - if you´ve never used a view camera you may want to do some research on the web to help with tilt/shift adjustments. I´m enjoying the control that I missed when I gave up my view camera.

My only gripes are these:
*The locks are hard to tighten adequately, especially with the small knobs. (Nikon will put on larger knobs for a fee).
*Landscape photographers will want the tilt/shift and the rise/fall on the same plane. Nikon charges $125 to do this. However, the modification is a simple one and can be undone easily; there is a video on the web that shows this step-by-step.

This lens delivers the high quality I expect from Nikon. Very sharp, excellent contrast and color. Negatives: the control knobs are a little difficult to access when the lens is rotated and there are some positions that are not available on my D700 due to the prism position. All in all I prefer the functionality of the old 35 PC and 28 PC that I still use, though the glass is clearly as good or better on these new PCE lenses.