Shift lenses and Nikon TS-E 24/3.5 first impressions

First impressions of the Nikon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 tilt/shift

The 24 T/S is a bit chunky in size (as it must be to tilt and shift), but is a very nice handling lens. It is built to similar standards as the several-year old Nikon 85 f/2.8D PC-Micro-Nikkor tilt/shift. However, the new “PC-E” design offers electronic aperture control, a boon for usability on the D3/D300/D700, but a big disappointment for those of us who like to shoot Nikon lenses also on Canon EOS bodies via an adapter; the aperture cannot be controlled with such adapters.

The good news is that optical performance is very high. Having used the Canon 24/3.5L T/S and the Olympus 24/3.5 shift (but not owning either at the moment) I suggest the following: the Nikon offering appears to be the best yet available in the 24mm tilt/shift realm. Congratulations Nikon! Color fringing is very well controlled (and completely eliminated by Capture NX 2), flare control is excellent, and color and detail rendition are high. However, when fully shifted horizontally, even at f/11, sharpness is slightly disappointing and dark corners remain, but in context performance is outstanding when compared to the Canon and Olympus offerings.

diglloyd

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