Gear Talk > Lens Talk

More testing of the Nikkor PC-E 85mm

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Bjørn J:
I am still playing with the 85mm PC-E, and learning how to use it.
This is shot at f/8, depth of field is quite narrow, but because the plane of focus is tilted, the large carrot is sharp from from top to bottom, even if this is shot at an angle. This would be impossible to achieve with a normal lens on an SLR camera.

Michael Erlewine:
In my work, I stopped playing with the PC-E lenses when the new Zeiss Otus APO series came out. With the Zeiss Otus 55mm APO, I can shoot at f/16 and mostly get what I want in focus by that alone. I don't have to use the tilt lenses. And the Zeiss lenses are so highly corrected that this alone recommends them for my work. I am not saying that the tilt/shift lenses might not be another's cup of tea (and I still have all three of mine), but I seldom use them. 

Andrew:
That was done hand held with the tilt-but tilt is not write down in Exif...
In my opinion is something special-lights, drawings in this pic and I like it.
D750, 1/100", 5.6

Bjørn Rørslett:
I can well understand a fascination of fine apochromatic lenses, but why shoot them at f/16 to gain depth of field? You do lose detail sharpness. Focus stacking is a cumbersome and tedious approach that can make superb quality images with the lens set to work in its optimum aperture range, but cannot always be employed (moving targets, for example).

A tilt/shift lens is much more versatile and by shooting at the best-performing apertures you can get high quality results. Of course the better the tilt/shift lens, the better the final outcome.

Michael Erlewine:
Well, as you know I know I do focus stack, for years. But I am intrigued (just now) with what these APO lenses can do at smaller apertures. For example, I have written many articles on focus stacking shooting wide-open and painting focus with the raze-thin DOF available, and I like that approach. Right now I am experimenting with less layers and smaller apertures. .

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