Practical Experience Thea v/d Heuvel: PC NIKKOR 19mm F/4E ED
Photo series from Thea van den Heuvel:
- Havenhuis Antwerpen – Zaha Hadid Architects
- Parkbrug Antwerpen - NEY & Partners (Architecture & Light series)
- Alpolic Stand CS Arnhem - UN Studio (Architecture & Light series)
The PC NIKKOR 19mm F/4E ED is the newest tilt-shift lens from Nikon, and the PC NIKKOR also has the largest field of view ever. That makes it a welcome addition to the 24, 45 and 85mm tilt-shift lenses that Nikon has been offering for years. PC stands for Perspective Control. These are lenses that can be adjusted to correct perspective and to shift focal planes. These kinds of lenses are very useful in architectural and product photography. In addition, they are also used for landscape photography and portraits, for example. The tilt function, with which the focal plane can be shifted, has also been widely used in the past few years to make "miniature photographs": pictures of ordinary urban landscapes in which everything seems to have been recreated in miniature. With a tilt-shift lens, an ordinary digital 35mm camera has many of the capabilities of an old-fashioned technical camera.
ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHER Thea van den Heuvel
She has been one of the most sought-after architectural photographers in the Netherlands for more than twenty years and is one of the founders of DAPh, Dutch Architectural Photographers. That is a collective of renowned architectural photographers. Van den Heuvel works for architects, construction companies, developers and suppliers. Her fascination with architecture began in England, where she made a photo series of mine shafts at the time of the major mines strikes. That series traveled through England as an exhibition and provided extra income and attention for the miners. After graduating from the Fotovakschool, business photography and architecture kept her attention. The faculty of Architecture in Arnhem became one of her first clients, and she used that contact to also follow lectures in architecture. "I am very interested in space," says Van den Heuvel, "in the built environment and how it affects people.”
Photo: Thea van den Heuvel/DAPh, Interior shoot PK Bar&Kitchen Utrecht
She has been working with Nikon for years. The PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED and the AF-S NIKKOR 12-24 f/4G IF ED are her favorite lenses, which she uses with the 36-megapixel D800 and D810. "These lenses are very sharp and are useful for a wide range of subjects," says Van den Heuvel. But she was lacking an adjustable lens with more wide-angle, especially after Canon came on the market a few years ago with a 17-mm tilt-shift. "I missed a lens like that terribly," she says. "And I have bombarded Nikon with phone calls and e-mails." Last year, she was almost ready to switch when she heard that Nikon would finally be releasing a new tilt shift.
She was therefore one of the first in the Netherlands who bought the lens. "I had already had it for a week when Nikon called me to come and test one," she says. As soon as she had the lens in her hands, she was sold. "My god, what a beautiful lens this is," she thought immediately. The lens made an enormously positive impression in the first tests, and her opinion about the lens has only improved in the months since then. The PC-Nikkor 19mm does not suffer from vignetting, even at extreme adjustments, despite the large field of view. The lens is more distortion-free than, for example, the less extreme but slightly older 24mm PC-E Nikkor. That is of course a huge plus for architectural photography. The influence of newer coatings is also clearly visible. "The lens has no problem with flare at all," says Van den Heuvel: "Just 0%." She also thinks the construction is improved. The adjustments are now better locked, so you are no longer bothered by accidental adjustments. In the past months, she has already completed quite a few assignments with the 19mm, and it is now her favorite lens.
