I have never tried tilt and shift lens before and I'd like to try.
What is the best tilt and shift alternate lens out there?
I'm interested in 24mm to 35mm range.
Is Leica 28mm good as people say it is? What is the going price for a used one?
I have the 24mm TS-E and its awesome. I suggest renting before you plop down a pretty penny for one. However, the tilt-shifts do seem to hold their values fairly well.
If you want wide, the Canon 24mm f3.5 TS-E is not bad - can be had used for around $850. For the price, it is definitely a nice lens. Offers tilt/shift... while others (except the new nikon) offer just shift. I liked the copy I had, but it was a bit lacking compared to the alternates available.
If you want alternate: Olympus OM 24mm f3.5 PC Shift is still king... Lord knows what sort of magic dust Olympus put into this thing, but it is one sharp puppy......
The Zeiss 35mm f2.8 PC Shift is the sharpest in the 35mm range (big surprise there). But if you dont want to fork out $1500+ on the Zeiss, the Olympus OM 35mm f2.8 is almost as good (in fact very good) and can be had for $500-$700.
I currently have two OM 35's I am planning to list for sale shortly (guess I shouldn't be praising the Zeiss or the OM 24 when I am planning on selling my OM 35's ).
Also tried the Nikon 28mm f3.5 Shift... and perhaps I got a lousy copy off ebay.... but I did not find it very appealing. Ended up returning it as the buyer had a money back policy. The Nikon 35 shift can be had for a bit less than the Olympus.
I think 16_9.net has a nice set of tests on the alternate shifts currently available.
The Canon FD 35mm Tilt/shift is supposed to be quite good ... as I recall reading, but I have not owned/used one. There are converted copies floating around that pop up on eBay from time to time...
There is also a Schneider 28mm f/2.8 PC Super-Angulon available.... supposed to be a very nice lens. Someone had one of these for sale on the B&S forum a few months back.
The Leica is the same as the Schneider 28mm PC. It is a shift lens only. Probably one of the better shift lenses, but if you compare it to a Leica 28mm Elmarit f2.8, the standard prime lens is quite a bit sharper. Unless you really need a shift lens, a really good prime corrected in software may be a cheaper and as good or better option.
The Leica is the same as the Schneider 28mm PC. It is a shift lens only. Probably one of the better shift lenses, but if you compare it to a Leica 28mm Elmarit f2.8, the standard prime lens is quite a bit sharper. Unless you really need a shift lens, a really good prime corrected in software may be a cheaper and as good or better option.
Robert
I've had the Leica 28/2.8 latest version, and it's a wonderful lens.
I've sold it to finance for my current 1DsMkII.
I thought about leica 28 PC, because I can get 92% conditioned lens for about $1000.
If it's considerably better than that of Canon or Olympus, I may consider it seriously.
But, I think I first to need to research more on the characteristics of what tilt and shift lenses are, ie. like what is tilt and shift.
I saw some pictures on the forum, and it looks very fun lens to works with.
Have you ever used a view-camera? It's a lot like that (only picture just the front standard being movable), without some of the flexibility of extreme tilts/shifts that you can usually get from a 4x5.
Minolta also had an interesting Rokkor 35 shift which also had VFC (variable field curvature), it's fairly rare but would be quite cool to try I'd think. Their normal 24 (or is it 28?) vfc still fetches some real money ($600+ for the last 2 on ebay recently) so the 35 shift/vfc is probably even more than that.
2nd the idea of renting one to try first.
Upside of the Canon TS-E ones is you can use the 1.4x or 2x Canon TC's with them.
Paul Yi wrote:
How about LEICA 28mm F2.8 PC Super-Angulon R?
Any opinion on this lens?
The lens really needs to be stopped down to f5,6 without shift and f11 when shifted to about 8/9mm. It is then sharp and nice. Fully shifted the extreme border and corners may loose some sharpness and vignetting is visible.
I think the lens has the nicer mechanics than the Distagon PC, there is a knob and a mm scale which make it possible to shift the lens without dislocating the set up.
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