cyberstudio wrote:
Sorry basic question. I can more or less do shift in Photoshop but there is no way to emulate the effect of tilt, right?

True, although doing it in Photoshop is not ideal for two reaons: discarded pixels reduces resolution, and the distortion effect degrades image quality.

Doug, I am looking forward to hear from you about that adapter, so I was pretty much interested myself. Just bought so much stuff this weeks I have to stop it now

I think the effect of tilting can be simulated in a certain extent by new softwares such as CombineZ and Helicon Focus. Basicly you take a series of photos of the same scene focused at different distances and the software will combined the parts of each photo that is in focus. It is like exposure blending. It has the same problem in that the subject has to be motionless. But it can also creat great apparent DOF in subject that are 3D which tilting can not.

so tell me, why would this combo be better than the nikkor 85 pc for my d200? I'm still stuck with a telephoto, no? I treasured my canon 28 ts for this reason while i was into film- long before i became a photoshopper-when you had to craft the image before you captured it on film. i truly want to get my ts functions back. plus the wide angle was also a plain wide angle! (one less lens to weigh me down) i feel like i've lost a part of me- i cant do some things i used to-the flexibility of a wide angle ts lens was great-yeah, you had to give up some speed and you had to worry about light fall off in the edges but the clarity, sharpness and meandering focus were great.

i guess the only way i can do this now is to capture a crystal sharp picture and blur out what i dont want in photoshop. but it's hard to get that kind of depth of field sometimes. i've used ptgui and panotools to blend images, i've used masks and regular photoshop as well to blend images where i've focussed on different parts of a scene as well. But when you are photographing very small things- a lit matchstick or a piece of jewelry with an insect-it's hard to get enough images to get everything in focus-the DOF is ultrashallow.

I guess I'll have to wait until sony produces their next dslr-the alpha2 (maybe they'll call it beta-?) now their sensor shakes to get rid of dust and also responds to a gyro to provide image stabilization. It would be great if you could tilt and shift the sensor.

is there a limit to which lens you could pair with this adaptor?

I now have both the Hartblei 45mm Super-rotator and Canon 90TS-E. The Mirex adapter is enroute and I have a Hasselblad 50mm F4 on hand to slap on it when it arrives. I had original been scheduled to be on the road next week but that has been delayed a week so with any luck I'll be able to report my findings on the 3 setups next week.

Note that I'm more interested in shift ability than tilt and may not be capable of much comment on the tilt functions.

Stay tuned....
Doug

I agree the nikon 85mm pc lens is good. I wanted something more wide angle and the 28 does not do tilt. It only shifts. I would like to mod mine to do both but I dont have to the time to invent the whole thing.

Any comments on the PC-Distagon 2.8/35? Could one still employ it adequately for architectural work given that it has no tilting capabilities? What about its image quality?

I have not been able to find much about it on the web, and I'm quite interested in picking one up...

Andi (FM Member name: bathman) has a new one he is selling. I own one, and I do not miss the tilt at all.

http://www.contaxcameras.co.uk/slr/slrmanlenses/pcdistagon35.asp

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B58B9/Contents-Frame/8401A54783ED1154C12570F90049667D

http://www.geocities.com/ilprode/_35f28PC.htm

Right, his is the one I was talking about. I'm just curious about first-hand experiences. Looking at the MTF charts, it should perform pretty well IQ-wise.

How do you find it IQ-wise, and just general thoughts and feelings about it? Worth the price?

There is no other shift lens in its class. I had the Nikkor 28PC &35PC latest models, and promptly sold them as I found they simply were not up to the task.

Wow, i wonder if you could modify the zeiss lens to do tilt and shift?

I would estimate that type of machining to run in the many thousands $$ to build a T'S mechanism from scratch. (Plus the price of the Contax PC 35)

A photo machinist could remove the Zeiss rear mechanism, you could buy an existing beater Canon T/S lens, Arax, or Hartblei lens and try to cannibalize the T/S mechanism and put it on the Zeiss.

One could also buy the Mirex T/S medium format adapter, remove the Zeiss rear and put the Mirex on, but again, you are talking precision machining, and could spend well over a grand, plus the $400 for the Mirex.

Try these guys and see what they say:

http://www.baldmtn.com/
http://www.skgrimes.com/

Talking about image quality with Hassi-lenses:
I use a 50 mm and 80mm (not sure about the 80; but I'm not at the studio now) both silver, with a PSA from Zörk. As I don't need tilts, this works fine to me. The PSA can shift 20mm, so, for flatstitching, it's better than the mirex.

The 80 mm does very well; through the entire shifting range; no CA, contrast, sharpness in the corners, etc. It's mostly used in the studio, and provides the best quality, I can reach with my 1 Ds-2; resulting in a 7700 pix x 4800 pix @ 300 dpi.

The 50 mm has some CA in the corner, depending on the light, as we all know. Otherwise it's fine as well; it's image quality - at the center - is comparable to the 50 mm macro from Canon.

A sample, 50 mm Hassi; center vs corner:

Can you use the maximum 20mm if movement without the mirror box cutting off the image in any way?

Yep, no problem.

3 frames have to be taken, to get the the "full panorama". On the outside frames, there's some vignetting; towards the center, but that's why you shoot the center.

A Hassi 80 mm-example, from a acrylic architecture model, which is alwith a problem.
You just can't get that with a SLR-lens; image: 103 cm x 43 cm@ 240 dpi. The top acrylic "brick" is fully tranparent!!

Thanks for the info - I'm going for the Zoerk in that case.

You' re welcome.

Forgotten to add, that the architecture modell is arround 2: 1.
The (prof) model builder wasn't to lucky with that shot, as it showed more details than visible with human perception, all the little gluepoints, etc...

Montespluga:

You should be able to get more than 7700x5000 with the Zoerk, I would think. At 15mm shift I get 7500x5000 usable with the Mirex and the edges are pretty good.

I wonder though which 50mm Hasselblad you have? Fully shifted (15mm) the edges of mine do not look that good and CA is more evident.

I also thought I would clarify that the mirror box shading is irrelevant for panoramas since the centre frame overlaps the shading but for shifted single-frame shots the shading does limit the usable amount of shift, at least on the 1ds2, though only for rise/fall from a landscape-oriented perspective. Shifted left/right in a landscape orientation I haven't noticed any problems up to 15mm of shift each way.
Doug

jjlphoto wrote:
There is no other shift lens in its class. I had the Nikkor 28PC &35PC latest models, and promptly sold them as I found they simply were not up to the task.

John, as you know I also owned the CZ PC35 as well as the Canon T/S lenses. I can tell you that the newer Hassy IF 40/4 (not the older CFE version) outperms these lenses in overall image quality (resolution, color, etc.) by a large margin. It is also sharper/more contrasty than even the Hassy 50/4.

The 40 IF can be used with a zoerk shift adapter on a 35mm system with superior results. However, when this lens is combined with the Hassy PC-Mutar shift adapter, it becomes a 56mm PC/shift lens with 105mm image circle (and +/- 16mm shift) that can be used with medium format cameras and digibacks. Amazingly, the PC-Mutar mitigates the edge distortion of the lens as well. With an A75 or P45, the HFOV of a stitched pano image is equivalent to the HFOV of a 28mm focal length in 35mm format (also very close to the HFOV of the Hassy Biogon-38),

With a P45, you will get a 65 megapixel image (2 image flat stitch) that will blow away any image coming from 35mm format.

So, while I agree that the CZ PC35 lens is a geat lens to have....the Hassy 40 IF (+ PC-Mutar with MFDB) is in a whole new class. I do not know if I can sincerely recommend plunking down the money for this if you plan to stay in 35mm format, but if you are also someday planning to make the jump to medium format, this is a killer shifting system, and in my opinion the BEST shift lens...period (per the thread subject).

For 35mm systems, you can use either the Zoerk or the Mirex adapter. For medium format systems, there are adapters for Contax 645, Mamiya 645, Hassy H and Hassy V camera systems. So, all around this has excellent flexibility.

David


Edited by dklepacki on Jul 30, 2006 at 03:08 PM GMT