Im looking for a moderately wide-angle (24) tiltshift lens for the Sony. Recommendations? Im going to be visiting several national parks (car, not hiking)
I think you'll find adapting the Canon TS-E 24L II is going to be your best bet. You'll likely want to stop it down significantly to get around the field curvature the Sony stack induces (f8 was where I felt comfortable with it).
For years I have used Pentax medium-format zoom lenses with the old Mirex tilt/shift adapter on my Canon system. If you have never used zoom lenses in a TS configuration, you dont know what you are missing!
Is there anything similar that works on Sony?
(I suppose I could mount the lens to the Mirex adapter and then mount that to a Canon->Sony adapter, but that starting to look more than a little Rube Goldberg-ish!)
tmoseley1 wrote:
Im looking for a moderately wide-angle (24) tiltshift lens for the Sony. Recommendations? Im going to be visiting several national parks (car, not hiking)
I use a Canon TSE17 on a Sigma MC11 adapter on Sony bodies and love it. It might be too wide however, and filter use is problematic (to say the least).
If I were starting over, I'd probably look at the Chinese tilt/shift lens options for Sony mount. And consider that you might ONLY need shift. I think I used tilt maybe once in around a decade of shooting buildings. Tilt is certainly useful for creative control of the plane of focus but my point is that you might not need it for what you want, and it could also save you money.
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gdanmitchell wrote:
I have a related (also TS) question.
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Is there anything similar that works on Sony?
(I suppose I could mount the lens to the Mirex adapter and then mount that to a Canon->Sony adapter, but that starting to look more than a little Rube Goldberg-ish!)
I've used a Mirex>EF adapter for maybe close to 20 years now. Originally with Canon EF bodies but then with Sony bodies using a Sigma MC11 adapter. Note that the Metabones V adapter seems to cause more vignetting than the Sigma MC11 when using the Mirex. I don't use them often now but the Mamiya M645 lenses generally work quite well on the Mirex, up to a point, as all the lenses will eventually exhibit mechanical vignetting. The biggest problem for me has been that a 35mm (Mamiya M645) lens is just not wide enough for what I want.
gdanmitchell wrote:
I have a related (also TS) question.
For years I have used Pentax medium-format zoom lenses with the old Mirex tilt/shift adapter on my Canon system. If you have never used zoom lenses in a TS configuration, you dont know what you are missing!
Is there anything similar that works on Sony?
(I suppose I could mount the lens to the Mirex adapter and then mount that to a Canon->Sony adapter, but that starting to look more than a little Rube Goldberg-ish!)
Kipon makes T&S adapters for most mounts that use the same mechanism types as the Mirex. Fotodiox makes a smaller selection.
I have the Laowa 15mm shift lens in EF mount that I use on my Sony using an adapter. I actually have two adapters of which one is a tilt shift adapter. So in effect, it adds tilt functionality to the lens though I have never made use of its tilt function yet. It is a very fun lens to use but I have decided to sell it because I want to simplify my lens collection and reduce the number of lenses I own. I don't do architecture so as I said I only used this lens just for the fun of it.
As a large format refugee, I use the canon TS-E lenses (24, 50, 90, 135) with the Sigma MC-11 extensively. I find them indispensable for intimate landscape work using the tilt for depth of field control and shift for panoramas, often combined). I have not found field curvature to be an issue for this work.
The Metabones adapters are made a little short. For WA lenses with internal focus they need to be shimmed. I don't recall the effect on vignetting but for me they gave poor corner performance (smeared that was not "fixed" if refocused on the corners). The shimming worked fine and I still use them but for later lenses (I keep the adapters on the lenses) I switched to the Sigma MC-11 and it's dead on.
I also used Mirex on medium format lenses before switching to all Canon TSE and have stacked adapters. It will work, just make sure you end up with no play in the stack.
To fix keystoning, I just throw megapixels at the image and apply a transformation in post. Any ordinary WA/UWA can serve for this purpose. At the long end, I use a dedicated T/E lens but that handles a different problem (selective DOF).
^ +1
I do a lot more of that now even though I still have my TSE lenses. I just don't want the weight of my regular lens set + TSE's. I do pack a TSE if I have a specific image in mind and can forego one of my regular lenses (I use a smaller pack now as well).
Personally I wouldnt bother today. For shift, post perspective corrections have gotten so good I simply shoot loose and correct later. Focus stacking is more effective than tilt for DoF extension but of course requires multiple frames. But then when Im shooting for maximum IQ, Im on a tripod anyway. Now with multi-frame focus-shift built into the camera, the capture aspect has become relatively trivial. Then all were left with is the assembly in post, which is relatively trivial as well. I havent tried it, but I bet I could even ask AI to do it for me
Some additional information would be helpful such as which Sony body, will you be using a tripod, and what is your budget. As someone whose majority of work over the years is architectural, first with large format and later with Sony, I agree with Rico, mcbroomf, and Jack Flesher that you can fix the majority of perspectival issues in post.
It's not clear what you are looking for in a T/S lens. For national parks, I imagine that you are really looking for lens shift rather than tilt. The easiest solution would be to get either the Canon or Nikon T/S lens, but the best versions are still pricy. Another option would be to go a little wider and consider the Laowa 20mm shift-only lens. There's a review over on Phillip Reeves site. An adapted medium format lens is also a good option, but I'm not aware of any 24mm only 28mm lenses (645) and they also get quite pricey.
Personally, I haven't found the need for T/S to do my work, but I did pick up a TTArtisans 17mm T/S when it first came out. It's wider than you want, but optically it's better than its price point. Mechanically, its not as good as the optics but for the price point it's a great value and option.
If you are set on 24/25mm then I would purchase the latest version Canon lens you can afford.
For me, the process is a big part of photography so I take much more pleasure from using tilt to get the depth of field control I want. Plus when making pano images combining stacking and merging is way too many moving parts for me.
One last comment from me is that depending on FL and maybe luck the Canon lenses may be tricky to find. I decided to buy the 50mm and one of the tele canon TSE lenses some years ago and placed a back order with B&H. I got no movement over many months and realized that Canon had switched to RF lenses. I cancelled the orders then rented the 50, 90 and 135 from Lens Rentals. I purchased the 50 and 90 and of course was able to verify I had great copies of the lenses.
I will add one more thing. In the 24 or wider TS lenses, the amount of tilt you actually need for infinity DoF is small, like one degree or less. Assuming you properly focused at f8, youll have from about 1 foot in front of you to slightly above the infinity horizon in good focus. But the sky above that will soften. Which is usually not a problem if its just sky. But add tree tops and all of a sudden the tilt can be a poor choice and focus stacking becomes a better solution. Finally, when you understand that using f8 on a 24mm lens with a full frame camera, if you focus 8 feet in front of you, youll have 4 feet to infinity top to bottom of frame in good focus already without any tilt.
The whole point here is tilt matters less as you go to shorter focals and longer distances. Close distances with longer lens, like a 90, all of sudden tilt for DoF and shift for framing have a lot more benefit.
freaklikeme wrote:
Kipon makes T&S adapters for most mounts that use the same mechanism types as the Mirex. Fotodiox makes a smaller selection.
I may be missing something but I dont see an adapter that allows the use of the Pentax MF lenses on the Sony mount
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mcbroomf wrote:
also used Mirex on medium format lenses before switching to all Canon TSE and have stacked adapters. It will work, just make sure you end up with no play in the stack.
Thats encouraging.
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rico wrote:
To fix keystoning, I just throw megapixels at the image and apply a transformation in post. Any ordinary WA/UWA can serve for this purpose. At the long end, I use a dedicated T/E lens but that handles a different problem (selective DOF).
It is actually amazing how much perspective correction one can do in post and still retain excellent image quality. (My interest is more it dealing with tilted plane of focus with some subjects. I do focus-stacking at times, and it may just be that Ill let the TS option go and rely on that going forward.)
One of the main reasons I started with Sony was to adapt the Canon 17mm TS to the a7rII with the Sigma adapter. While I have not tried the Canon 24mm TS, my understanding is that Canon TS lenses are still your best option on Sony.
For whatever it's worth at this point, here's a shot I made a long time ago when I first transitioned into digital from film, and especially LF film where I regularly used movements.
The shoe to a little above mid frame is as sharp as the lens and camera combo could manage. (These from a 12MP Canon 5D and Canon 24TSE lens at f8.) So it works sort of, the parking lot gravel is sharp for a good 2/3rds its length, but the base of the trees, building, Motel sign and palm fronds are lost due to the tilt. Best viewed at it's native 2048 px size since it will get upsized from there on a typical browser monitor.
