Here's a little thing I wanted to share. I've been shooting on a Nikon DSLR since the D100 to D2x. Great machine, I really must say. I've wanted more out of the lenses though, in terms of control and creativity. The Lensbabies are a cool alternative, but I got creative and built my own tilt-shift lens for the Nikon. It's really pretty easy if you're not too demanding, and certainly considering the cost that buying a tilt shift lense for the 35mm format entails, it's a great way to experiment. Anyway, if your interested take a look at my little how-to on my blog.
Thanks for the article. I have been thinking of doing something like this myself and I know I've seen stuff in the past from Mark Tucker that he called the plunger cam....
Your tutorial is pretty complete, but one extra thing I will do is use a cut out rear cap to attach the plunger rubber to so I can remove the lens when I want and even change focal lengths.
I'm working on a back that allows shift which will give me the ultimate tilt/shift lens.
The lens I have now is an old CZJ 210mm that actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I bought it for practically nothing with a broken shutter but since I think I paid too much for the camera itself it all sort of works out. Here's a actual pixels crop of the centre, 1ds2, aprox f11, ISO 400, handheld:
I'm not sure of the limits yet but will know soon. I finally made a lens board and trial camera mount just this evening and will be doing some more testing and rigging up a sliding back over the holidays. The view camera will rise/fall but does not shift on it's own. It does have both front and rear tilts and rear swing.
I'll take a look at the article tomorrow, thanks.....
Doug,
Can you explain to me you devised a way for your film-focus screen holder to except a camera mount?
Would be nice to get my useless large format camera to have some worth again.
Larry: It is embarassingly simple, or maybe embarrassing because it took me a week to get it done:
I took a piece of 1/4 inch plywood and cut it to the same size as the back. I have a standard spring back on the 4x5.
Cut a hole in the centre large enough for the barrel (but not the locking ring) of a pentacon 6 adapter to fit through. The P6 adapter is perfect for the 1ds as it sets
the camera back far enough to make up for the grip.
Wrapped the camera end of the P6 adapter with electrical tape snug it up.
Stuck some foam tape on the inside of the plywood for a nice light-tight seal.
It actually seems to work pretty well though the camera is now further back than the normal film plane. I have to be careful where I set it since the Nagaoka camera is very light and with the 1ds it's seriously back-heavy. I needed the angle finder to get a good focus but it's advisable to set the focus of the angle finder before mounting to this contraption as the lens is only f6.3 and it's difficult to see well enough to set up the angle finder.
I'm going to work on a sliding back this weekend and over the holiday. I'll probably need to create a focus screen at the same distance as the sensor of the camera to make it easier to focus for a panorama. The one that came with the camera is just frosted glass (not a fresnel) so I might need a better screen.
Doug Morgan wrote:
Larry: It is embarassingly simple, or maybe embarrassing because it took me a week to get it done:
I took a piece of 1/4 inch plywood and cut it to the same size as the back. I have a standard spring back on the 4x5.
Cut a hole in the centre large enough for the barrel (but not the locking ring) of a pentacon 6 adapter to fit through. The P6 adapter is perfect for the 1ds as it sets
the camera back far enough to make up for the grip.
Wrapped the camera end of the P6 adapter with electrical tape snug it up.
Stuck some foam tape on the inside of the plywood for a nice light-tight seal.
It actually seems to work pretty well though the camera is now further back than the normal film plane. I have to be careful where I set it since the Nagaoka camera is very light and with the 1ds it's seriously back-heavy. I needed the angle finder to get a good focus but it's advisable to set the focus of the angle finder before mounting to this contraption as the lens is only f6.3 and it's difficult to see well enough to set up the angle finder.
I'm going to work on a sliding back this weekend and over the holiday. I'll probably need to create a focus screen at the same distance as the sensor of the camera to make it easier to focus for a panorama. The one that came with the camera is just frosted glass (not a fresnel) so I might need a better screen.
dennisonbertra wrote:
Here's a little thing I wanted to share. I've been shooting on a Nikon DSLR since the D100 to D2x. Great machine, I really must say. I've wanted more out of the lenses though, in terms of control and creativity. The Lensbabies are a cool alternative, but I got creative and built my own tilt-shift lens for the Nikon. It's really pretty easy if you're not too demanding, and certainly considering the cost that buying a tilt shift lense for the 35mm format entails, it's a great way to experiment. Anyway, if your interested take a look at my little how-to on my blog.
