I'm not a fan of gear threads on this site and hesitate to share this. Having said that, I was excited to hear about this product.
Tilt/shift lenses (or in Nikon speak PC lenses) give you some of the controls of a view camera on a DSLR. Often expensive and "niche", they let you control for perspective/geometric distortion created by photographing straight lines with the camera tilted up or down (the shift bit) and also let you change the plane of focus (the tilt bit).
Much more complicated than that, as shifts (more accurately rise/fall and lateral shifts) not only let you set the sensor plane to be perpendicular to the subject and then adjust the position of the subject in the composition (to keep lines straight while placing your subject where you want it in the composition), but can also keep the reflection of the camera out of the composition with reflective subjects.
The tilt/swing changes the plane of focus which can be used to bring "everything" into focus for landscapes or other applications without having to stop the lens down excessively. Or let you change the plane of selective focus to control what is in and out of focus in a composition.
TS/PC lenses are expensive and often a bitch to use. Nikon PC lenses by default have their tilt/shift functions orthogonal to each other, which isn't optimal for landscape/architectural photography. You will often want to center the lens in the vertical plane to keep lines straight and then shift up or down for compositional reasons. Depending on the subject you will also want to tilt in the same plane to achieve near/far focus. Have to send it back to the factory to be able to do that though. And then you are **** out of luck if you have a subject where you want the tilt/shift to be in orthogonal planes.
Canon TS lenses are more versatile (and there are other TS lens options as well) but they can be annoying to use in practice as some have to be adjusted in a specific order to achieve the desired result (based on internet hearsay and not experience). And I'm not a Canon shooter. Currently using a Sony a7rII for most things.
The Cambo Actus Mini solution seems interesting.
https://www.cambo.com/en/actus-mini/cambo-actus-mini-view-camera/
https://captureintegration.com/seeing-sideways-with-the-cambo-actus/
https://diglloyd.com/blog/2016/20160519_1418-CamboActusMiniViewCamera.html
Anyone have any experience with this? I am feeling tempted. For what I am currently shooting this seems like it would be very useful with the Cambo 24mm lens. Could also use Nikon lenses for macro work with the bellows. But primarily would use it for landscapes/architecture with the Sony body.
Haven't pulled the trigger yet. Doesn't have all the utility of a *real* view camera. Some of what this does can be *fixed* in post (though my personal experience shows that this isn't always optimal regarding perspective corrections and the focus plane tilts/swings *can't* be fixed in post). But found this interesting and thought others might as well.
Tilt/shift lenses (or in Nikon speak PC lenses) give you some of the controls of a view camera on a DSLR. Often expensive and "niche", they let you control for perspective/geometric distortion created by photographing straight lines with the camera tilted up or down (the shift bit) and also let you change the plane of focus (the tilt bit).
Much more complicated than that, as shifts (more accurately rise/fall and lateral shifts) not only let you set the sensor plane to be perpendicular to the subject and then adjust the position of the subject in the composition (to keep lines straight while placing your subject where you want it in the composition), but can also keep the reflection of the camera out of the composition with reflective subjects.
The tilt/swing changes the plane of focus which can be used to bring "everything" into focus for landscapes or other applications without having to stop the lens down excessively. Or let you change the plane of selective focus to control what is in and out of focus in a composition.
TS/PC lenses are expensive and often a bitch to use. Nikon PC lenses by default have their tilt/shift functions orthogonal to each other, which isn't optimal for landscape/architectural photography. You will often want to center the lens in the vertical plane to keep lines straight and then shift up or down for compositional reasons. Depending on the subject you will also want to tilt in the same plane to achieve near/far focus. Have to send it back to the factory to be able to do that though. And then you are **** out of luck if you have a subject where you want the tilt/shift to be in orthogonal planes.
Canon TS lenses are more versatile (and there are other TS lens options as well) but they can be annoying to use in practice as some have to be adjusted in a specific order to achieve the desired result (based on internet hearsay and not experience). And I'm not a Canon shooter. Currently using a Sony a7rII for most things.
The Cambo Actus Mini solution seems interesting.
https://www.cambo.com/en/actus-mini/cambo-actus-mini-view-camera/
https://captureintegration.com/seeing-sideways-with-the-cambo-actus/
https://diglloyd.com/blog/2016/20160519_1418-CamboActusMiniViewCamera.html
Anyone have any experience with this? I am feeling tempted. For what I am currently shooting this seems like it would be very useful with the Cambo 24mm lens. Could also use Nikon lenses for macro work with the bellows. But primarily would use it for landscapes/architecture with the Sony body.
Haven't pulled the trigger yet. Doesn't have all the utility of a *real* view camera. Some of what this does can be *fixed* in post (though my personal experience shows that this isn't always optimal regarding perspective corrections and the focus plane tilts/swings *can't* be fixed in post). But found this interesting and thought others might as well.
