Tilt shift lens for GH1 and miniature city perspective?

R

Revsta

Well-known member
Trying not to use a plug-in, but I guess I can in a crunch, but I want to shoot some wide high shots of a city and make it look like a miniature with a tilt shift lens. Anyone have suggestions?
 
A few weeks ago I came across a tilt adaptor from an Italian manufacturer that fits m4/3 and it is available in several different fits on the other end such as Nikon. This allows you to have tilt with any lens and apparently it allows infinity focusing - at least when it isn't tilted. I can't vouch for the adaptor personally as I've never seen it or had any dealings with the supplier/manufacturer. However, on another forum someone ordered one and apparently it works fine and they have used it with a Nikon 20mm wide-angle lens. It seems to work a bit like the lens baby, but allows you to use quality glass or shorter focal length lenses. Also it only does tilt and not shift.
http://www.adrianololli.com/articolo.asp?ID=3107

A thread started by someone that ordered it.
http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13647
 
is there anything else people use tilt shift lenses for except making cities look like minatures , with timelapse.. ?? have to admit first one i saw i thought wow .. but its getting pretty old now as theres so many around now.
 
androoow said:
is there anything else people use tilt shift lenses for except making cities look like minatures , with timelapse.. ?? have to admit first one i saw i thought wow .. but its getting pretty old now as theres so many around now.
Click to expand...

Tilt shift lenses have a lot more uses than the miniaturization effect, and in some ways this is one of their more minor uses. One of the main uses for Tilt-shift lenses is the opposite of the miniaturization effect when the plane of focus is tilted in the other direction and so the plane of focus can run along an angled subject not parallel to the sensor (the Scheimpflug principle) - so you can get more depth of field over the subject without stopping down. Another use is for perspective correction such as converging verticals - tall buildings or trees that appear to converge when they are photographed from a low angle. My own interest is for macro photography, which I do a lot of, and here they are used for getting the plane of focus to run along a subject not parallel to the sensor.
 
SteB said:
Tilt shift lenses have a lot more uses than the miniaturization effect, and in some ways this is one of their more minor uses. One of the main uses for Tilt-shift lenses is the opposite of the miniaturization effect when the plane of focus is tilted in the other direction and so the plane of focus can run along an angled subject not parallel to the sensor (the Scheimpflug principle) - so you can get more depth of field over the subject without stopping down. Another use is for perspective correction such as converging verticals - tall buildings or trees that appear to converge when they are photographed from a low angle. My own interest is for macro photography, which I do a lot of, and here they are used for getting the plane of focus to run along a subject not parallel to the sensor.
Click to expand...

This is the basic principle of View Camera technique. The problem with shifting of the lens only, is you will have to use a smaller f-stop in some cases to compensate for not being able to move the 'film/sensor' plane.

There were a number of still cameras in the olden days, Graflex Speed Graphic for 4x5 (had a focal plane shutter...), and Mamya 6x9 (depending on the back) that had this sort of adjustment capability.
 
Phew!finder said:
How about this?
http://www.fotodiox.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=435

I'm thinking of getting one myself - turns any FD lens into T/S on m4/3 body.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting adaptor and I wasn't aware of that one so thanks for the link. However, when I had a look at the website it appears just to be a shift adaptor, and not a tilt adaptor. There are 2 movements on tilt shift lenses, the tilt and the shift. Basically tilt alters the plane of focus allowing you to either achieve the miniaturization effect, or to tilt the plane of focus along something not parallel to the sensor giving you more depth of field over it. Whereas shift is used to correct converging verticals. If you want to achieve the miniaturization effect you need a tilt adaptor and not a shift adaptor. I linked to one in my earlier post, but I have to point out that I have never actually seen it so I can't say how well it works. There is a link in my earlier post to a thread on a forum where someone had ordered one and was using it with a 20mm Nikon wide-angle lens. Unfortunately I don't think this one is available in an FD fit. http://www.adrianololli.com/articolo.asp?ID=3107

I should point out that I am not trying to pass myself off as an expert on these lens movements as I don't have that much experience with them. Basically I've got enough experience playing around with these movements in the past to get a rough idea as to what these movements do. As someone else pointed out these are just the basics of view camera movements, but the more sophisticated cameras of this type have far more movements than these tilt and shift lenses.
 
Yes, that's a very good point, SteB - the miniaturisation effect comes from the tilted focal plane and the resultant smearing look, doesn't it. If only someone made a tilt And shift adaptor...
 
It doesn't offer the tilt for sure. I have four of this FD T/S 35mm lens model in mint condition. I can sell two of them. Drop me a line if you'll be interested to buy.

E.
 
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