melismus Loc: Chesapeake Bay Country

Yep: every advertisement will have to be a tutorial. Hardly anybody understands what it can do and how to use it. Also, mis-information is rife.

CharleneT Loc: South Carolina

Can we continue this forum after today ? I find it interesting and would like to take the time to explore more of it.

melismus Loc: Chesapeake Bay Country

No time limit: some threads run for months.

wattsimages

What you're referring to is flat stitching. it can be quite effective. The issues arise when there's something in the foreground, close to the lens. When this happens you can get a shift of the items close to the lens, and it makes stitching difficult. The best way to resolve this is to use a tripod mount that connects directly to the lens. In this way the camera shifts but the front of the lens never moves.

personally I have used a Nikon 24 mm, and Canon 17 mm TS. They both worked but obviously the field of view on the 17mm is tremendous. my current setup is with a Sony A7rII, Nikon 14 to 24 (with the hood cutoff), and a TS master adapter. this setup allows me to have all the tilt shift functions, on a zoom lens as wide as 14 mm. Also because the adapter holds the lens static, I don't get any shifting of the foreground.
The downside of my setup is the cost. In fact I would not recommend my setup unless you're being paid for product/architectural photography. I would recommend renting one of these lenses for weekend. Try it out. there's a lot more to it than just slapping the lens of the camera. having a sturdy tripod, and the right software are critical to getting the results.

http://wiki.panotools.org/Flat_stitching_for_tilt-shift_lenses

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1308120

http://www.hartblei.de/de/whatsnew.htm

Here is an example where shifting the lens would create real problems. In this example moving the lens would make it very difficult to align the chairs that are near camera.

(Download)

rlscholl Loc: California

You are correct. I've been using a pc lens for decades. This site (Mason Marsh Photo) has the most straightforward video I have seen for using the T-S lens for panoramic photos.
http://www.masonmarsh.com/videos/

pyroManiac Loc: HIXSON,TN

In lieu of a tilt/shift lens one cheap and easy solution is to use a wide angle lens, frame vertically, then shoot with lens perpendicular to building or whatever then crop off bottom of shot to get what you want to keep, vertical lines are vertical with no perspective distortion. Cheap and easy method I've used for years.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

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I have used this method to get 180° and 360° Panoramas. Took about 16 exposures for the 360° . Tripod is a must, a proper graduated head where the pivot point is at the nodal point of the lens in use, is also a great benefit.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I use all three Nikkor PC-E lenses. Mostly the 45 and 85 for landscapes, and the 24 for tight quarters.

Nikon's lenses are pretty good with onE important exception. If you have the lens set for horizontal shift you cannot do horizontal tilt. Nikon will perform the mod on the lens to do that for $100. Canon lenses do allow shift and tilt in the same axis.

Tilting the lens down re-orient the zone of focus so that it becomes "conical" in shape, which is how the extended depth of field is achieved. If you tilt up, the depth of field severely diminished. With about a 1 degree forward tilt you can get focus from about 3 ft to infinity with a 45mm lens at F.2.8, but nearby tree tops are likely to be out of the zone of focus. Stopping down widens the zone of focus to get those treetops just right.

Shift is used in the manner you describe, and also to "gain" a higher point of view, which greatly reduces the need to tilt the camera upwards to get a tall building or tree in the frame, thus avoiding those unsightly converging verticals.

While the Rokinon/Samanyang/Bower lenses have an attractive price point, they are not quite as sharp as the Nikkors.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

About 6 months ago I bought the Nikon 1:3.5 35mm Non-Ai - Tilt Shift Lens on ebay for $200. It is manual film lens (manual focus and f-stop) which I don't consider a problem for landscapes. As it is non-AI it mounts fine on consumer level Nikons like my D3100 but would have to be AI-ed for pro level Nikons like my D7000. AI ing a manual Nikkor film lens requires me to use a dremel tool with a grinding tip to grind down about 1/8 inch high strip along part of the mounting edge of the lens. There are lots of tutorials on this including one I posted on UHH which I can't find without scrolling though hundreds of posts. If I could search posts by poster and content at the same time, it would sure help.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The opposite is closer to the truth.

Leitz Loc: Solms

The PC-Nikkor 35 f/3.5 does not tilt. It has a preset diaphragm, the aperture ring is on the front of the lens and no amount of grinding will convert it to AI.

forjava Loc: Half Moon Bay, CA

Valuable info, not widely known: "no amount of grinding will convert it to AI."

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I have two and have used other Tilt/Shift lenses.

Yes, they work well for pano shots. There is some limit, though... since they can only shift a fairly small amount.

Tilt/Shift on small format cameras really offer a rather limited amount of movement. Yes, they can help with issues such as keystoning, where a building appears tapered and falling over backwards when you tilt the camera upwards to photograph the structure. Often it's not possible to fully correct the image with the lens alone, due to the limited amount of shift movement. Large format film cameras offered a lot more movement... many have swing, drop, rise, tilt & shift.... separate movements on both the lens plane and the film plane.... that can be combined for much greater perspective control than is possible on small format film/digital cameras.

For a shot of a tree, made from relatively close, where you need to tilt the camera quite a bit.... the lens will help, but you should plan to do further perspective correction in post-processing.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Leitz,

Your comment raised some interesting questions for me.

First, you are right in that the PC Nikkor 3.5 is shift only, not tilt shift. But in the vertical position doesn't shift act like tilt? What does tilt provide in the vertical position that shift does not?

Second, In regard to AI-ing the lens. I took a look at the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 that I AI-ed and realized that the grinding was done to make about 1/4 of the black metal collar protruding from the silver metal mounting collar with the 3 mounting flanges, flush with the silver metal mounting collar. That part of the black metal collar prevented the lens from mounting all the way to the click on my D7000. Looking at the PC Nikkor 3.5 there is no protruding black collar, just the silver metal mounting collar with the 3 mounting collar. There is nothing to grind. I am at a loss to see what is preventing the lens from mounting on the D7000 all the way to the click. It only mounts about half way then can't turn further, just like the 50mm 1.4 did before I AI-ed it.

Thrird, I don't understand what the aperture ring being at the front of the lens barrel has to do with monting the lens.

I would appreciate any clarification from you or any other posters. The lens performs well on my D3100 but I hoped to be able to use
it on the D7000 as well.

If there is any interet in this specific 3.5 PC Nikkor lens by the OP or others I could perform a pano test on a large stand of woods behind my yard. My original interest in the lens was getting panos with correct vertical perspective with the ability to eliminate most of the foregroud and get more sky, but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

forjava Loc: Half Moon Bay, CA

About this: "But in the vertical position doesn't shift act like tilt?" Leitz is correct.

What does shift do?
Shift maintains the perspective of the x space (horizontal) by exposing more of the radius of a larger lens element than is needed for a lens that does not need to shift.

The earliest PC Nikkor (35mm f/3.5) of 1962 can shift laterally across three positions. 360-degree lens rotation is another maneuver and this takes you out of x space but not into z space (depth). There is a 1980 f/2.8 model. The kindred PC Nikkor (28mm f/3.5) of 1980 is also second-generation. I'm not sure what the mount is for these two lenses but the lens screw became black for both, which is handy for buying the later (optically superior) models from pictures. None of the lenses of this era tilt.

What does tilt do?
Tilt reorients the in-focus area (a rectangular cuboid, for DSLRs) in z space. Of course, as a hog mentioned in this thread, you can rotate your non-PC and non-PC cameras 90 degrees and get something akin to a stitched-together set of shifts.

The PC and PC-E Nikkors came later, with modern mounts. These lenses' mounts can rotate. The lenses can tilt or shift as needed. They can tilt and shift at the same time.

The 1962 lens pioneered shift for DSLRs, so it is collectible. Accordingly, it is not clear to me that this lens should be altered.