Chris63 wrote:
I do a lot of architecture photography (snapshots) with Sony A7 II.
I am ready to graduate to something that would let me "straighten up" buildings, trees, etc.
Any recommendations, either for a lens, or for software (i.e. cost, quality of output)?
P.S. Is there any very simple software available (perhaps an add-on for my PC) that would feature tilt-shift as a main feature?
Thanks
electronically:
It is built into one of my cameras (Leica M-11), but I've only used the feature once or twice. I understand that other cameras may also have this built in. Similar function in Photoshop lets me use the larger computer screen, which I prefer.
Optically:
Tilt is fairly useless for architectural use. It mainly helps with depth of field in a single plane in close-up photos. What you need is shift. By moving the center of the lens away from the center line of the frame, and keeping the sensor perfectly vertical you get the result you want. Typically you would want a wide-angle lens designed to cover a field much larger than the sensor size.
B&H has a nice write-up, with copious photo examples, of 2 Fotodiox adapters which uses lenses designed (in these cases) for using Nikon and Hasselblad lenses on a Sony mirrorless body--in this case a Sony aII, like yours.
Be careful in shopping. There are other adapters sold as "tilt shift", but they only tilt.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-on-review/in-the-field-fotodiox-pro-tlt-rokr-tilt-shift-adaptersIn the article they compare a Hasselblad 50 mm lens with a Nikon 50 mm lens. You can see that the lens for the Hasselblad, which is made to cover the larger medium format size, has less vignetting than the Nikon designed to cover just a 35mm frame, when shifted. (Vignetting can be a problem with shifted lenses which you don't see in an electronically or digitally modified image.)
The nice thing about these adapters, tho, is that you can buy one. in Nikon mount and use it with many different Nikon lenses. So, if you got a vintage wide-angle lens, or a zoom, you could use the shift feature. Like most adapters, you'll not have an automatic aperture, but the viewfinder stays bright, even when composing with the lens stopped down, and buildings are often focused at infinity, on sunny days, so depth of field solves most focus issues.
Of course, if you get a less expensive adapter which does not have a shifting feature you can still use those other lenses and correct the key stoning in photoshop. Or use lenses with built in shift ability.