67 Lenses on 645 using adapter?

Interesting stuff. I was reading a book on architectural photography just after I got my shift lens and the writer said that when using a shift lens you eliminate most of the distortion but you need to leave a little or you can get a slightly unreal feeling.

Chris

It's interesting that we feel the need to "correct" converging verticals, despite the fact that if we look up at buildings we see converging verticals.

Conversly, we don't feel the need to correct the converging horizontals of, say, a railway line receding into the distance.

In the absence of a shift lens, Photoshop does a great job using the Transform>Skew command.

I've been using my 28mm 3.5 shift (on 35mm of course) for over 20 years so here are some observations:

• Spirit levels are almost essential, I use a Manfrotto head with 2 built in
  
  Also essential is a grid focusing screen, as soon as you shift microprisms etc turn solid black and the lines on the grid really do help make sure that verticals are parrallel
  
  On really tall buildings I correct fully and then go back one click stop on the shift mechanism, otherwise the buildings will look wider at the top
  
  Tripod is of course another essential because once you've stopped down (these lenses have pre-set manual diaphragms and you have will have a very dark viewfinder image

My lens weighs a hefty 620g or almost 1.5 pounds and you can hardly see an MX behind it but it is probably the sharpest lens I own, I believe they were and built and collumated. It is a reall pity that on digital it becomes a shifting standard lens.

That's really useful info, I don't have a grid screen and although the screen on the 645 does go dark it is bright enough to just about see what I'm up to even with full shift applied.

Using spirit levels is exactly what I've been doing to get the camera spot on level on both planes. I use the tripod head levels backed up by a 2 way hotshoe model.

I'll have to try what you suggested about turning the shift back by one notch to avoid buildings having a 'fat' top to them... That might go a long way to cure the problem that Dan spotted.

If you thnk the 35mm version is chunky you ought to try carrying a 67 plus adapter!!!

Thanks for your help Gartmore!

hello all. here are my informations.
1. i have read that using the 67-645-adapter would decrease image-quality. why? there is no optical element. i have heard that there a especially good 645-lenses. so eventually if compared to not so good 67-lenses. e.g. zeiss told us that hasselblad-lenses have the same circle of confusion like the 35mm-contax/yashica-ones.
my friend told me that 67 had always been very sharp.
the problem could be film-flatness. that why there is a astro-company hu-tech offering a vaccum-back.

2. used the 75mm for aeroshots. had to stop down. was not so easy if i needed short exposure. giroscope needed.

3. shift-programs

shiftn(free)

www.deraltenburger.de
very clever germand guy, ask for his testfiles. i didnt yet check the program. he has different versions which are not free but low priced. with trial.

The reference to reduced image quality probably refers to the different resolution requirements of medium format lenses. Generally, 35mm lenses will need higher resolution to achieve the correct degree of sharpness. In theory medium format lenses will nit perform as well as they do have lower resolution.

In practice they are very useable.

you can be sure that we will compare 80mm /85mm zeiss against pentax-equivalents at the relevant subject to camera-position. subject having the same size on film.
i would even go further and use p67-cam with vaccumback and contax 645(vaccum) and contax rts III(vacuum) and compare with pentax 35mm. maybe we can adapt MF-lenses from one system to the other. p67 to contax 645? p67 to contax is possible via m42/c/y-adaptor.

since i am hot for p645 and 70mm back i would even use only p67-lenses and hasselblad 70mm-back. did i confuse you? using p645 and hasselblad elx with 70mm back and compare lenses, if possible adapt on the other system.

alexander gursky has proven with its most expensive 2x3 and 2x6m(twice 2x3 lightjets)-art-posters that its is possible to get the best out of colornegatives(or did he use slidefilm?). at least with the aeroshots he must have used 67cam-mamiya rz67. i suspect with a gyro. but he has used stitching and mosaic-method. the images can be seen actually at basel-kunstmuseum here in my hometown in switzerland at the border of east-france and south-germany. 25 pcs until febr. 24. worth a trip since newest had not been shown before. btw: 2.3 mio usd for a simple shopping-center widedeangle-shot, crazy!

Hallo, I'm the newbie. At first sorry for my bad english.

The tool "DigitalPhotoShifter" is available in three version:

Home:
[Entzerren]
Correct converging verticals by a symple lgorithm. The proporties of picturedetails will be hold.
This mean: details in the upper line of a building will be stretched less then details of lower lines.
These results in "harmonic" views of corrected photos.

Pro:
[Shiften]
Correct converging verticals exactly like a speciel shiftobjective.
The proporties of details will appear exactly as in original.

ProPlus:
[Doppelshiften]
Works like the pro- version, but can also corect converging lines in horizontal direction. This is like a special architektural camera.

Importand vor digital shifting is the exakt focal length! By using the correct value therefor the results will corospond exakly to the original.

By using the shif- functions it's possible to activate "Harmonic Hight". This mean, the hight of lines will be smaller for upper details in picture.
This effect is like the apearience by lookong up a building. Upper windows appear lower as windows in hight of the horizont.

By all version is important, that only one Interpolation needed for correcting perspective ,lensdistortion and rotating.

This tool is also available as a photoshop- plugin. Therefor only needs a mail for a demo version.

On my homepage is a html- show with details of function of the tool.
Sorry, but this is only in german.

Best regards
frank