shift lens

I borrowed a 28mm shift lens for the weekend. Having been told that it wasn't any use on digital (due to the crop factor) I was pleasantly surprised that it worked rather well. Not really advisable to hand hold a shift lens, but needs must and all that.

Ely Cathedral



K.

Good on you for putting one to work. Are those light rays a result of PP?

Nope, light is as seen...

Nice shot, what make was the lens? I am looking for one, but can only find a 35mm one from teh Ukraine (PK fit needed)

Ah finally someone tried this lens on digital! Results looks good! Do you intend to write something of your experience?

Tried mine quite a while back Kris and wasn't too impressed as a large percentage of the correction is missed. There was a thread about it and John Riley mentioned the lack of correction due to crop factor.

By the way, great image.

Best regards

If one is trying to correct the perspective in a limited space and the 28mm is not wide enough, then the lens is a little restricted. If you have the space to use 28mm, then the shift enables one to get an image. The alternatives are to use a conventional 28mm and correct the converging verticals in PP (something I have found very hard to do convincingly without messing up the ratio of height to width of windows and doorways although I know it is possible) or to use an ultra-wide and throw away half of the image. The latter route has the problem of the "stretching" effect one gets at the edges of ultrawide lenses.

Ideally, one would use the 28mm on "full frame" (which was my intention when I borrowed it, i.e., my LX with its grid-marked focus screen fitted), and/or have an 18mm shift (or tilt-shift ) lens.

Either way, the 28mm shift may not be as useful on APS-C as it was on 135mm, but in a huge building like a cathedral it still can be used effectively.

Had I been able to use a tripod, the image above would undoubtedly been improved by stopping the lens down a bit. Hand-holding it wide open isn't the best way to test any lens, let alone this one!

K.

Pentax. Not manufactured now but second hand copies available from ebay and other retailers.

K.