I thought it was less to park, around £10, and if a couple of friends come as well it can be split. Anyhow, the times I have been the show has been massively busy and events get sold out quickly. Apart from the main stands there are dozens of smaller ones which you would not come cross normally and you get to handle stuff so can judge how good or useful it is. And there are special offers so if there is something specific you want it can more than offset the cost of visiting.

MrB, it depends on how much correction is needed, I often fine tune in Lightroom or DXO Viewpoint but the penalty is losing some image by cropping to fit so you end up compromising between perfect verticals and keeping part of the image. With a shift lens you get it right in camera. And you do get noticeable distortion with software as you push it, both in proportion and stretching. The TS lens is actually reproducing the flexibility of old plate cameras with their accordion-like construction between body and lens.

I am far more comfortable using the TS lens on a tripod with a three-way head so I can fine tune the framing, and especially so using the tilt as you have to keep adjusting the degree of shift and the manual focus in live view because the focal plane is no longer vertical.

A bit of a theme going here! I particularly like no. 3 with the coloured light on the stone. Nice.

Yes, I had lined up on the font thinking it was on the axis but it was probably a bit off. Whilst I was trying a panorama the verger plonked a huge candlestick between me and the font as if I was invisible! And I did get his permission first.

Thanks Smudge I was a bit concerned how the roof timbers are a bit skewed. In Lightroom the TS isn’t listed in the lens compensation so I applied another Samyang 24mm which may account for the barrel distortion because it was quite significant. Thinking now the lens is offset from the sensor so probably I shouldn’t make any correction, however the roof was not noticeably different straight out the camera so I cannot explain it.

I don’t use the lens as much as I should because it needs to be on tripod and involves spending a little time; the tilt is a great way to get front to back sharpness at a wider aperture like f8 and you can see how well the shift works. Like all TS lenses it’s manual focus and using the focus assist in live view with zooming in helps a great deal, and get it right it is very sharp.

Just before Christmas I popped into the church and loved the effect of the low winter sun shining through the clerestorey windows, so at the first opportunity I returned with the Samyang 24mm TS lens and a tripod. I had to wait an hour for the church to open after a funeral and grabbed a shot inside before a horde of tourists descended; also tried a panorama but after stitching the structure was ok but the pews were bent so I prefer this single shot. Whilst waiting I took a couple outside. All exposed to the right so minimal processing, mainly reducing the highlights.






Ps the shift lens took care of the verticals, so no post correction required.

If it comes to it and Wayne Sleep can dance after a hip replacement then maybe getting astride a motorbike is achievable!

The sky outside tonight:

Well observed, curious how most materials weather attractively, but not concrete. However you have found a visually interesting aspect with a melancholy sense of neglect, nice.

Oh that’s good. Damn.