I recently got this lens used from a forum member. I'd read so many things about it that it intrigued me. I don't have a clue how to use it but took it out anyway and got these handheld macro pictures. The color and sharpness startled me.
If you have one of these lenses please let me know and ,if okay, I'll write you a PM with a question or two. Or any hints you can give as 'Reply' would be greatly appreciated.
I have it Gaye and it is a great lens for sure. Some of the best image quality I have seen. I certainly have not mastered all of the abilities it offers but I enjoy learning and using it and the images are great! Rsprouse and Randy Forshey and Beezle have shown some incredible work with this lens.
One of my favorite lenses. Definitely my favorite flower lens.
I think I am able to use tilt as it is intended, but I don't quite understand shift, but as I understand it, it changes perspective.
For example say you were photographing a building standing on the ground. A photograph of the building would normally have a perspective such that the top of the building would appear more narrow than the bottom because it is further away from you.
But with shift, you can alter that perspective and widen the top of the image.
Thing is, I don't even know if you shift up or down to accomplish that.
So far as tilt goes, I just think of it as tilting the DOF plane. Apparently it is a little more complicated than all that, but that is the gist of it.
An example of using tilt is below. Normally an image of this flower wouldn't have the petal in the foreground tilted towards the viewer. So what I did here was place the camera higher than the flower, aimed down at it. The lens is actually tilted backwards here, or "up" to give this perspective where the stalk appears to be perpendicular to the camera, when really the bottom of it was further away because of the camera's position. It took five images blended together to get a deep enough DOF for this image.
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Another tilt example is below. For this one, the lens is tilted forward or "down" so that the flowers closer to the camera can be in focus as well as those at the top of the image, which were further away. This is a single image. Note that this flower is actually three stalks turned to give this terrace effect. I consider this the best flower image I've ever made.
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Thanks for the help,Dave,Gale,Don, Connie, Beezle and Italy.
Beezle, I've never seen flower pictures as good as those...I'm going to read your explanation several times and hope to understand it. You're good at explaining it.
Don, thanks also for the picture. (and I got the Gaffer tape but it's too thick. So now have more tape than I'll need in a lifetime).
About the 85PC. I've read through the manual several times and each time I get stuck on the 'aperture stopdown button'. Just not sure what it's saying about aperture and that button. At least I think I know which is 'tilt' and which is 'shift'. The Shift is the up and down function. So rotating the lens with the 'shift' makes a big difference in the perspective because it changes the 'Tilt' view also.
Anyway, I'm determined to learn this lens so with your input perhaps I'll get it. I'm not an engineer or computer person. Just a little old lady with lots of desire to learn.... and teaching second grade for many years didn't help my math understanding. So I'm basicially learning this lens as an eight year old would...so any simple help will be greatly appreciated...and bet Connie and a few others will benefit also :smile:
Thanks for the help,Dave,Gale,Don, Connie, Beezle and Italy.
Beezle, I've never seen flower pictures as good as those...I'm going to read your explanation several times and hope to understand it. You're good at explaining it.
Don, thanks also for the picture. (and I got the Gaffer tape but it's too thick. So now have more tape than I'll need in a lifetime).
About the 85PC. I've read through the manual several times and each time I get stuck on the 'aperture stopdown button'. Just not sure what it's saying about aperture and that button. At least I think I know which is 'tilt' and which is 'shift'. The Shift is the up and down function. So rotating the lens with the 'shift' makes a big difference in the perspective because it changes the 'Tilt' view also.
Anyway, I'm determined to learn this lens so with your input perhaps I'll get it. I'm not an engineer or computer person. Just a little old lady with lots of desire to learn.... and teaching second grade for many years didn't help my math understanding. So I'm basicially learning this lens as an eight year old would...so any simple help will be greatly appreciated...and bet Connie and a few others will benefit also :smile:
I'm been interested in that lens for a while. The one thing that is puzzling me is how much tilt does the 8 degrees actually give you? How many degree tilt does it provide to the focal plane? Is it 8 degrees? more? less?
This is one of my favorite lenses, although I have only played with it a little bit. Having done some work with a view camera in my college photo class days (I actually still have my 4x5 view camera!), I can really appreciate what T/S can do. I wanted something wider, so I got a used Canon 35mm T/S lens and had it converted to Nikon F-mount. Now I need to get out and see what it can do. It should do wonders with architectural subjects.
Doug, NJDJ and Russ,
Thanks much...and I'll get back to you, Russ...thanks for offering to help.
I need all I can get. I like the quality even in Aperture mode and not shifted or tilted. I now have to figure out all about the manual function of the camera. I think I put it in Manual... I'll definitely get back with more questions.
About the 85PC. I've read through the manual several times and each time I get stuck on the 'aperture stopdown button'. Just not sure what it's saying about aperture and that button. At least I think I know which is 'tilt' and which is 'shift'. The Shift is the up and down function. So rotating the lens with the 'shift' makes a big difference in the perspective because it changes the 'Tilt' view also.
The aperture stopdown is pretty simple, really. Because of the oddball mechanics of this lens, it does not couple with your camera body the way most lenses do. With most lenses, you set an aperture in the camera, and the camera body holds the lens wide open until the moment when you release the shutter. Then the lens is stopped down to the aperture you have set just as the shutter opens.
None of this happens with the T/S lens. Instead, you need to decide what aperture you want to use, and set it on the lens. Then you pop up the aperture stopdown button to open the lens to its maximum aperture so you can focus and compose the image. Then just before you trip the shutter, you need to push down the aperture stopdown button to close the aperture to your preselected aperture, before you make the exposure. This is simply replicating manually what your camera/lens normally does automagically.
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This Thread is killing me. Where can I find $1,300 to buy one!! 
