Why not to buy a tilt-shift lens [Fuji 30/5.6].Tilt-shift isn't magic, what do the lenses really do

Why using lens tilt isn't always the fix-all some people hope it is. What can lens tilt do and why it probably won't let you give up on focus stacking. Some of the interesting things you can do with a tilted lens. For people looking at buying the new Fuji 30mm f/5.6 tilt shift lens and others.
I've many videos looking at tilt and shift lenses with what they are good for. If you are thinking of such a lens, make sure it does what you want, and explore some of the things you didn't know about?
I also provide on-site, bespoke 1-2-1 tilt shift lens training
• Bespoke tilt shift len...
There are many more videos and articles about using tilt and shift, they are all indexed at:
www.northlight-images.co.uk/p...
See also my tilt/shift playlist here on KZbin...
I've written a book that looks at the many ways that tilt/shift lenses can benefit your photography from a technical and creative point of view.
ISBN 9781785007712
For details, see www.crowood.com/products/phot...
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[@jessekoskinen]

For anyone considering buying Mr. Cooper's book, I can highly recommend it.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@martindrazsky7451]

For the "miniature world" images, I find the Lens Baby "Composer Pro" mounts and the dedicated "Edge" lenses very useful and absolutely sufficient in terms of image quality (this genre isn't about the ultimate sharpness, anyway). Cost incomparably lower than T/S lenses. I bought mine after I saw Eugenio Recuenco use them to a great effect. What is most useful with these simple lens-mount contraptions is that you can tilt them independently in all directions (mounted on a joint), allowing you to be very specific about the plane of focus.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - if this is what you're after, it's a solution ;-)

[@nickm8134]

I do love that photography is all about limitations. Even a monorail large format camera with all the movements is limited by lens image circle coverage. Understanding the limitations and how to use them to your advantage, or not as the case may be, is part of the great adventure of photography. I have a Horseman 6x9 film camera which is sort of somewhere in between a full-on large format and the more limited 35mm and digital tilt-shift lenses, it's a nice compromise.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - it's these limitations I often try and help people appreciate... ;-)

[@rowliec1510]

Oh boy! This takes me back to when I was five years old playing with my father's Thornton-Pickard 10 x 8 plate camera. He used it to take full school photographs with a horizontal shift tripod head so two plates could be arranged side by side to make a 20 x 8 inch panorama of all the school children together with their teachers - (printed one-to-one direct from the plates onto the photopaper !). A lot of careful retouching went into eliminating the join - all done by hand using specially sharpened pencils and erasers. All brass and wood with a set of brass barrel lenses and he even had the old 'mousetrap' shutters that were an absolute fascination to a young me (although he used a Compur shutter adapter). The lens panel was fully adjustable for tilt and shift and you tilted or yawed the whole camera on the tripod to get a measure of tilt on the rear film plane. I'd sit with my head under a double felt blanket and watch how the image changed as I adjusted the camera. Fascinating. Yes you can do the maths (look up 'Schiemflug Effect'' on Wikipedia - the technical term for tilt effect) and also 'circle of confusion' if you want to understand how depth of field works. But the best thing to do is get hold of a lens (maybe rent one for a weekend) and play with it. You can adjust it so everything looks sharp or as Keith points out adjust it so the image looks interesting. Two points, one - tilt and shift were originally simple methods of combating the limitations of the crude equipment that photographers had available in the early days. Two - even in these days of technical perfection and software whizz-giggery (that would leave my father thinking modern cameras worked by Voodoo) tilt and shift is still IMHO the best way to get around the limitations of parallel lens/film(sensor?) plane with a non square on subject. Great video Keith!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks! Many don't know how much really skilled work went into such pictures in 'pre-digital' times...

[@danieldemayo6209]

“Who the heck is this guy to tell me….oh he literally wrote the book” lol

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks ;-)

[@michaeldstories8714]

😂😂😂

[@black-and-light]

Hi Keith, very helpful and „come to the ground“ video! Thank you

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@Stefan-oc9bo]

I read the title of this video and thought where is this going to? Knowing that you have also written a good educational book about tilt shift lenses. I myself have a Canon TSE 24mm and have had to delve deeply into how this lens actually works. Thanks to your book (I am now working on the last chapter) I have learned to use a number of aspects better, but also learned a few new possibilities. If anyone is in the situation where you have a tilt shift lens but don't use it enough due to unfamiliarity, I can certainly recommend Keith's book. But maybe also if you are already familiar with the possibilities of your lens (I was too) and want to learn more about it. You can see I'm excited about it 😀

[@KeithCooper]

Excellent - much appreciated!

[@lohikarhu734]

Since I came to TS lenses as 4x5 camera user, I really missed the movements available in large format, and, as I recall, have never used it for the "model world" effect, but did use it to really blow out the background in "portraiture" type shots... back to your video. ;-)

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - when I get the Fuji 30/5.6 to test I'll try and get a good collection of varied examples of its use

[@geraldillo]

Great content!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@ytuberization]

Thanks. Another advantage of shift for landscapes is to use it for panoramas. The new GF30mm with its tripod mount appears to be perfect for panos. Would be great to hear more about this during the upcoming test.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - definitely an aspect I'll be covering [when it turns up - ETA still unsure]

[@thedarkslide]

That's the main reason I got the Canon 24mm TSE II and the TSE 90mm. Perfectly stitched panoramas without any weird perspective correction needed.

[@richardplander1775]

WOW, Thanks Mr. Cooper, yes, timely for me!

[@KeithCooper]

There's more about the lens in my written notes at www.northlight-images.co.uk/fuji-30mm-ts-review/

[@steve-4045]

When things were largely shut down during the pandemic, I rented the Canon 24mm TS-E lens, and later the 17mm. I had fun with them, but decided that I would not use them enough to buy one. I found the 24mm more useful and easier for me to get my mind around. I did a pseudo-Ansel Adams shot with a fountain in my neighborhood standing in for a waterfall in Yosemite. The water was in sharp focus, as was a rock that was almost beneath the lens. I made a black-and-white print and framed it. I can see it from where I sit. I can envision using a slight amount of tilt for greater depth of field in some landscapes, but not worth thousands of dollars for me. I also made fun panoramas stitching 19 shots shifted every which way to make large circular pictures. Some extension tubes were delivered before I had to send the 24mm back, so I tried the tilt and got a lot in focus along a surface. I took interior shots for a realtor some years back. If I were still making a little money doing that, I would almost for sure buy a TS lens or two. As it is, if I get in the mood to play with one, I can rent it.

[@KeithCooper]

Not a cheap thing to buy on a whim...

[@nelsonclub7722]

Tilt and shift lenses are great for stitching, removing reflections (of yourself), product photography for depth and perspective control, architecture inside and out and lastly for stupid crazy minimum DOF on portraiture - and a zillion other things too. You can focus stack with them too.

[@KeithCooper]

They are all that... It's why I have an entire playlist here and full index of all my reviews and articles on the Northlight Images site: www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/

[@nelsonclub7722]

@@KeithCooper 100% yes you have - good content as ever Mr Keith Sir - old Pro here 45 years in the game - the T+S are not for everyone and its great to have a thorough understanding - but you are right to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the dark arts!!! Take care

[@patmat.]

The kind of topic that would greatly benefit an illustration.

[@KeithCooper]

Ah - that would be my written articles and book... Oh, and videos too... ;-)

[@lohikarhu734]

Keith, one point where the tilt can work much better than focus stacking, is the situation where you might have movement in the scene that would be, at least distracting, with kind of "ghost images"; I am thinking of people in the scene, that you have no control over, or trees, even branches, blowing in the wind...in these cases, with tilt, you can often eliminate the motion entirely, or, even use "proper" motion blur creatively, as in a bit of nice blur in moving grasses, or water droplets with just the amount of movement that you want... or, so I have found.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - I should note that my search for good examples of tilt was for teaching purposes as much as anything. An example where the need for till was perhaps 'obvious'

[@segercliffhanger]

I love this video, it's been a really long time since I last used a tilt lens. I'm thinking of getting this fantastic Chinese toy, that's also fantastically cheap. Don't know how they do it, but I'm a big fan of TTartisan, often catering so diligently to a niche of a niche of a niche. They love what they do. Why NOT buy one? I can't think of any reason, tnx for demonstrating that :). There are so many ways to get a poignant visual effect out of these, but I do agree nothing's magic until you tell it to be magic.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - glad it was of interest!

[@gregfaris6959]

Having worked for decades with a large-format view camera, the tilts and shifts are on the camera, so all your lenses are tilt-shift lenses. Of course, circle of definition was an important consideration in the choice of a lens, and this was published and known to all photographers using this equipment. The use of these adjustments becomes so second nature that using a fixed camera without them feels constrained and hard to use. I would say that most pictures I would take with this equipment would use some degree of adjustment - though it would often be slight. If you are using a big heavy camera lens shift is often used just to fine-tune your framing and composition, though I would not recommend that approach with these specialty lenses on DSLRs. Of course with the large film formats, we would have intrinsically greater depth of field issues, so Schiempflug corrections were very frequently needed, but as Keith indicates it is not the panacea or magic bullet some people seem to believe. Compared with using the view camera, I find tilt-shift lenses hareder to use, but they do afford that extra bit of control over your subject that Large-Format photographers are used to and which frustrates them when using rigid cameras.Fixing converging verticals for architectural photography is an obvious one, and I find it far more satisfactory than simply saying you're going to fix it in post - which requires you to frame very wide or you run out of room trying to fix the geometry.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks for the comment! Lens movements are something that I too find more and more natural to use with 'smaller' cameras - even hand held on occasions, which had the side benefit of giving me a much more intuitive feel for 'level' ;-)

[@subbbass]

great video, again. Thank you! I wonder if cheap shift adaptors oder TLT Rokr can be an alternative to a real shift lens. I'm only interested in shift and less distortion for using wide angle in real estate panoramas (often in very small rooms) What are your thoughts?

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - Such adapters are very useful, see here: www.northlight-images.co.uk/fotodiox-tilt-shift-lens-adapter/ The difficulty is getting a suitably wide lens with a large enough image circle

[@subbbass]

@@KeithCooper thank you again for the quick response. I have some vintage lenses 20mm Canon FD, 20mm Carl Zeiss Jena and a medium format 40mm Carl Zeiss Jena for Pentacon 6x6. My problem: before i buy an adaptor i should know if it works.... I hope it will work when i stop down my old lenses to f11. But i'm not shure.

[@lohikarhu734]

Shift, with tilt, in the case of trees, or any kind of vertical structure that repeats, like a grove of trees, a corn field from certain angles, as in your wall shot, can be rendered with an amount of convergence that you can control (to some extent) and achieve a plane of focus that works, while maintaining a shutter speed that prevents unintended motion "artifacts"... In thinking about your nicely thought-out point about the idea of the thin focus plane rendering flower blooms out of focus, while the stems are sharp, one of those "whoops!" moments, that one could use the effect to get a nice softening of the stems, possibly the 'dirt', while having the softening lead the viewer's eye quite naturally to the highlight of the image... just a thought. Keith, you've done a very nice "encapsulation" of a relatively complex, and often misunderstood, subject! [ sorry to be such a chatterbox, but TS has been, for me, a real pleasure to use in so many cases]

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - my hope was that people with some experience, would see what I was aiming at from a technical and creative viewpoint - I'd like far more people to get some experience with tilt/shift :-)

[@yukonica4560]

A used 45mm TSE, bought initially for panorama, has become my second most favourite lens. It is as sharp as my 100 macro and forces me to really assess my thoughts before shooting. Too bad Canon dumped the newer 90mm EF model before many were in circulation. The parallel or perpendicular plane settings is very appealing.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, I've always thought the 45mm an underrated lens. I didn't know there were any issues with the TS-E 90mm F2.8L Macro? I still use the original tse90, but modified the tilt axis by 90º

[@AR-vf7vg]

I liked (to use) my 45mm. But it was not a good rendering lens (sharpness for instance). However I kept the 17 and 24 on my Sony system. I do not own any of the latest (macro able) EF ts-e Canon's. An even newer 45 I would prefer. I find that all mine never were good (especially to today's 'standards") in the borders as soon as starting shifting. F 8 and a half ist my 'must have rule" when I use them.

[@danwhiteside5452]

Hi Keith. I'm looking at buying your book, does it have any diagrams that would help me understand the focus plane movement with tilt? Thanks

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - I'd suggest starting here www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/

[@rolfforstler4853]

When i try to explain the scheimpflug principle to other photographers, i tell them that if you tilt the lens you change from depth of field to "hight of field" (if there is such a word ;-))

[@KeithCooper]

I generally choose not to explain anything to do with Scheimpflug to photographers at all! ;-) :-) Only if they deliberately ask for it and then only if they respond positively when I say "Are you quite sure?"

[@rolfforstler4853]

😀

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

So -- I'm considering to get the TTArtisan 100mm 2x magnification tilt-shift macro lens, to get more control over depth of field when shooting macro and close-up. However I'm gathering from your video that it will not give a lot of actual tilt at macro distances? I do have the excellent Laowa 65mm 2x macro lens so I'm comfortable with all-manual macro shooting at this level of magnification but this would be my first foray into tilt-shift and what I'm hoping to achieve is that I can put the plane of focus more parellel to items that are not parallel to the sensor, having to do less focus stacking, and having more control over what things directly behind the subject are sharp or not. So I can shoot for instance a flower petal that is angled towards the camera sharp all the way, but not necessarily have the petals below or behind it equally sharp. That is my aim but now I'm wondering how achievable that would be with a 100mm lens at 1x or more magnification and up to 8 degrees of tilt, on an APS-C body! Do you have any words of wisdom?

[@KeithCooper]

For close up tilt, see the parts of these articles www.northlight-images.co.uk/ts-e-90mm-f2-8l-macro-review/ www.northlight-images.co.uk/tilt-tubes-macro/ At 1x you will not get a hefty tilting of the focal plane Tilt can help, but the closer you are working the less effect there is given the limits of physical tilt most such lenses give you. If've just heard that the Fujifilm 110 tilt shift is on its way, so I'll be doing more stuff looking into this :-)

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

@@KeithCooper Thanks for your answer! I'll be looking at this articles. Good thing that at least this particular lens is cheap so if it doesn't work out for me, at least it's not a lot of money spent.

[@thomaseriksson6256]

Good video. Only used tillt on things close to the camera in landscape or in product photo. Usually I use shift in woodland. Never used focus stacking but I will test it.

[@KeithCooper]

Stacking is always an interesting experiment... I use it more for my commercial macro work

[@thomaseriksson6256]

@KeithCooper II did not have to use it on a 12 Mix, APS-C D300 (as 28 Mix for FF) camera but I upgraded when It broke down to a 12 Mpix FF D700 and last year to a 36 Mpix D800E and this year a 45 Mix D850 so the diffraction will set in on a lower aperture and give soft pictures at 1:22 and 1:16 (1:11 for D850) except on the D700. I have to test what I can accept. I think I have 1:32 on the PC lenses. I mostly use the D800E and a 60mmF2.8 Macro for my Sundays walks. I just got a range laser meter to set the correct range setting on the lens and DOF using an aperture chart.

[@KeithCooper]

Using a range finder does assume that the distance marking on lenses are accurate - a bold choice ;-)

[@thomaseriksson6256]

@@KeithCooper Eatch manual lens has to be calibrated. And the best apperture performance have to be decided as in the old Zoon system days or five finger method for sildes. Not used to AF lenses and I don't know the best method to use for them if you like a control of DOF and the plane of sharpness..

[@KeithCooper]

That is vastly more effort than I'd ever consider... Just get out more and take some photos! Let go of some of the techy stuff ;-)@@thomaseriksson6256

[@a3hindawi]

Thanks

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@nickgoogle4525]

Great video, thanks a lot. Follow-up question: Am I correct that I can use a depth-of-field calculator and use that number for the sharpness depth as well for the shifted lens, thus giving me an idea how high thick a (flat) object can be to be perfectly sharp? I am thinking about using a 50 mm Nikon lens adapted on the Kipon Tilt and Shift adapter for Fuji FX mount. Aim is to get sharp product photos of objects about 25 cm x 25 cm and 12 cm thick (high, so to speak). Should that work out fine?

[@KeithCooper]

DOF calculators are largely useless IMHO ;-) There is no such thing as 'perfect sharpness' just acceptable softness... The only way to properly understand DOF is to experiment with a new lens - using shift though does indeed not change the thickness. Tilt is a whole different matter - such calculators are then even more useless :-) :-)

[@nickgoogle4525]

@@KeithCooper Thanks, I am well aware that there is no perfect sharpness, but the circle of confusion, which depends on a number of factors. But after taking those into account a calculator makes sense IMO. I just wonder if the tilt effect will be strong enough to give me the sharp product photo's I want to achieve, considering that they are not totally flat.

[@KeithCooper]

No, tilt is unlikely to make much difference, since you get a wedge of focus. This is also affected by how well the lens takes tilt [some show much more loss of sharpness] It also depends on how close the subject is, since actual tilt of the plane of focus gets less and less at close distances. See the discussion here, based on some of my testing www.northlight-images.co.uk/alternative-focus-technique-for-tilted-lens/ See also the use of a 50mm tilt/shift here: www.northlight-images.co.uk/ts-e-50mm-f-2-8l-macro-review/ However, if you [really, really] want to do the calculations, I'd suggest reading this www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/FVC161.pdf

[@nickgoogle4525]

@@KeithCooper Thanks a lot Keith. I have been travelling and am back now. This advice and the links are very helpful. I am now pretty busy reading all the information you suggested and found the other treasure, The INs and OUTs of FOCUS. That is a great read as well. :-) Will buy your book, when I decide to get the lens adapter. Cheers!

[@KeithCooper]

Excellent - The ins/out book was what really helped convince me of the folly of blindly relying on DOF calculators ;-)@@nickgoogle4525

[@kevins8575]

I really like technical aspects of stuff. I know that i would spend a lot of time learning how to use a tilt/shift lens, but then not get around to using it. I'm going to satisfy myself with software for the few times tilt or shift would be useful to me. Sigh.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, much as I use them a lot, I do appreciate they are very much a niche lens

[@gerhardbotha7336]

On large format I see this used all the time. I guess it is because you have a shallow DOF? So tilt helps some?

[@KeithCooper]

Actually for this format and focal length, shift is used much more than tilt. The prime use is geometric correction - dof is not so much of an issue usually with f/8-11 Obviously tilt is useful, but not the panacea some hope for ;-)

[@danwhiteside7706]

Hi. As a product and drink photographer, will a tilt shift lens help me get a close up shot of a drink in focus without the need for stacking? Photo stacking often won’t work with drinks due to moving components such as ice, bubbles, condensation. Thanks

[@KeithCooper]

Maybe... but likely not in the way you hope. It's possible to get the plane of focus somewhere else, but it doesn't get thicker See my recent video about close-up tilt Also ,see the close-up examples here for a lot more about what tilt does: www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-ts-e-24mm-3-5l-ii-review/

[@danwhiteside7706]

Hi Keith. Many thanks for the response. I shoot a lot of ‘hero’ shots, where the camera will be angled up from below and struggle to get near to the top in focus as well as lower down the glass/product. Is this the kind of scenario that a ts lens would benefit? Might be worth me buying your book!

[@KeithCooper]

I'm afraid this really comes out as 'it depends'...;-) If you want examples see my reviews of the Canon TS-E T/S lenses [or the book!] - there are lots more examples in the articles though [at bigger size]. See also www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/ For product work you need to 'play around' with a tilt lens to get a real feel for what it will and won't do - this will then guide your product/camera setup. Tilt is a really nifty tool, but often disappoints until you really understand what's going on and can pre-visualise it.

[@oneeyedphotographer]

I want title lenses for micro four thirds. Designed for, not APS-C or larger with the MFT mount. I'm thinking that my days carrying the Lumix S1R and TS-E lenses are pretty numbered. The new G9 with 100 megapixels and lenses with 8mm or more shift would be killers for landscapes and architecture. Might even make you rethink the GFX.

[@KeithCooper]

T/S lenses for four thirds? I can't see any manufacturers thinking there is a viable market in it, maybe one of the Chinese makers might do something though? Ask Laowa, they love niche products ;-) MFT - figures exceedingly dimly in any photographic plans for myself ;-) I'm just not moved in any way by 'small' as a benefit.. sorry to the vociferous mft fan club, but no thanks.

[@oneeyedphotographer]

@@KeithCooper I don't expect it, but I can dream. I think Samyang has one, but it's basically the same as its copy of the original TS-E 24. An Adaptor EF-MFT with, say, 24mm of shift would be interesting. I've never used tilt, but probably I should give it a go. Typical Australian landscapes are flat. Really flat. The Great Dividing Range is most photographed, least typical.

[@chrisogrady28]

The main issue is standard modern tilt shift lenses only allow 10mm shift and 8.5° tilt, whereas if you adapt a 6x7 lens to a FF camera you can get over 20mm and 10°, or with a full view camera even more. Due to the scheimpflug principle a the additional tilt allows an exponentially steeper focal plane angle for getting that infinite DOF

[@KeithCooper]

There is 10º of tilt on lenses like the TS-E90/135 and the new Fuji 110mm TS (±15mm shift) Those lenses are also designed to be tilted, unlike many adapted lenses, which readily lose definition at stronger tilts and introduce unpredictable vignetting. Full view camera setups can indeed be more flexible, but at significant reduction in usability for many applications. With stronger tilt, the plane of focus is adjustable over a wider range for close work, but sometimes at a cost. I'm going to be covering more of this in due course - it was an aspect of using tilt and shift I quite deliberately left out of the tilt/shift book [along with the maths]

[@chrisogrady28]

@@KeithCooper oh that is a lots, it's great that fuji are servicing the niche use cases, I shoot Nikon Z so my options for product were the old 85mm PC-E or adapt medium formats (can't afford a Cambo yet). Looking at the 85 it seems much inferior in MTF, amount of tilt and shift, and minimum focusing distance, compared to this setup, but I would be very interested to see a direct comparison of hot purpose made tilt lenses handle it better. It's a shame Nikon aren't making new modern tilt lenses, with the enormous Z mount and it's shallow flange, you could potentially make a crazy technical lens line

[@KeithCooper]

The PC-E 85 really shows its age - that and the narrow throat of the F mount See here for much more about the TS-E90 and 135, which are a world ahead of the pc-e85 A EF>Z adapter would be my choice... www.northlight-images.co.uk/ts-e-90mm-f2-8l-macro-review/ www.northlight-images.co.uk/ts-e-135mm-f-4l-macro-review/

[@paulbennett274]

@@KeithCooper For those Nikon 'F' mount shooters on a budget I'd recommend sourcing Nikon's old PB-4 Manual Bellows Unit from the 1970s as it has front standard Tilt/Swing and Shift/Rise functions, albeit friction driven, and adapt the bayonet fitting to suit a suitable medium/large format lens (I use a 30-year old S/H 100mm F5.6 Schneider Componon Enlarging lens designed to cover a 9cm radius for 6x9cm negs and which still resolves down to a 6-microns pixel pitch!). If you want infinity focus then due to the minimum bellows extension and the 46mm flange depth of the 'F' mount this is really the shortest practical focal length; so of limited use in architectural work but ideal for smaller product and desktop work or just to practice/play with for a relatively modest outlay. Schneider still makes a variant of this lens although only for use in industrial applications. Nikon did manufacture a specific lens head as part of their contemporaneous large format lens series but these were all discontinued 20+ years ago. Any good flat field enlarging lens for 6x9cm or larger from Rodenstock, Nikon, Minolta etc. would work. Novoflex do make a manual bellows unit with interchangeable mounts that has both Tilt/Swing and Shift/Rise Front and Rear standards, albeit at around £1000, and of course Cambo and Sinar still manufacture Technical cameras if you have the budget! PS Just saw your interview with Scott (Tin House Studios) and looked you up so the marketing is working!!

[@magmiksch987]

you could demonstrate with your 4x5^^

[@KeithCooper]

Indeed, I could, but I've not shot film for many years now especially on a 5x4 like that ;-)

[@seanhaley6721]

brilliant

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks

[@QingyuLin]

If not consider the focal panel, but the depth of field, then the tilt will make the close focus point narrower depth of field while the far focus point widerdepth of field, that's how landscape photographers use the tilt to take close-far type of scene. Because if there is no tilt, even f16 or f22 can't give far away mountain a clean enough focus.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes - the wedge of DOF is significant, but it still depends on the composition if you are not careful. So, yes, it can work, but as with all tilt, it is not the panacea some mistakenly assume.

[@QingyuLin]

@@KeithCooper Agreed.

[@d1m18]

I am one of those people thinking of buying a tilt shift lense to play around. What focal length would you recommend as a decent all arounder?

[@KeithCooper]

for myself 24mm on 35mm [30mm on the GFX] is my 'walk round' lens I'd suggest having a look at the lens reviews on the Northlight site to get a feel for them? www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/tilt-and-shift-lens-articles-and-reviews/

[@steve-4045]

You might try renting one before you consider buying. I rented the Canon 24mm and later the 17mm. I agree with Keith that the 24mm is more generally practical. In the ten days I had the 17mm, I took some interesting shots, but I never got the hang of it for house interiors.

[@trevorsneath4665]

LOL I saw your comment on that tilt-shift lens video. It got pinned so he may have revised his information about the DOF.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks! i've come across to many people thinking these lenses did some form of magic ;-)

[@user-ks3bo7zb7w]

Why not get the Canon 24 TS-E for the Fuji GFX, and save $2-3k?

[@KeithCooper]

Depends on why you want a T/S lens and what you use it for... The TS-E24 works on the GFX with an adapter, but gives the unshifted [35mm]FOV of ~19mm The TS30mm gives ~24mm I've used the TS-E17mm and 24mm for ~15 years and the 24mm with shift is often a preference unless I really need the 17mm. So a TS30 would give me this coverage on a GFX, whilst the TS-E24 gives me wider, albeit not at the quality [when shifted] of the TS30 So, depends on budget and what you want the lens for.

[@AffinityPhoto]

Would love to save money on the new GF30 if they simply left the tilt oout of the formula. Ive used canon TS and many others. Canon specifically has terrible edge distortion and sharpness. The gf30 is insane and actually good for 30mm shifts for 650MP GFX 100s 3-shots

[@KeithCooper]

I couldn't see Fuji doing a half baked shift only lens ;-) The Canon lenses are not terrible either IMHO - well not for the uses they were designed for. As for multishot, it would help if it were implemented in a better, more usable way - Panasonic could do it several years ago with the S1R

[@cameraprepper7938]

To have full use of tilt and shift, you need to use a view Camera that also can move the backside.

[@KeithCooper]

Sure, but that is a very inaccessible approach [for many reasons] for the vast majority of photographers... It was a quite deliberate choice to exclude this in my book ;-) I'm minded to suggest it serves no use whatsoever to most photographers, and I assume that anyone doing that sort of stuff already knows full well how to do it?

[@cameraprepper7938]

@@KeithCooper In the mid 1980´s, the Swedish nature photographer Ingmar Holmåsen made a DYI with a Hasselblad magazine, (years) later Hasselblad made the Flexbody and the Arcbody. When I was a professional commercial photographer, I used 4x5" and 4x7" View Cameras to get the shots right. Now as a hobby photographer, I do not need neither tilt, nor shift.

[@pondcurtis9725]

Are you not aware of tilt-shift adapters?

[@KeithCooper]

Strangely enough - yes, and they are mentioned in the video :-) The video is about what such lenses can do [adapted or not] as well as pointing out some of the things peopke think they will do but won't...

[@user-jp9js9th8o]

i don't like the two GFX shift jumbos: way too big, heavy, slow and too expensive - nothing I nearly can do with Canon TS-E and Laowa Lenses. And: their concept is not completed - why does the 110 mm lets miss the socket??? and gives mo possibility to mont one... so sad - and just in the case one could argue with the better cover sharpness: particularly when you mount panoramic pictures you won't have to go to the extremes, just take one more photo within the -at all - long taking process. again: 4.500 bucks;-((

[@KeithCooper]

Answer as per the other videos you posted this same comment... The 30 shows a significant improvement in quality over the [albeit 2007] TS-E24 on my 5Ds - as to whether the weight and price are issues, well that depends on what you want to do with it. For what it does it's superb - I don't care about f/5.6 since I wouldn't really use it wider - if you want wider aperture for really thin tilted DOF and strong OOF blur, then you likely wouldn't want what the more expensive Fuji brings. At wider apertures I can use adapted lenses of all sorts for stuff where the image quality of the 30 is not needed. As to the 110 - early days testing, but once again it's the image quality which shines through. However the TS-E90 ii and TS-E135 are much closer to it and perform well with adapters. The bracket is helpful on the 30 - more so than I thought it would be. For the 110, I'm less sure I'd have a use for it. Yes, they are heavy - once again, if it's a problem, it's a problem. I think they are very much aimed at a professional market where improvements help the bottom line. At the price they are, they were never going to be popular with some...

[@cameraprepper7938]

Maybe the microphone should be on your left side 😉

[@KeithCooper]

Maybe - usually sounds OK when I edit the videos? Maybe when the channel passes 50k subs I'll be able to spend some more money on the recording kit, but at the moment there is no budget for new kit I'm afraid.

[@cameraprepper7938]

@@KeithCooper The volume is lower when you turn to your left, so if the microphone is on your left ide, then the problem will be minor

[@taktsing4969]

We should not buy camera and lens. We should borrow from somebody.

[@KeithCooper]

Simple question... Why?