Schneider Tilt/Shift for Architecture?

[andyptak]

Schneider just announced a 50mm tilt/shift in various mounts, one of them being Sony and I use a full frame a900. Seems an unusual focal length to me though, but I figure that Schneider must know what they're doing. I do a bit of architectural and so far have relied on Photoshop to straighten all of the lines out. Does anyone know the benefit of using a 50mm tilt/shift rather than the usual wide angle and will it do what Photoshop can't? Thanks.

[Dick Roadnight]

Schneider just announced a 50mm tilt/shift in various mounts, one of them being Sony and I use a full frame a900. Seems an unusual focal length to me though, but I figure that Schneider must know what they're doing. I do a bit of architectural and so far have relied on Photoshop to straighten all of the lines out. Does anyone know the benefit of using a 50mm tilt/shift rather than the usual wide angle and will it do what Photoshop can't? Thanks.

What Photoshop cannot do is to position the plane of sharpest focus to get the foreground in focus... so you can have a flower bed in the foreground in focus as well as the building. You can, of course use DOF merge in Photoshop to increase DOF, but it is nice to do it in one shot.

Do you often want the foreground in focus and have problems? With FF cameras and short lenses, DOF is not usually a problem.

[andyptak]

Thanks. but I still don't understand the rationale for a 50mm tilt/shift rather than a wide angle one. What do you and Schneider know that I don't?

[Dick Roadnight]

Thanks. but I still don't understand the rationale for a 50mm tilt/shift rather than a wide angle one. What do you and Schneider know that I don't?

I think that the problem is probably that quality wide angle lenses are not retro-focus (longer than their focal length), and so cannot be used on SLR cameras, as the mirror gets in the way... they could make DSLRs on which you could lock up the mirror for UWA?

The Schneider Apo-Digitar 47XL is a 100 degree lens, for MF mirror-free cameras (with shift and stitch).

[Kirk Gittings]

I think the rational is marketing. Both Canon and Nikon have decent new wide T/Ss. Canon's 45 and 90 are a little long in the tooth-fill in the blanks.

I think you will find the 50 a little narrow for most architecture. I think there is general agreement amongst most professional architectural photographers that a WA lens somewhere between 28-24mm (for a full frame DSLR or the equivilent for other formats-like a 90 on 4x5 for example) is the most often used lens. I use my 24 probably 80-85 percent of the time (as I used a 90 on 4x5)-then the 24 with a 1.4 teleconverter next, 45 next and 90 the least. There is more related to this on my blog if you dig for it.

[JeffKohn]

Thanks. but I still don't understand the rationale for a 50mm tilt/shift rather than a wide angle one. What do you and Schneider know that I don't?

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if these lenses are based on some recycled MF lens designs they already had. They probably didn't have any retro-focus 24mm lens designs laying around (they've got a 28mm design, but it kinda sucks).

The effects of tilting the camera up/down may be more exaggerated at 24mm, but perspective control is still useful at 45mm. In fact I'd say it's useful all the way to 100mm, maybe longer. I wish all my lenses were tilt/shift (I especially wish I had one in the 30mm range to fill the gap between the 24 and 45). And of course the longer the focal length, the more issue you're likely to have with DOF so the tilt capability is always nice.

The 24mm is undoubtedly useful for architecture and interiors. But for most other stuff I'm more likely to prefer a normal to slightly wide view. I'd say I definitely use my 45mm more often than my 24mm for landscapes. And the 45-50mm range is great for flat stitches with a slightly-wide FOV.

As good as the Nikon 45mm and 85mm PC-E designs are, I'll be very interested in reviews of these new Schneider lenses. Independent control of tilt/shift axis would be really nice, although the fact that they only shift in one direction is kind of a bummer for stitching.

[Dick Roadnight]

I think there is general agreement amongst most professional architectural photographers that a WA lens somewhere between 28-24mm (for a full frame DSLR or the equivilent for other formats-like a 90 on 4x5 for example) is the most often used lens.

...so focal length is about half the format diagonal,
so the Schneider 47XL on 645 is a bit long...
(...but on 5 * 4 cm half the diagonal is nearer 33)
and it becomes a super-wide 100 degrees with shift-and-stitch.

[andyptak]

So, basically a 50mm tilt shift is a waste of time and money?

That's what I thought, but felt I had to be missing something.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

So, basically a 50mm tilt shift is a waste of time and money?

That's what I thought, but felt I had to be missing something.

Indeed, you are missing what benefits tilt and shift can have for certain types of photography. Architecture is not the only use for Tilt and Shift lenses, neither is using it for stitching its only purpose. I use not only a 24mm tilt and shift lens, but also 45 and 90mm ones. They all serve specific uses in different shooting scenarios.

Is T/S needed for everything? No.
Are there situations where T/S can make images possible that cannot easily be done otherwise? Yes.

Cheers,
Bart

[JohnTodd]

So, basically a 50mm tilt shift is a waste of time and money?

That's what I thought, but felt I had to be missing something.

I've made FF-DSLR images with both 35mm and 65mm tilt-shifts that I wasn't disappointed by, but it's horses-for-courses.