[...] but as the TS-E lenses are a tilt on the lens axis design it might work faster to try focusing in the middle of the frame and then tilting to find the right angle to bring both the near and far points into focus.
Hi Ellis,
That depends on the particular mechanical lens design.
When I tilt forward with an TS-E 24mm f/3.5 II, I often need to adjust my initial center-focus towards a shorter focusing distance. So maybe it is easier to focus
slightly more to the foreground, then tilt, because it will stay closer to what I already had and I can visually judge how much tilt is required for the distance in the upper part of the image. My TS-E 90mm f/2.8 uses a significantly different pivot point, and comes slightly closer to 1/3rd of the distance as a better starting point.
Initial focusing in the distance with those lenses is clearly a less efficient approach. The lesson for Glenn is to not listen to Guru's too much, but do the test yourself.
BTW, it is easy to find out if front/middle/back-ground focusing is the better
starting-point for any given Tilt lens.
Just spend some time iterating between foreground and background tilt & focus adjustments until 'the whole enchilada' is in focus. Now reset the tilt to zero, and see where the focal plane is located in the distance. Voila!
Of course that only keeps the ground plane in focus, which is not wanted if there are high structures in the background. One should get focus at halfway up the distant heights if DOF needs to be optimized, so tilt needs to be reduced a bit (and the initial focus point gets a bit closer to the middle distance setting again). So, focusing a bit shy of the middle range, seems more efficient with these lenses.
Cheers,
Bart