Tilting Nikon 20mm Lens on u4/3

[HSakols]

An intriguing aspect of compact mirrorless systems are their ability to be easily used with all sorts of adapters.  Here are some examples using a $40.00 dollar tilt adapter from flea bay, a Nikon 20mm AFD lens, all mounted on an Olympus EPL5.  Most of these were hand held.  The adapter is great, but is limited by only tilting in one direction.  I've even included documentation of Harry Potter's grave site.

[erichK]

Interesting work. What was the brand of flebay adapter?

Do wish that I'd kept my 17mm f4  Tokina lens when I sold the little bit of Nikon film stuff that I used for 3 or 4 years. Would love to try it with such an adapter and my EM-1. There are also apparently shift adapters made by Fotodiox and Kipon. Based on brand and price ($120 to $200) I'd expect these to be a littly better quality.

The shallow flange of the mFT system should makes the design of a true shift as well as tilt adapter fairly easy, but while there are rumours of somesuch from a German company called Mirex, I've yet to have confirmation that anything like this is actually available.

erichK

[Dave Millier]

I have a Kipon shift adaptor for m4/3.  With a second adaptor it works on NEX as well.

I have two tilt adaptors: one for NEX and one for fuji X.  Both have Canon EF plates on the front as is pretty easier to adapt most SLR mounts to EF with a second adaptor.  These two tilt adaptors don't have names but they look like this:  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AI-NEX-Tilt-lens-adapter-for-Nikon-Ai-Mount-Lens-to-Sony-NEX-Mount-camera-/171173759412?pt=US_Lens_Adapters_Mounts_Tubes&hash=item27dac049b4

They are very cheap and work absolutely fine except for the numerical scale is a glued-on strip that falls off . I have more than 20 odd ebay adaptors of various kinds  The Kipon ones are typically 3-4 times the price of the no name ones but  I don't really see any difference in quality between them. They're all about as well made as generic japanese lenses from the 1970s (Vivitar et al).  Mirex do make a nice range of tilt-shift adaptors but the are quite expensive. Kipon have one that seems remarkably similar that is a little cheaper: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kipon-Nikon-F-mount-Lens-to-Micro-4-3-Tilt-Shift-Adapter-GF3-GF5-E-PL5-P3-GX1-/230903842136?pt=UK_Photography_CameraLenses_Lens_caps_hoods_adaptors_ET&hash=item35c2f10558

It's worth noting that these don't have the Canon TS lens ability of shifting/tilting in the same axis.  One solution to that might be to combine a cheap tilt adaptor with a plain shift lens. By rotating the adaptor you ought to be able to align the shift with the tilt.

Interesting work. What was the brand of flebay adapter?

Do wish that I'd kept my 17mm f4  Tokina lens when I sold the little bit of Nikon film stuff that I used for 3 or 4 years. Would love to try it with such an adapter and my EM-1. There are also apparently shift adapters made by Fotodiox and Kipon. Based on brand and price ($120 to $200) I'd expect these to be a littly better quality.

The shallow flange of the mFT system should makes the design of a true shift as well as tilt adapter fairly easy, but while there are rumours of somesuch from a German company called Mirex, I've yet to have confirmation that anything like this is actually available.

erichK

[HSakols]

This is what I bought.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330906666467?_trksid=m570.p2050601.l4768&_trkparms=ga1m%3DT0%26ga2m%3DT0%26ga3m%3DT0%26ga4m%3DT5
It turned out better than I thought.  One of these days I will pick up a Nikon 45 PE lens, but this little gadget is great for a lightweight kit. 

[erichK]

Dave,
Thank you for taking the trouble provide links and your personal experiences in such a detailed reply.   You comment on the Kipon adapted is especially interesting. I certainly don't want to waste money, but am actually inclined to look seriously at what Mirex has to offer, if it is and actual tilt-shift adapter.
Their quality seems to be much better, and possibly worth the extra money IF I can find a decent ultrawide lens to mount on one. 

erich

[Michael N. Meyer]

I have the Kipon T/S Mirex clone that Dave links to above. It's actually fairly well made and given the intricacy of the design probably worth the price. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the fact that it is essentially a rip off of the Mirex, but the Mirex wasn't available for the smaller CSC system I wanted to use it on.

The downside to this adapter, and I've mentioned this elsewhere on this forum, is that applying tilt also effectively applies some fall (or left/right shift if you're swinging the lens right or left). A degree or two of tilt as you'd use it for landscapes doesn't make a big difference, but for still life where the tilts can be 5 to 10 degrees the unwanted fall is annoying. There's a review on my blog.