Opinion wanted on sharpness

[sharperstill]

Hi,
I bought a Mamiya 645 50mm f4 shift lens and bunged it on my Canon 5D3 via a Fotodiox adapter.
Attached are 100% crops as exported from LR with the sharpness turned off.
Admittedly they look sharper than they did via the camera's rear screen but what do you think of the quality?

Also, it's my first time using a lens like this where the aperture doesn't talk to the camera.
Something weird happens when using Liveview. The exposure was around 125 @ f16 but I had to slow shutter speed down to about 1/4s to get Liveview bright enough to see/focus.
I guess this is because the lens is actually at f16. I found focussing somewhat difficult, with the image seeming to 'breathe' a lot with changes in focus. I'm assuming the adaptor is mounted correctly. It's difficult to mount as tolerances seem tight and the lens want to spin around its shift mechanism.
Any feedback from experienced users of this combo?

Jon

[stevebri]

Hi Jon,

I had a 50mm shift and loved it. Best value lens out there.

I and many others found it best to follow these steps to get a workflow going with it.
1: focus at f4 before shifting then shift, then stop down to your desired aperture.
2: f11 was about as far as you want to go before the quality falls off a bit.
3: I never used live view so cannot comment but focusing normally with the lens wide open helps a lot.

S

[sharperstill]

Thanks for the reply Steve,
So 8 or 11 are the sweet spots.
I'll test again tomorrow.
Jon

[allegretto]

sharp compared to …???

the first one looks reasonably sharp

In the second one I can't figure out where you focused. Is it possible you are hyper-focused? That is, beyond the items in view?

[sharperstill]

Sharp compared to a native non-adapted lens was my thinking.
The second image was focused on the TV aerial.

[allegretto]

OK then #2 not so sharp

[luxborealis]

OK then #2 not so sharp

Ditto