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Old 28th August 2020, 05:04 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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Default Mamiya 645 50mm shift lens

has anybody used a Mamiya 645 50mm shift lens or any type of shift lens , and if so how does it work ,and is it worth buying one .
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Old 28th August 2020, 07:32 PM
Collas Collas is online now
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I have a Schneider 28mm PC-SuperAngulon in a Contax fitting. It gives shift-only, which is what the Mamiya lens does. The lens can be rotated so that the shift movement isn't just up or down or from side to side. There's a flexible adjustment knob that controls the amount of displacement.
The main point to remember is that TTL metering MUST be done before the lens is moved as the light path is interrupted by the movement and a false reading will be taken leading to an incorrect exposure, or use a hand-held meter to take a reading (no correction is required). And don't forget to stop the lens down to the correct aperture as there is a stop down lever to help with critical focus.
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Old 28th August 2020, 07:34 PM
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skellum skellum is offline
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is it worth buying one

If you shoot a lot of architecture, and worry about how you render perspective, probably yes.
Otherwise they're a very niche item which won't come out your bag more than once a year. Shift lenses can produce a bigger image circle than the film actually needs. The body of the lens then twists, or shifts, to let you move the whole image a bit to the side without tilting the camera. It's the same trick LF cameras use but on more limited scale.
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Old 28th August 2020, 07:59 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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so is it like moving the camera up and down with your centre column of your tripod ,while keeping the camera perpendicular to the subject .
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Old 28th August 2020, 09:17 PM
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Martin Aislabie Martin Aislabie is online now
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Do converging verticals or horizontals bug the heck out of you ?

If yes - then buy it - if not then you can probably get an equal quality/condition lens without the shift element for less money.

I shoot a lot of LF and use shifts almost all the time, so I would spend the money.

If you have never yearned for the facility, then unless it is an absolute bargain, you might do better elsewhere.

Martin
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Old 28th August 2020, 09:41 PM
John King John King is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by big paul View Post
so is it like moving the camera up and down with your centre column of your tripod ,while keeping the camera perpendicular to the subject .
Yes more or less except, only a few mm of movement on the lens will probably equate to several feet of movement of the camera.
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Old 28th August 2020, 10:07 PM
Stocky Stocky is offline
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I have a Nikon 28mm PC ("Perspective Control") lens which is often not wide enough for architecture. However, it can be good for photos of mountains. If you tilt the camera upwards, you get the converging vertical shrinking of the top of the mountain, but if you raise the lens, the mountain looks bigger. Same effect looking down from a cliff at a canyon, you lower the lens making the abyss look deeper.

In the mountain example, a few mm of lens movement could equate to a kilometer of "tripod height."
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Old 29th August 2020, 09:28 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by big paul View Post
so is it like moving the camera up and down with your centre column of your tripod ,while keeping the camera perpendicular to the subject .

That's rather an understatement, technically it's rise and fall or shift in an up/down direction. A small movement of the lens relative to the film frame with a 645 camera and relatively wide shift lens is equivalent to quite a large difference in tripod height.

I've had a 45mm lens for my Mamiya 645 cameras for many years, if I've needed to correct verticals my Durst enlarger allows swing and shift, the only downside is the 645 frame may need to be rotated 90º in the negative carrier with vertical shots. It's cheaper than buying a shift lens though and the 45mm is a lovely lens.

Ian
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Old 29th August 2020, 12:26 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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Thanks all you have given me food for thought ,i use my large format for mostly taking portraits in doors so I don't usually use all the movement, if any. there are some buildings and parts of buildings I want to photograph locally on my 120 camera ,and i was wondering if it would come in handy .. it would have been better with tilt as well as shift ,but there don't seem to be any .

thanks for all your help ,i will have to have a read up and have a good think about it ..


www.essexcockney.com
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Old 30th August 2020, 05:15 PM
JOReynolds JOReynolds is offline
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I correct converging verticals on the enlarger baseboard.
I take a lot of pictures of rotting wooden doors on mediaeval buildings and I often have to point the camera up. I don't have a shift camera. The most corrective tilt I've ever used on a masking frame is three 120 films, stacked and in their boxes, for a 16"x12" print. Exposing 6x6 Delta 100 negatives with a Rodagon, I detected no fall-off of sharpness, so swing/tilt on the enlarger lens station was not necessary.
A trick I found really exciting was fitting an old 50mm Hasselblad Distagon onto a Canon with a cheap and simple tilt adapter from (I think) Arax. I removed the end-stop from the tilt mechanism, so I could get everything from 0.25m to the horizon in focus at f/11. But I had to modify a tripod to get low enough to the ground.
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