What is a Tilt-Shift Lens?
If you remove the back cover of your SLR lenses, you'll realize they all transmit the light to the sensor through a circle-shaped piece of glass. The front element has indeed the same shape, yielding the barrel form of the lens. Full format sensors, like Nikon FX, barely fit into this circle for maximizing glass usage and coping with the mismatch between the lens (circular) and sensor (rectangular) shapes. With the smaller APS-C sensor, like Nikon DX, this fit is more generous. This is why DX sensors perform so well with FX lenses - the corner areas, where image quality degrades due to vignetting and lower sharpness, are excluded from the final image. The unique feature of tilt-shift lenses is their larger image circle, allowing for changing the position of the sensor plane (shift) and the orientation of the focus plane (tilt) within this circle.
Top Features when Doing Landscape Photography
But nothing is perfect...
Final word
Be aware of issues resulting in limited use of modern PC-E lenses with some Nikon cameras, mainly due to obstructive flashes in some bodies (see this article by Ken Rockwell).
Nikon PC-E lenses only combine either shift (left-right) with tilt (up-down) or raise (up-down shift) with swing (left-right tilt). This satisfies my needs, but perhaps not yours! If so, this limitation can be fixed by Nikon Service (at a cost). Otherwise, consider Samyang and Canon alternatives.
For a more comprehensive theoretical introduction on the most complex tilt feature, I recommend this excellent article at Cambridge in Colour.
Good luck and enjoy!
January
(2)
February (2)
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
(1)
November (1)
December
|
January
(1)
February (1)
March
April
May
June
(1)
July (1)
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
(1)
April (1)
May
June
July
August
(1)
September (1)
October
November
December
|
(1)
January (1)
February
(1)
March (1)
April
May
June
July
August
September
(1)
October (1)
(2)
November (2)
(1)
December (1)
|
(1)
January (1)
February
(1)
March (1)
(1)
April (1)
May
(2)
June (2)
July
(3)
August (3)
(1)
September (1)
October
November
(3)
December (3)
|
(1)
January (1)
February
March
(1)
April (1)
May
(2)
June (2)
July
(1)
August (1)
(1)
September (1)
October
November
(6)
December (6)
|
(2)
January (2)
February
March
April
May
(1)
June (1)
(1)
July (1)
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|