4) if you haven't tried to to do two-element horizontal panos with a
simple double-ended shift, I think you'd be very surprised at how
well and easily it works - no extra equipment needed and, at most,
about two minutes of tweaking in Photoshop. Of course, for a panorama
consisting of more than two or three discrete frames, lens shifting
is not a viable option, and the techniques you alluded to are
inevitable.
I've been using my used bought large format equipment for more than 8 years and the possibility of movements in 6 axes (optical bench from Plaubel - 5 x 7 inch) is unsurpassed by any other optical lightweight and quality wise equivalent camera.
The only really annoying facit is the weight + film cost + scanning - in other words the workflow is extremely labor intensively. This is o.k. for situation where you can backwards park and open you car's boot to take the picture - otherwise you'll end up using a kind of wheelbarrow to move your equipment from place to place always an eye on the belongings and the light at the same time - do I reach the next point before the scene is gone?
Having a TS-E 17 available for the same purpose and at least one axis free rotatable in 2 1/2 axis (let me call it this way because it is not 3 axis be definition) + the possibility to stitch frames together for more resolution is simply so much tempting that even a good image quality would be a game changer.
Two frames can end up in some 41 MPixel with no disadvantage of noise. or horizontally some 35 Mpixel with a horizontal angle of view of 121° or a diagonal anle of view of 125° (rivaling the famous unreached Schneider-Kreuznach Super Angulon XL f/5.6 38 mm)
My initial prints in 24 x 36 inch proof that 21 Mpixel from the 5D II have a similar detail and appearance comparing to a scanned 5x7 inch large format slides while being much less labor intense. Surely bigger prints would suffer from too few detial but thenagin - what's wrong with a large format image from time to time if it's worth the effort - the lenses and the bellow do not age propperly stored ;-)
Having movements in Tilt and Swing orientation + free rotation of the effects is the key advantage of this lens construction - I do not need to see the final image results to imagine the possibilities but the assumption is to get a decent optical performance too.
Stitching two frames is simply a matter of seconds and pasting them together in PS is a matter of seconds too since they have been one image before. Playing around with a fully movable optical bench gives completely new ideas how to photograph - hving done that once degrades all other optical fixed systems.
Having said that some sujets do not need movements like fashion or speed oriented photos like bird in the fly or sports but all other sujets can benefit from further arrangement possibilities.
Here's once again my illustration of the stitching possibilities (posted it already)
even full shift + fully tilt is possible at the same time (at least with respect to the image circle)
--
isn’t it funny, a ship that leaks from the top
ISO 9000 definition of quality: 'Degree to which a set of inherent characteristic fulfills requirements'
I am the classic “Windows by Day, Mac by Night user'
