any good tilt-shift lenses for A900?

i'm strongly considering moving to the orange side from my nikon D300 and film bodies (F100). one thing that i do like about nikon is that they have some really nice specialty tilt-shift (perspective control) lenses in their refreshed lens lineup.

i'm curious if there are any available for sony. i'd guess only old KM models. but do they have good coatings for flare resistance? are they fairly sharp? fast f/2.8 apertures? and pricing/availability? filter thread sizes?

i rent the nikon PC'swhen i need them. the 45mm f/2.8 is good for product/food shoots and city/street, while i really like the versatility of the 85mm f/2.8 PC for tidepooling and portraits and city/urban. obviously, the wider 24mm is great for architecture, but i haven't ever rented it for such.

many thanks if any can give me further insight. would help if anybody had first-hand experience and would care to share and info/images.

cheers.

-david

As far as I'm aware KM only produced lenses which shifted and the only options for true T/S lenses are 3rd party and are either very very expensive or poor performers. As far as I'm concerned the lack of Sony / Zeiss T/S lenes is a shortfall in the Sony line up, which I doubt will be rectified soon if ever. I suggest you stay with Nikon or move to Canon if you feel you need T/S lenses.

None from Minolta or Sony. There are some 3rd-party lenses available, though. Take a look at http://www.hartblei.de/ for example.

There´s a third party solution: Zeiss PC Distagon (Contax/Yashica mount) converted to Sony with a Leitax bayonet (www.leitax.com). The PC Distagon is probably one of the best shift lenses for 35mm photography ever made and the Leitax guarantees infinity focus and full shift.

Two caveats: it´s shift only and stop-down manual operation.

Alternatively, there are the Zork and Mirex T/S adaptors with medium format lenses. The ones that work with the A900 are the Hasselblad version of the Zork and maybe the two versions of the Mirex, although with the Mirex there´s a question mark as to whether it clears the A900´s prism housing when shifted up...

Hope this helps!

auksnapper said:

As far as I'm aware KM only produced lenses which shifted and the only options for true T/S lenses are 3rd party and are either very very expensive or poor performers. As far as I'm concerned the lack of Sony / Zeiss T/S lenes is a shortfall in the Sony line up, which I doubt will be rectified soon if ever. I suggest you stay with Nikon or move to Canon if you feel you need T/S lenses.

Click to expand...

Minolta never made any tilt/shift lenses for the AF system, and Sony does neither.

Schneider Kreuznach has its 2.8/28mm (optical design developped in cooperation with Leica to meet the Leica standards); it's only shift, no tilting!
http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/foto_e/an_su_pc/an_su_pc.htm
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t10562.html

Hartblei has a Zeiss 4/40mm, a Zeiss 2.8/80, and a Zeiss 4/120 Macro, all of them tilt/shift; all of them with exceptionally high optical performance (eg the 4/40 with 200 LP/mm wide open):
http://www.hartblei.de/en/index.htm

Arax delivers two different 2.8/35mm designs and a 2.8/80mm:
http://araxfoto.com/specials/

And - last but not least - there are different adaptors for Medium Format lenses (now available for quite a bargain), e. g. from Jörg Zörkendorffer:
http://www.zoerk.de/nv04-psa.html
http://www.zoerk.com/Zoerk%20info/product_guide_current.pdf

Stephan

Hi David

Just recently I wrote a little review on ARAXfoto 35/2.8 lens with Minolta AF mount. Here is the link to review: http://fivestep.livejournal.com/254421.html

And some pictures taken with it:





It can not freely rotate on a900 due to TS platform not clearing pentaprism.



Which is not a problem on KM 7D



fivestep.com

Since Tilt shift lenses are a specialty item with a limited market and given Sony's much smaller market share than Nikon I doubt you will see any such lenses soon. If you want to go Sony keep your Nikon for the tilt shift lens.
--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/

David:

The Mirex adapter can use all the excellent Mamiya M645 lenses including a 35mm wide angle, a fast f/1.9 80mm and a couple of floating element macros.



The adapter works fine on the A900 and the lenses are no slouches on the 35mm format, with plenty of coverage for movements.
With additional adapters, most other medium format lenses can also be used.

The M42 camera side can be adapted to most DSLRS in case you switch platforms in the future.

Mini Review here;

http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/topic51123_post568227.html#568227

Image Gallery here;

http://www.pbase.com/pganzel/mirex_tilt_shift_adapter_for_m645_m42

Pete

--
http://www.pbase.com/pganzel