tilt/shift or shift only for m4/3rds to m4/3rds

rschill

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I have searched high and low particularly in Kipon adapters and while I can find virtually any maker lense converter to mount onto a m4/3rds camera, I can't find one that will allow the use of m4/3rd lenses with a m4/3rd camera. Does anyone know of an adapter for native 4/3 to 4/3 camera? And why does it appear they "skipped" native-to-native 4/3rds. Are there technical reasons?
 
I have searched high and low particularly in Kipon adapters and while I can find virtually any maker lense converter to mount onto a m4/3rds camera, I can't find one that will allow the use of m4/3rd lenses with a m4/3rd camera. Does anyone know of an adapter for native 4/3 to 4/3 camera? And why does it appear they "skipped" native-to-native 4/3rds. Are there technical reasons?
Adding any adapter between a m4/3 camera and a m4/3 lens, especially a complicated adapter like that, would make the optical system unable to focus any more distant than about a foot away with any given lens. Not very useful.

Also, m43 lenses wouldn't have a large enough image circle to work with shift anyway.
--
http://www.photoklarno.com
 
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I have searched high and low particularly in Kipon adapters and while I can find virtually any maker lense converter to mount onto a m4/3rds camera, I can't find one that will allow the use of m4/3rd lenses with a m4/3rd camera. Does anyone know of an adapter for native 4/3 to 4/3 camera? And why does it appear they "skipped" native-to-native 4/3rds. Are there technical reasons?
For an ordinary 4/3 or M43 lens, the image circle has to be at least 22mm (the diagonal of the sensor).

For a shift lens with a shift of say, 10mm, the image circle has to be 32mm. There are no 4/3 or M43 lenses with an image circle that big ... the manufacturers are busy making those lenses as small and light as possible.

But, on the other hand, legacy lenses like Canon FD and old Nikon and Pentax lenses have an image circle of at least 40mm. And can be had for a song. The Canon FD 50mm F1.4 is a pretty sharp lens, can easily be put into manual aperture mode, you can probably get one for $50.

If you want wider angle, you could think of the FD28mm F2.8 also available for cheap, or the slightly sharper and more expensive FD 28mm F2.
 
Thank you both for explaining the math re: 4/3rds and image circle. So am I correct that whatever lens I choose the "crop factor" rule of 2x the focal length still applies? What would be a good legacy lens that could give me a 24mm wide angle? If the rule applies, that would mean a 12mm? Sounds like that would be harder to find a full frame lens and perhaps costly.

I want it primarily for interior architectural and furniture photography and just to get my feet wet in the shift arena. Eventually, if I get serious, I could bite the bullet and get a used Canon T/S 17 or 24 and a cheap EOS body, even though my regular photography is 4/3rds based for small and light.

Thanks again.
 
Ditto about the 50/1.4 being sharp, I love mine. There's a fast 24mm FD too but I haven't had any luck tracking one down or finding any reviews of the sharpness of it, got any info?
 
Depending on what you need to do, both the EM1 and EM5.2 has a built in Key Stone shift function in software that works fairly well for correcting perspective directly at the photo opportunity.
 
That is very good to know, as I will shortly be upgrading bodies from EM-10 to one of those, or wait until the successor to the EM-1.

Thanks.
 
That is very good to know, as I will shortly be upgrading bodies from EM-10 to one of those, or wait until the successor to the EM-1.

Thanks.
For interior and architecture you could get the EM5m2 and use the HR mode and simply manipulate the image in post. The extra resolution should help any distortion correction you choose to make.
 
Thank you both for explaining the math re: 4/3rds and image circle. So am I correct that whatever lens I choose the "crop factor" rule of 2x the focal length still applies? What would be a good legacy lens that could give me a 24mm wide angle? If the rule applies, that would mean a 12mm? Sounds like that would be harder to find a full frame lens and perhaps costly.

I want it primarily for interior architectural and furniture photography and just to get my feet wet in the shift arena. Eventually, if I get serious, I could bite the bullet and get a used Canon T/S 17 or 24 and a cheap EOS body, even though my regular photography is 4/3rds based for small and light.

Thanks again.
Bite the bullet straight away and get a Canon EF TS with the new Kipon adapter As AF does not feature on TS even the Metabones adapter would be suitable but you would lose at the 2x sensor crop end. And it might not be wide enough. But TS adapters do sell in longer focal lengths (someone needs them).

You could use a focal reducer EF to M4/3 adapter making the sensor crop factor 1.4x (to FF equivalent) but you would be limited to wide open. There are manual aperture EF to M4/3 adapters but I am not sure if they exist in focal reduction equivalents.

Otherwise you might be struggling to get a distortion free 12mm focal length lens in any lens format. There are the Voigtlnder 12 and 15mm lenses but I am also not sure if TS adapters are available Leica M to M4/3.

If you find one then I am also already interested.

You can also get the effect of shift at least by holding the camera completely horizontal on both planes and cropping as necessary (if possible - which often it is not).

--
Tom Caldwell
 
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Ditto about the 50/1.4 being sharp, I love mine. There's a fast 24mm FD too but I haven't had any luck tracking one down or finding any reviews of the sharpness of it, got any info?
Yes the FD 24/2.8 is a great lens, rare, and priced accordingly - I am hanging on to mine.

If you find two at $50, you should get one and I will have the other ... ;)
 
Ditto about the 50/1.4 being sharp, I love mine. There's a fast 24mm FD too but I haven't had any luck tracking one down or finding any reviews of the sharpness of it, got any info?
Yes the FD 24/2.8 is a great lens, rare, and priced accordingly - I am hanging on to mine.

If you find two at $50, you should get one and I will have the other ... ;)
 
I want it primarily for interior architectural and furniture photography and just to get my feet wet in the shift arena.
If you want wide angle, then the widest lenses that make sense to mount on those adapters are the 17mm (I was looking at MF Nikon). Anything wider is going to be too expensive.

Check that the adapter works with your camera though – with some the sliding part bumps into the protrusion above the mount or the grip, and makes shift impossible.

Vlad
 
I recently bought a Kipon Canon FD to M4/3 adapter with 15mm shift. Intend to use it mainly with Nikon mount Samyang 14 and/or 10mm by adding Nikon F to Canon FD adapter. The 14mm is FF so gives lots of room for shift. The 10mm less being APS-C. Distortion will be taken care of by PTLens. I believe Kipon also make Nikon to M4/3 models. I chose the FD model so I could use my M42 lenses as well with an additional adapter. Its other use is stitching. For that I needed a tripod mount on the lens side. Had one made at a local metal workshop. Total cost 232€. The adapter rotates with indents at 30*. The tripod mount does the same which should allow for multirow stitching. Haven't used it yet other than a few shots on a GM1. 10-12mm shift seems to work with Takumar 50mm. The thing I don't understand about the adapter is that the opening is an almost square rectangle with rounded corners. Shouldn't it be circular?
 
I've been using a Cambo Actus with enlarger lenses for Tilt/shift. The back standard does rise/fall & shift and the front standard swings and tilts. The Actus is versatile--Cambo makes lens mounts for a lot of 35mm and medium format systems. The camera is uber light.
 
I've been using a Cambo Actus with enlarger lenses for Tilt/shift. The back standard does rise/fall & shift and the front standard swings and tilts. The Actus is versatile--Cambo makes lens mounts for a lot of 35mm and medium format systems. The camera is uber light.
A very capable rig and seems high quality - but at $2000 US, I'm not planning to get one anytime soon. The shift adapter at $100 seems a pretty good bargain in comparison.
 
What would be a good legacy lens that could give me a 24mm wide angle?

I want it primarily for interior architectural and furniture photography and just to get my feet wet in the shift arena
Hello!

My suggestion is a Fotodiox EOS shift adapter with a Canon EF-S 10-18. Last I checked $100 + $250. The latter is a terrific bargain.

This yields an effective 20mm shift lens. You need to set the f-stop on the lens (i.e. f6.3) w/ an EOS camera then while holding in the preview button remove the lens. It will stay at f6.3 for M4/3 shooting. Manual focus is required but aperture priority mode can be used.
 
I've been using a Cambo Actus with enlarger lenses for Tilt/shift. The back standard does rise/fall & shift and the front standard swings and tilts. The Actus is versatile--Cambo makes lens mounts for a lot of 35mm and medium format systems. The camera is uber light.
A very capable rig and seems high quality - but at $2000 US, I'm not planning to get one anytime soon. The shift adapter at $100 seems a pretty good bargain in comparison.
 
Thank you both for explaining the math re: 4/3rds and image circle. So am I correct that whatever lens I choose the "crop factor" rule of 2x the focal length still applies? What would be a good legacy lens that could give me a 24mm wide angle? If the rule applies, that would mean a 12mm? Sounds like that would be harder to find a full frame lens and perhaps costly.

I want it primarily for interior architectural and furniture photography and just to get my feet wet in the shift arena. Eventually, if I get serious, I could bite the bullet and get a used Canon T/S 17 or 24 and a cheap EOS body, even though my regular photography is 4/3rds based for small and light.

Thanks again.
The Samyang 14mm 2.8 in Nikon mount with a Nikon tilt/shift adapter would be a great choice. The Samyang 10mm 2.8 in Nikon mount would also work, but that is an APS-C lens and may have a smaller range of movement/shift due to the smaller image circle. Total cost with either lens + adapter should be somewhere around $500-700-ish.

If you only need shift, the adapter will be a bit cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Pro-...=1432737989&sr=8-4&keywords=nikon+shift+micro

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kipon-Shift...092?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51c5c19cb4

tilt shift: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kipon-Tilt-...165?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c2f1095d

Samyang 14mm 2.8: http://www.amazon.com/Rokinon-Super...738144&sr=8-2&keywords=samyang+14mm+2.8+nikon

Samyang 10mm 2.8: http://www.amazon.com/Rokinon-Digit...738183&sr=8-2&keywords=samyang+10mm+2.8+nikon

It will be very difficult to find older manual focus lenses that are wide enough, and modern AF lenses will typically crappy focus rings and may not give you direct aperture control (Canon EF for instance), so these modern manual focus Samyang lenses make a lot of sense. Plus they are relatively cheap and optically very good.
 
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