Tilt-shift Photography (and the HCam Master TS adapter)

I’ve been a big fan of tilt-shift lenses for a while.

Indeed, what originally got me into photography was my fascination with tilted “miniaturescapes,” found in works by those like Olivo Barbieri.  In my formative months, I was constantly looking for tilt/shift (hereinafter referred to as TS) lenses and shooting copycat miniaturescapes whenever I got the chance.

“Opening Day” (2009)

I admit, even today, I sometimes cannot fight the urge to shoot one of these, but more and more, I’m using the shift function of TS lenses to control perspective in photographs comprising architectural elements.

One of the more interesting products on the market today are tilt and/or shift “adapters.”  These are lens adapters comprising a tilt and/or shift mechanism that comes between a lens and a body.  Because you are adding extra flange distance, the lens needs to be one designed for a camera system with a longer flange focal distance than the camera body you are attaching the lens to.  This usually involves using a lens designed for a larger format than the body.  E.g., attaching a medium format lens to a full frame (or APS-C) DSLR via a tilt/shift adapter; this effectively gives you a “tilt/shift lens”.

These things are great not only because it is often a cheaper alternative to buying a tilt/shift lens, but also because it allows tilt/shift photography on systems that currently do not have tilt/shift solutions.

In this sense, and many others, the Sony A7 series cameras are fantastic; they have an extremely short flange focal distance (18 mm), which lets you adapt pretty much any camera lens that is out there.  It also allows, for the first time ever, tilt/shift adapters designed to take full frame (i.e., 35mm a.k.a. 135 format) lenses and adapt them onto a full frame camera.

The German manufacturer Mirex designed precisely such an adapter, a design that was quickly copied by the Chinese manufacturer Kipon.

The (big) difference is that so far, Kipon hasn’t been able to create a Canon EF to Sony (F)E mount tilt/shift adapter.  This is crucial because the Canon EF mount having the shortest flange focal distance in the 135 format, there are many adapters designed to adapt other 135 format lenses to the EF mount.  This means that if you have an EF->FE TS adapter, you will then be able to attach all sorts of lenses as long as you have an EF mount adapter for them.  Without an EF->FE solution, you are pretty much required to purchase a separate TS adapter for each one of your different format lenses (e.g., one for Nikon F to Sony FE, one for Pentax K to Sony FE, one for Contax/Yashica to Sony FE, etc.).

Furthermore, the Canon EF mount has several extremely nice TS lenses (TS-E 17/4L and TS-E 24/3.5LII come to mind) which would benefit from these adapters as well.

Let me explain.

As you probably know, there are several uses for tilt/shift lenses; besides the “miniaturescape” look and the perspective control I mentioned above, many people use the shift function to take multiple images that will be later stitched to a panorama image.  Because when you take shots using shift, you are essentially taking images of different parts of a single image circle, stitching becomes extremely easy with little to no distortion along the seams.

The problem here is that, conventionally, you could only use the shift function for one or the other purpose.  If you use it for controlling the perspective by vertically shifting the lens up or down, you can’t shift the lens to the left & right to create a panorama, and vice versa.

Well, if you pair a TS lens with a Mirex TS adapter, you can 🙂

Here is an image I took the other day during a long exposure workshop I held with my partner Thibault Roland.

The setup I used was:

Body: Sony A7R

Lens: Hartblei/Carl Zeiss Super Rotator 80mm F2.8 (Canon FE mount)

Adapter: HCam Master TS adapter (Canon EF -> Sony FE mount)

The vertical rise to maintain perspective on the lighthouse was realized by the Hartblei TS lens (I believe around 5 – 6 mm up); then I used the Mirex to achieve horizontal shift and took two images, which were merged to form this panorama.

“Down from the Rafters” (2015)

Of course, the shift can be set to the same direction to achieve an increased shift range for (a) a bigger panorama, or (b) further perspective correction.  The degree to which you can increase the shift range depends on the size of the image circle of the lens, as well as some mechanical properties of the lens and the adapter; i.e., there are cases in which you will start to see vignetting not because you are reaching the edge of the image circle, but because the image is being obstructed mechanically by the adapter as you shift more and more.  With that is mind, for example, with the fabulous Canon TS-E 17/4L, which is configured to do up to 12 mm of shift, you can do up to an additional 8 mm of shift in the vertical direction before vignetting starts, for a combined 20 mm of shift!  (on the other hand, the horizontal movement is actually inhibited by the adapter, so vignetting starts before the 12 mm marker on the lens).  Tilting sees fewer restrictions, and I could tilt both mechanisms to the max for a total of 16˚ tilt without any vignetting.

6˚ tilt on the TS-E 17 and 10˚ tilt on the HCam Master TS adapter to achieve a 16˚ total tilt

While adding the complex tilt/shift mechanism behind a TS lens can add some restrictions, in those cases where you absolutely want expanded movements (especially shifting in two perpendicular directions), the adapter will come in extremely useful.  Indeed, after shooting with the Hartblei TS lens & HCam Master TS adapter combo, I’m considering the adapter indispensable.

Working with Modern EF Lenses

There is one unfortunate problem with this adapter.  There are no electronic components, which means it cannot control the aperture (let alone AF) of modern Canon EF lenses.  This is problematic because modern EF lenses do not have aperture rings.  All images will be, therefore, shot at the minimum aperture (i.e., largest F-number) of the lens, as these lenses are designed to stop down all the way when power is turned off.  This is better than being wide open, resulting in shallow DOF (usually not what you’re looking for with tilt shift lenses), but still not ideal because small apertures bring about diffraction issues, especially accentuating sensor dust.

However, there is one way to work around this problem, which is explained in the video I made below:

In short:

(1) Attach EF lens to Canon body or Sony body with a Metabones (etc.) adapter that can do electronic control

(2) Set mode to “M”, shutter speed to 30s, and the aperture to your desired F-stop (e.g., f8)

(3) Hit shutter, and while the camera is exposing, unlock the lens off of the camera body (you can turn off the camera after the lens is unlocked and unscrewed a bit).

The aperture will at this point be “locked” in the F-stop you selected earlier (e.g., f8)

(4) Attach the lens to the Mirex adapter and shoot.

While this is a convoluted way of using a lens, it is the only way I know that will let you use the modern Canon TS-E lenses with the Mirex adapter on a Sony A7 series camera, and allow you to select a desired F-stop.  As long as the lighting conditions don’t change drastically, it is more than feasible to shoot while maintaining the aperture at a constant F-stop.  Moreover, this is currently the only way you can use these Canon TS lenses and shift in two perpendicular directions for creating perspective corrected panoramas.  Hope this information will help some people, and encourage you to try out these adapters.

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Graflex 8×10 Focal Plane Shutter (Part 2)

In my previous post, I talked about the Graflex 8×10 focal plane shutter I recently acquired from Ebay.

The condition of the shutter was pretty good, for what is probably a ~100 year old item; the wooden frame had a few minor chips and cracks, which I fixed with some Elmer’s wood glue as well as Wood Filler for the chips.

A missing pin was replaced by a segment of K&S Precision Metals #8169 Brass Rod (1.83 mm), although I think I could’ve used #8168 (2.06 mm) for a better fit.

The big issue was the cloth used for the shutter.  After all the years, it had developed wrinkles as well as stiffening, which caused the shutter to travel slowly, and be completely useless at the slower shutter speeds, including the “T” position, which wouldn’t “close” at all.

Wrinkles in the cloth as well as slight rusting of the metal tabs caused slow and non- movement of the shutter, especially at the low speeds.

I found information on the web that applying Lemon Pledge (yes, that Pledge) will soften and refresh the cloth.  So I went and got some:

After a generous application of the liquid on both surfaces at each shutter position, letting the whole thing sit for a while (~1 hour), and then a careful wiping (hint: it’s really messy, do it over a drop cloth or a generous layering of kitchen paper), the cloth did indeed become soft again, and the shutter mechanism began to move smoothly at all speeds.  It got a really fresh scent to boot.

Pinholes in the cloth (see the yellow dots, lower central area)

Unfortunately, the problem with the shutter went a little deeper.  The prolonged storage, wrinkling, stiffening, etc., of the cloth created numerous pinholes, which would be a major pain to fix (although apparently it can be done by applying some thinned Black E6000 to fill the holes), so I decided to get a professional to repair & adjust the shutter mechanism.  Online search revealed that Frank Marshman of Camera Wiz would be a great choice. I contacted Frank and he has kindly agreed to take a look.

With one condition.

You see, the problem now is that it’s impossible to obtain genuine spare parts for the shutter.  Most problematic is the cloth itself, as a rather surprisingly large amount of it is required.  Frank said that if I could obtain the necessary amount of cloth at the right dimensions, then he would do the repair.

This is where I lucked out. Some more web searching brought me to Aki-Asahi Custom Camera Coverings in Japan. They sell shutter curtain material that seems to have the right properties (thickness, rubber coating on one side, etc.). And they were willing to cut me a large enough piece of the cloth that could be adapted to the Graflex FPS. In fact they were absolutely kind enough to offer that piece for me to test to see if it will actually work; if the material is too thin or too thick, the shutter may not correctly function, since the amount of travel for each shutter position is dependent on the overall diameter of the rollers on the two spools that constitute the shutter mechanism, which obviously will change depending on the thickness of the cloth.

Shutter cloth sent to me by Aki-Asahi. Extremely well packed and fantastic material to the touch. These guys are awesome.

Here are the rough dimensions I calculated.  The width of the cloth is just shy of 28 cm.  The total length of the cloth is roughly 200 cm; the shutter is basically one long piece of cloth with progressively thinner “slits” cut out in the appropriate locations to achieve a “faster” shutter speed (the mechanism does also travel faster at the faster shutter speed positions). Aki-Asahi agreed to send me a piece that is 30 cm wide and 250 cm in length so that Frank will have some wiggle room.  If and when Frank is able to fashion a shutter cloth out of it, I will ask him to provide the precise measurements of the overall cloth as well as the locations for the slits, etc.

So, the shutter as well as the cloth from Aki-Asahi are now in Frank’s hands. He has some backlog work to finish before he delves into this item, but once he gets around to it, I promise to document the entire process in detail, with Frank’s help.  If it works out (fingers crossed), this would be great news for those few who are lucky enough to own one of these historical products.  Stay tuned 🙂

Graflex 8×10 Focal Plane Shutter (Part 1)

I am a huge fan of giant, fast lenses.  From 135 (i.e., “35 mm”) to medium format and to large format, I go for the fastest lenses that produce the shallowest of DOFs.

However, the pursuit of fast lenses becomes a bit problematic with large format, where most lenses these days use leaf shutters mounted in or near the lens barrel.  Because of the structure of leaf shutters, there is an upper limit in the shutter speed (the fastest I know of is a shutter that can do 1/1000s on a 4×5 Graflex Super Speed Graphic), which decreases the larger the shutter.

One of the largest leaf shutters you can get is an Ilex #5, which can be used with a lens barrel of around 75 mm in diameter, with a top speed of 1/50s.  For example, this shutter can be used, with a little work, with the famous Kodak Aero-Ektar 178 mm F2.5 lens.  But the 1/50s shutter speed is not ideal, precisely because of the fast nature of the lens––you really need faster speeds if you want to shoot wide open and not rely on neutral density filters.

Now, the Aero-Ektar (AE) is terrific in 4×5; but when it comes to 8×10 and larger, the big, fast lenses are simply too large to be fit on any leaf shutter.  I.e., all of the fastest lenses for 8×10 and greater are barrel lenses, lacking a shutter mechanism.  So what do people do when they want to shoot with them wide open?

One of several things.  One can always use a very slow film in subdued lighting conditions, and utilize the lens cap shutter method.  That is, take lens cap off to start exposure, put lens cap back on to end exposure.

There are Packard shutters, which can be used with giant lenses (up to 8”/20cm in diameter), but they are limited in the usable shutter speeds––namely, “timed” which is akin to the “T” setting on normal shutters, or in the case of their “instantaneous” shutters (No. 6), a single speed of around 1/25s.

The so-called “Jim Galli” shutter, which is basically using two dark slides and a slit in-between as the shutter mechanism.  OK, watch the video to see what I mean:

The issue here is that it’s going to take a lot of practice to master the various “shutter speeds” and even then, I don’t know if I’d ever be proficient enough to rely on it for a crucial shot.

Then, there is the Graflex focal plane shutter (similar in structure to the Thornton-Pickard shutters, which are mounted immediately in front (or back) of the lens) for 8×10 cameras.

The structure of the shutter is pretty much identical to focal plane shutters you find in Graflex’s large format SLR cameras (e.g., R.B. Graflex Super D), just scaled up for 8×10, and designed to be mounted on the back of an 8×10 camera where the ground-glass back would normally go.

These shutters have four differently spaced apertures and six tension settings, allowing for 4 x 6 = 24 different shutter speed settings up to 1/1000s and as slow as 1/10s, as well as a “T” setting, and so are perfect for using with very fast barrel lenses.  The problem is, they are extremely rare; not many were made, apparently, and they were all made during the early 20th century.

I’d been searching for one for sever years; I missed a couple on sale at Large Format Photography Forums, and missed a few on Ebay during the time, until finally, last month (February 2015), I was able to score one on the big auction site.

I paid a pretty penny for it, and overall it was in a pretty good condition for what is probably a 100-year old shutter, but the shutter cloth (or the rubber coating thereof) was dried, wrinkled, and had many small pinholes.  It clearly needed a repair and a CLA (clean, lubricate, adjust).  Incidentally, the shutter was designed for a different 8×10 camera, and will not fit the back of my Deardorff V8 camera.  Several things need to happen before I can happily start shooting with this shutter.  And they are all lined up…but that is for another post 🙂

The DIY 3×4 Polaroid TLR is Done!

The very first Kickstarter project I backed was the DUO: A DIY twin lens reflex camera for instant film by Kevin Kadooka.  One and a half years after receiving the successfully funded item, I finally got around to sitting down and building it.  

It didn’t go buttery-smoothly, however.  You see, my Duo is a special Duo, one I had Kevin (re)design specifically for me and the two Schneider-Kreuznach Xenotar 100mm F2.8 lenses I had lying around.  I got both of them from the same person for an extraordinary bargain (don’t ask, for your sake––you’ll be green with envy), but without particularly good uses for them.  

So Kevin made special modifications to his product, which the Xenotars required. Of course, doing all of that based on photographs of the lenses and spec sheets downloaded from the web didn’t quite give him enough information to make all the necessary changes, and so I had to fiddle around with a few things, but it the end, all’s well, and voila!  Here is my “Rawlei S&M, Rawleiflex X2” 🙂

Rawleiflex X2: 3×4 Instant (Fuji FP-100, Polaroid Type 665, etc.) and 6×9 roll film, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenotar 100/2.8, Copal 1 shutter.  Note the accessory shoe that was glued to the right side panel, perfect for mounting a Voigtländer VC Meter.

So far, focus calibration seems to be spot on (at least with the instant film), and there is no light leaking issues that I can see.  I’ll have to try some long exposure photography to see exactly how light-tight this rig is.  I also ordered a 52mm ND8 filter for the taking lens, figuring that using ISO 100 film, on a sunny day, at F2.8, would need a shutter speed of 1/3200s using the Sunny 16 rule (1/100s @ F16 reciprocates to 1/3200s @ F2.8), and so an ND8 would bring that down to 1/400s, which is the fastest speed on the Copal 1 shutter.

Once I receive another Kickstarter item I funded, the Micro 3D Printer, I’m thinking of printing a pouch for the ND filter that I will stick to the left side panel, so that I’ll always have it around.  I might also do a lens cap……  DIY is so fun.

Here’s a shot I took this afternoon right outside my apartment; our neighbor Amy’s ferocious little dog.

 

Rawleiflex X2 + Polaroid Type 664 (ISO 100, B&W, print only), F2.8 wide open, 1/400s, no filter, in the shadow

 

Stay tuned for updates on this camera.