Tilt shift lenses

[Ashley Daws]

Tilt shift lenses how do they work for landscapes?

Anyone got one or used one?

I have Googled but it may as well be in Swahili

I get the idea that they change the focus plane so things like buildings look straight/square and not tilting over and all that but how does this help in landscape photography?

[Adam]

Much the same as for architecture.

T/S helps prevent distortion at wide angles.

So if you were shooting with your 10-20 set to 10 (16mm equiv) the edges would potentially distort

The T/S helps correct this. PS will also correct it, but you lose some of the photo.

T/S lens also help change the perspective of the shot, and can alter DOF also....(sorry knowledge just ran out)

IMHO they are great lenses, but quite time consuming, and very expensive. There are literally millions of stunning photos on the net that were taken without a T/S lens. I would steer clear unless you are feeling well off! Spend you hard saved cash on a lens you will use more often

(also - not sure whether the t/s effect is lessened on a crop body...anyone?)

[rjd]

Theres 2 sides to it Jack.

The 'tilt' which changes the lens's perspecive with respect to the 'film' plane, so this corrects for distortion say if you were at ground level trying to shoot a building. Works for landscapes the same.

The 'shift' is where you can shift the focal plane, so it isnt like a verticle curtain at the focus point. you can shift it to horiszontal or diagonal or in a plane stretching from the camera out - this can (for landscapes) give you unlimited depth of field. Or something funky.

There all manual focus.

Theres a new 17mm TS-E (f2.8) thats georgeus and would work fine on a crop but realy you need a full frame to make the most out of them