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View Full Version : A few questions for the tilt-shift / panorama experts on dgrin


Picture North Carolina
Sep-06-2007, 08:08 PM
Hi. I'm new to dgrin, this being my 1st post. I hope it's not bad manners to come flying in the door with a bunch of questions, but I'm led to believe this is where answers can be found. I've done a bunch of research lately and many referrals come back to dgrin. From what I can tell, there seems to be an unusually large ratio of people here who are knowledgeable about tilt-shift and related issues. So here goes.

1. Will the T/S lenses work well on the 5D? I can find no definitive answer on this. Some say they work just fine, but on the other hand I've found many items that say the AA filter on the 5D and the T/S lenses do not like each other very much. If anybody is actually using the lenses with a 5D, I would appreciate some advice. As a secondary issue, I also have some aps-c sensor cameras and wonder if they will work well there (20D, 30D).

2. Parallax. I've read that contrary to common belief, the T/S lenses do not solve the parallax problem. That it still exists and to resolve it, the T/S lens should be mounted on a bracket so that when the lens is shifted in one direction, the camera should be equally shifted in the opposite. Is this true that the T/S lenses still suffer parallax problems?

3. Nodal point. I've read that a good answer is to mount the camera in such a way that it can be rotated on a given lens's calculated nodal point. Is this true? Unfortunately, I cannot find many resources for this (brackets, tripod heads, etc.). For what I want to do, this may be a better answer than a T/S lens.

Primarily, I will be shooting the usual T/S-oriented things such as panoramas, architecture, etc.. But also, I have a need to shoot close objects (2 or 3 feet away), multiple frames (2 or 3 hopefully nice flat planes) and stitch those together.

A lot of questions from the forum newbie I know, but I would appreciate any help you can give. Thanks, -Dan

Picture North Carolina
Sep-13-2007, 10:53 AM
Not a single reply?

Andy
Sep-13-2007, 11:07 AM
Will the T/S lenses work well on the 5D? Yes. Perfectly.

As a secondary issue, I also have some aps-c sensor cameras and wonder if they will work well there (20D, 30D).
Yes, perfectly.

Nodal point. I've read that a good answer is to mount the camera in such a way that it can be rotated on a given lens's calculated nodal point. Is this true? Unfortunately, I cannot find many resources for this (brackets, tripod heads, etc.). For what I want to do, this may be a better answer than a T/S lens.
Have you looked :thumb
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1100284 last link, first section. This is our tutorials and it's linked from the Dgrin navbar :thumb

And, don't forget http://www.reallyrightstuff.com - awesome company :bow


And, welcome to Dgrin :wave

Shizam
Sep-13-2007, 11:10 AM
1. Yes, when I had my 5D my 24 TSE and 90 TSE worked great and Andy uses a 5D for all his 24 TSE stitches and will go on and on about how fantastic it is.

2. Yes and no. They still suffer from parallax if you twist your camera body in a panoramic fashion just like any other lens. However, if you just shift the lens this avoids the parallax problem.

3. If you plan on rotating your camera body to create a larger panorama then that offered by just shifting then yes, you need to worry about nodal points. This is the setup that I use (and I think Andy does too):

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/rrs/Customkititems.asp?kc=Pano%2DElem%2DPkg&eq=

Works great.

I also have shot wide panos (with the 24 TSE) and macro manos (with the 90 TSE) and they come out great, don't forget the wonders of perspective control in the tilts :thumb

Shizam
Sep-13-2007, 11:13 AM
Friggin andy beat me by 2 minutes to the post, hah.

hgernhardtjr
Sep-13-2007, 11:18 AM
Not a single reply?
Hey, Dan ... welcome!

I cannot answer most of your T/S questions because the last T/S lens(es) I personally used were many years ago and on film cameras; nonetheless, the T/S lens apparently works just fine on the 5D as I have at least one friend who uses that combo and gets excellent results for architectural photography.

However, I do take panoramas and do stitch them together and mounting the pivot point at the so-called nodal point does help a lot. However, with todays stitching software it is not as critical as it once was in order to get timely, less-work-involved results. I use the Nodal Ninja ( http://nodalninja.com/ )as, for me, it was a cost effective solution to an other wise expensive niche market.

As to parallax ... with an SLR or dSLR, what you see in your viewfinder is what you get. I did have to be aware of parallax with my TLR (twin lens reflex) and 1950's rangefinder Contax cameras.

I am sure others will be able to answer your questions more fully! WOW ... everyone else beat me to the reply!:clap

Kory Lidstrom
Sep-13-2007, 03:36 PM
Another vote for Really Right Stuff. They are AWESOME. I bought my entire pano set-up from them and it works like a charm.