Alright, I've had it! I'm making my own Tilt-shift lens!

Steph · Nov 4, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
The only thing that worries me is your mention of the electronic aperture. Are you sure about this? The guy who inspired me (In the OP) used almost this exact lens to make his and it seemed to work fine for him.

Quite sure. I use a Bronica SQA and the lenses (like most modern lenses) stay wide open until you release the shutter. I know this is a lens from a Bronica ETRS but I believe they work in the same way.

Dubious Drewski · Nov 4, 2008

Ok, I'm going to see if I can contact the author of that blog or something. This is an important detail.

Anyway, regardless of any of that, I WILL get a lens that works. And when I do, here is how I'm going to build it:

Do you guys see any immediate problems? I know that while building it, I will run into tons of problems, but that's the nature of these sorts of projects.

Steph · Nov 4, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
Ok, I'm going to see if I can contact the author of that blog or something. This is an important detail.

I guess a simple DIY solution would be to tape down the depth of field preview button (it is on the lens, not the camera body). That way the lens will stop down when you turn the aperture ring.

Dubious Drewski · Nov 5, 2008

Hmm, that's a good to hear, but would tape reliably hold down a spring loaded button like that?

rdompor · Nov 5, 2008

Taping down the button won't do anything. There is still no electrical contact between the lens and body and therefore, no way for the lens to stop down the aperture.

Contact the author of the blog and find out if he just shoots the lens wide open all of the time. I'm not really sure how aperture affects these types of lenses, so I can't say whether or not he does by looking at his photographs - perhaps it affects the size of the in-focus area?

AF44 · Nov 5, 2008

if your making a tilt shift lens it would only make sense to shoot it wide open anyway, right?

Dubious Drewski · Nov 5, 2008

Woohoo! It's here already! They must have some speed demon trucks driving between here and Calgary.

This thing is huge! This is the first piece of medium format gear I've ever owned, so stop chuckling. I had no idea! I hope my wood frame will be sturdy enough to support this.

Anyway, rdompor: it turns out Steph was right and the aperture preview button can and will need to be taped down if I want to shoot in anything but f2.8. But AF44 is right, I will almost always be shooting wide open for maximum effect.

Alright, let's start the construction!

EDIT: Hey guys, anyone know what this screw at the front of the lens does?

I loosened it and tried to move this switch looking thing, but it wouldn't budge. What does it do and do I want to do it?

rdompor · Nov 5, 2008

Were you able to mount the lens onto a camera? I'm a bit confused about how you were able to match the contacts from the body to the lens.

Dubious Drewski · Nov 5, 2008

Did you see my drawing? Did you read any of this thread? hehe. No, it will not be able to directly mount to my camera. That's the part I have to build myself.

Battou · Nov 5, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
Woohoo! It's here already! They must have some speed demon trucks driving between here and Calgary.

This thing is huge! This is the first piece of medium format gear I've ever owned, so stop chuckling. I had no idea! I hope my wood frame will be sturdy enough to support this.

Anyway, rdompor: it turns out Steph was right and the aperture preview button can and will need to be taped down if I want to shoot in anything but f2.8. But AF44 is right, I will almost always be shooting wide open for maximum effect.

Alright, let's start the construction!

EDIT: Hey guys, anyone know what this screw at the front of the lens does?

I loosened it and tried to move this switch looking thing, but it wouldn't budge. What does it do and do I want to do it?

Not knowing anything about the lens, I am just guessin here but...

It looks like the Auto/manual switch lever similar to my M-42 lenses. My Pentax 50mm SMC III Macro won't change from Auto to manual with out being on a body. There is a hidden pin that needs to be depressed to allow it to move. I am curious, maybe there might be something similar on that?

Dubious Drewski · Nov 5, 2008

Hmm, thanks for the guess Battou. I loosened it again. This time I managed to slide the switch and doing so revealed a red letter T on the other side of the switch. What the heck does that mean?

So, A for auto and T for ... uhh? Terrific?

Battou · Nov 5, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
Hmm, thanks for the guess Battou. I loosened it again. This time I managed to slide the switch and doing so revealed a red letter T on the other side of the switch. What the heck does that mean?

So, A for auto and T for ... uhh? Terrific?

...

I uh....dunno

I'm looking around Tamrons web site to see if I can find anything.

*EDIT*
Scratch that, I seem to be having issues accessing the Bronica information

Dubious Drewski · Nov 5, 2008

After a ton of googling, I came across this forum. So the T mode is used if you want to do long exposures. With it activated, you can hit the shutter once to start exposing, and hit it again later on to stop the exposure. In A mode, the lens works like any other. Fascinating stuff.

Steph · Nov 6, 2008

rdompor said:
Taping down the button won't do anything. There is still no electrical contact between the lens and body and therefore, no way for the lens to stop down the aperture.

It will. It is a depth of field preview button. When you press it down it closes the diaphragm to the set aperture.

Steph · Nov 6, 2008

Dubious Drewski said:
After a ton of googling, I came across this forum. So the T mode is used if you want to do long exposures. With it activated, you can hit the shutter once to start exposing, and hit it again later on to stop the exposure. In A mode, the lens works like any other. Fascinating stuff.

That's right. In many medium format cameras the shutter is in the lens, not the camera. That's why you have the T switch on the lens.