2010/5/17 eckinator <[email protected]>: > > I'll post a few gear pics later today and add some explanations
Here you go now. My kit. A combination of eBay steals and I'm so happy I finally get around to play with it extensively. My biggest problem at this time is that framing and focus change every time I adjust tilt, i.e. focal plane or shift, i.e. perspective correction. Presently I have sitting on my ballhead/qr base one macro rail which holds an L bracket with a panorama plate attached to it which then holds the bellows. All parts are Novoflex Q quick release so I can change the setup around as I proceed to learn. I came up with the pano plate idea because as you can see my tripod has no center column nor do the legs lock in every position so there is no easy on the fly height adjustment. The combination of a rail running at an angle with the pano plate, all parts moving also forwards and backwards in their respective clamps, gives limited height adjustment and at the same time lets me rotate the camera/bellows/lens assembly to reframe after tilting. One or actually the only weakness of the BalPro T/S is that the rear standart doesn't move well on the carrier rail because it isn't gear driven. Fine adjustment is simply not possibly so you have to move the entire assembly instead and then refocus using the lens standart. My main learning curve at this time is to observe and understand the impact of adjustments on framing and focus. Focal plane adjustment is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Once back on a regular paycheque I hope to get another rail for sideways adjustments which would let me frame laterally without moving the tripod. Luckily that stuff is all relatively light. For this shot, the relatively extreme tilt angles meant I was grabbing light close to the outer edge of the image circle of the Copal 0 diameter large format lens I was using; it has a 59° angle of view and I was decentering by 27°. Also this means lighting falloff as the bellows extends plus a little more for tilt. I find IQ amazing for that and was very pleased with the viewfinder image. Focus confirmation was only moderately helpful. I focused using my eyes and the screen. I have another Copal 0 lens board so I am hoping to pick up another lens eventually. Reason: this lens lets me focus to infinity but at that setting there is no room for tilt, only very limited shift. A slightly longer lens would let me do that. When I picked up the bellows, I also grabbed a Pentax 67 camera adaptor for it but got outbid on the 67 lens board. Have yet to meet the free camera fairy though before I can think of shooting medium format film... Next step I'll try to find an adaptor plate that lets me put the rail between tripod and balhead to see if that is any better for framing. Also, the tripod has mount holes for flexible arms to which I can attach items such as reflectors, flashes, plane indicators to get the Scheimpflug adjustment done faster. The goal of it all is to be able to do it faster. Once I can set it up quickly to where and what I want, I can more easily try different angles etc. and learn how to use the extra DOF in framing. There is also an interesting option to be gained from inverting tilt as well as axial roation of assembly planes vs. subject plane - you can create a sharp wedge running across the subject at almost any angle, I've yet to learn that but I have some pretty good instructions =) Cheers Ecke -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
