DIY Swing/Tilt Lens

[Don Hoey]

Swings and tilts are normally regarded as the province of large format photography. Both Canon and Nikon do lenses for 35mm but they are expensive and the market is limited.

Link to a Tilt and Shift links site http://hame.ca/tiltshift.htm

As I struggle with the cold, and it has been very much so here, I have been looking at making a tilt lens. I have an old 105mm enlarging lens sitting around and as it is suitable for printing 6x9 I thought I could take advantage of its large image circle and come up with a cheap solution to solve the lack of dof in close up/macro shots.

Early stages in the development of this, but having seen the cost of the pukka job well worth the effort. This is tripod stuff and cannot be done hand held.

Ideally I need an old manual bellows unit to mount it on as there is no focussing mechanism on the enlarging lens and I have to rely on a sliding plate on the tripod. I dismantled an old 6x6 folding camera to retrieve the bellows as a starter. But a large number of parts would have to be made for it to be a viable solution. Mk 1 is the simplest possible and was made to test the principle and show up things for consideration for Mk2. Saves hours of machining stuff that may end up in the bin.

Materials for Mk1 :
Novoflex 105 mm enlarging lens. 75mm or less do not provide a large enough image circle.
A 40mm plastic pipe connector, a small stub of 36mm waste pipe, 3 pieces of steel rod ( cut down nails would have done ), two are for the swivel and one is a marker to be visible after taping black bin liner to the assembly as a blackout as an orientation guide. A mount removed from an ancient lens. Mount optional as it could have been taped to a 14mm extension tube. The brass screw is to lock the assembly in vertical or horizontal orientation.

Pics attatched :
1) A comparison of No Tilt and Tilt applied to show the effect on dof. These are full frame.
2) Mk1 on the camera.
3) Mk1 with bin liner removed to show construction.

Don

[sassan]

Originally Posted by Don Hoey

Swings and tilts are normally regarded as the province of large format photography. Both Canon and Nikon do lenses for 35mm but they are expensive and the market is limited.


Don

Don calling you genius is nothing new in fact the same old, same old but this one is truly nice. a tilt or swing DSLR lens probably cost in lower to mid thousand dollar range if one can find it. Yours is very smart.
I like to see some slide version in a solid (Two sliding plate like) mechanism rather.
Very well done. Was going to wish for more cold to keep you coming with all these brilliant ideas but can't be that cruel.
Thanks sharing and keep up the excellent work.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by sassan

I like to see some slide version in a solid (Two sliding plate like) mechanism rather.
Very well done. Was going to wish for more cold to keep you coming with all these brilliant ideas but can't be that cruel.
Thanks sharing and keep up the excellent work.

Sassan,

The one above is a prototype to see how it would perform. Lots easier cutting up bits of plastic to try out ideas.

You are suggesting rise and fall as well as swings and tilts. Mmmmmm I will have to get my head round that as I only have an enlarging lens with sufficient an image circle. Good thought though I will investigate. Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome as it is too easy to get fixed with one possible solution and that may not be the best solution. I saw the one with the Mamiya lens mounted through the concertina section of a rubber plunger as posted in the links and got a bit fixated with that idea before realising its limitations.

Just wish my best quality enlarging lens was not the 50mm. Image circle max's out at 35mm frame size.

Good job I am part of the lunatic fringe or someone would suggest just getting a 5x4 and be done with it.

All of February to go yet before the warmer days return.

Don