In the Field: FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift Adapters

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In the Field: FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift Adapters

When it comes to corrective and/or creative image control, nothing beats the swing-and-tilt controls of a view camera. Tilt movements enable you to alter the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF) relative to the image plane, i.e., the film or camera sensor. Tilting the PoF of a lens enables you to extend or reduce the depth of focus of the image. Shift movements, in which the PoF remains parallel to the image plane, enables you to reposition your subject within the frame lines without having to change your camera position. When photographing buildings, shift adjustments eliminate keystoning, which is the name of the distortion that makes it look as if the building is tilting backward. If you’re shooting with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, your only option until now was to use tilt-shift lenses. Nowadays, we have a second option.

Photographs © Allan Weitz 2019

The new FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Nikon F to Sony E-mount adapter (left) and Hasselblad V-mount to Sony E-mount Adapter (right)

FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-shift adapters are designed to work with a variety of camera/lens mount configurations. For this hands-on review, I chose two models: a FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-shift Adapter for Nikon F to Sony E-mount cameras and a FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-shift Adapter for Hasselblad V to Sony E-mount cameras, which gave me an opportunity to test 35mm and medium format camera lenses on a Sony A7-series camera.

A Nikon Micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 AI-S coupled to a FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-shift Adapter for Nikon F to Sony E-mount cameras (left), and Hasselblad Zeiss 50mm f/4 Distagon T* on a Sony a7R ll and a FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Hasselblad lens to Sony E-mount

Having used tilt-shift lenses in the past for photographing buildings, I was anxious to see how these adapters performed when matched with 35mm and medium format lenses. I staked out several locations and captured buildings of various heights using comparable focal length lenses from Nikon and Hasselblad on a Sony a7R II camera body.

When photographing buildings, shift adjustments eliminate keystoning, the type of the distortion that makes buildings appear as if they’re tilting backward. The above photographs were captured using a Hasselblad Zeiss 50mm f/4 Distagon T* on a Sony a7R ll and a FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Hasselblad lens to Sony E-mount adapter.

A Nikon 55mm f/2.8 Micro-NIKKOR AI-S with FotoDioX Pro TLT ROKR Nikon F to Sony E-mount adapter mounted on a Sony a7R II at zero shift correction and shifted upward

The same camera/lens combination set at zero tilt and full tilt for shifting the plane of focus (PoF)

In a bid to level the playing field, I started by choosing lenses of equal focal length—a Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AI-S and a Hasselblad Distagon 50mm f/4 C. Even though a 50mm lens on a Hasselblad is a wide-angle lens, when used to cover a 24 x 36mm imaging sensor (35mm), the coverage is identical.

A key difference between 50mm lenses designed for 35mm and 6 x 6 cameras has to do with the size of the image circle projected by the lens, which is critical when using tilt-shift movements.

A 50mm lens on a 35mm camera has an image circle that covers an area slightly wider than the diagonal dimension of a 24 x 36mm frame (about 43mm). A 50mm lens designed to cover the 56 x 56mm image area of a Hasselblad V-series camera has an image circle slightly wider than the 79mm diagonal dimension of the camera’s 6 x 6 frame size, which makes it a more practical lens to use with tilt-shift adapters.

The exceptions to the above rule are dedicated tilt-shift lenses, which feature larger image fields than standard 35mm lenses. Unlike standard 35mm format lenses, which have image circles about 43mm across, tilt-shift lenses designed specifically for 35mm format cameras have image circles about 67 to 68mm wide, which is why they can be shifted and tilted further off-axis and still deliver sharp, vignette-free image quality towards the corners of the frame. In a sense, 35mm-format tilt-shift lenses are medium-format lenses in 35mm clothing.

The bottom line is, you can tilt and shift medium-format lenses to further extremes than 35mm-format camera lenses before the edges of the frame began going darker and fuzzier.

Because it has a wider image circle, I was able to correct keystone distortions of this old farm house using the Hasselblad 50mm lens. Though I was able to eliminate keystoning using my 50mm Nikon lens, because it has a smaller image circle compared to the Hasselblad 50mm lens, light falloff caused corner vignetting. It wouldn’t be difficult to edit the image post-capture to eliminate any vignetting, if need be.

After viewing my results with the 50mm lenses, I borrowed a friend’s 24mm f/2.8 Nikon lens and tried again with a similarly sized building. Though there was a trace of light falloff and a notable loss of resolution in the upper corners of the frame, the wider-angle coverage of the 24mm lens proved to be a better choice than the 50mm lens for shooting architecture.

Though a 50mm Nikon lens displayed severe vignetting in the upper corners when shifted to its extreme position, a wider-angle 24mm Nikon lens performed far better. There was a bit of light falloff and certainly a loss of sharpness in the extreme upper corners, but overall the image was far more usable.

One of the benefits of shift movements is they give you the ability to alter the plane of focus. The photographs of the white fence (below) illustrate how you can increase your focus range without having to stop your lens down. Using the Hasselblad 50mm Distagon at its widest aperture (f/4), the foreground is in focus, while the background goes progressively fuzzier. After tilting the lens, the far portion of the fence comes into focus without having to stop the lens down any further.

Without having to first stop the lens down to a smaller aperture, I was able to bring the entire fence into focus by simply tilting the lens to a position in which the PoF of the lens aligned more closely with the angle of the fence. The aperture in both photos is f/4, which is wide open on the Hasselblad 50mm Distagon lens.

The same scenario is repeated above, this time using the 50mm f/1.2 AI-S lens with a FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Nikon F to Sony E-mount adapter. The images between the two camera/lens combinations are similar yet remarkably different in the way they render the scene.

Another benefit of having the ability to use different lens and format combinations is that it gives you the opportunity to see how different lenses and lens formats render the scene. Though my 50mm Nikon and Hasselblad lenses capture the same basic scene, the way they render detail, color, and bokeh are quite different. The images below of a nearby pond were taken with both lenses at maximum aperture. The top comparison images were taken using a 50mm Nikon lens at f/2, the bottom set of images were taken using the Hasselblad 50mm Distagon at f/4. The scene is the same, the look and mood of the images differ greatly.

The above photos were taken with a Sony a7R II with a FotodioX Pro TLR ROKR Nikon F to Sony E-mount adapter & a 50mm f/1.2 Nikon NIKKOR AI-S lens. The photos below were taken using a FotodioX Pro TLR ROKR Hasselblad V-mount to Sony E-mount adapter and a 50mm f/4 Distagon lens. The images taken by these two lenses differ greatly.

In addition to landscape and architectural photography, tilt-shift adapters can be used in the studio for product photography.

The above photographs were taken with zero corrections at wide aperture and stopped down to f/16. The depth-of-focus increases when the lens is stopped down, but the keystone distortions remain unchanged.

A combination of tilting and shifting of the 50mm f/4 Distagon corrects keystone distortion and maximizes the depth-of-field of the image area. The two images above were captured at maximum aperture (all is sharp front to back, but the focus is shallow) and stopped down to f/16 (greater depth of focus throughout).

FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-shift adapters are well built, can be rotated 360°, and feature aluminum barrels with chrome-plated brass mounts. Both of my test adapters offer +/- 10°of tilt and shift regardless of the degree of lens rotation. The controls are well marked and easy to figure out. The Nikon-to-Sony E adapter worked quite well, but the Hasselblad-to-Sony E-mount adapter had two troubling issues. First, the brass screw that locks down the shift position is too small, making it difficult to tighten and release, and once tightened, depending on the angle and positioning of the lens, it was difficult to lock down to prevent the lens from drifting downward due to the weight of Hasselblad lenses. A longer, more finger-friendly locking screw mechanism would have been appreciated.

My second issue has to do with using medium-format lenses on smaller-format cameras. To be specific, while the Hasselblad 50mm Distagon is a terrific lens that does away with the vignetting issues I had with my 50mm NIKKOR lens, the widest you can go with Hasselblad V-mount lenses is 40mm, which isn’t wide-angle when used on smaller-format cameras.

If your intentions are to shoot architectural photographs or other subject matter that require wide-angle lenses, you should consider using medium format wide-angle lenses such as the Hasselblad XCD 21mm f/4, Hasselblad XCD 30mm f/3.5, Fujifilm GF 23mm f/4 R LM WR, Pentax HD Pentax-D FA 645 35mm f/3.5 AL (IF), or the Pentax HD PentaxDA645 28-45mm f/4.5 ED AW SR. No doubt there are other lens/adapter combinations out there you can use for wide-angle medium-format applications.

Despite my gripes, I didn’t miss any photographs due to technical issues during my time with these adapters, and not for nothing, I learned a few new tricks along the way.

Square-cropped images taken with the FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Hasselblad-V to Sony E-mount adapter (left) and the FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Nikon F to Sony E-mount adapter (right)

In addition to the two FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt/Shift adapters used in this product review, similar FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt/Shift adapters are also available in stock (or by special order) for the following lens and camera combinations.

7 Comments

Does the tilt mechanism rotate independently of the shift mechanism or is the relative angle of the tilt vs. the shift fixed?

The tilt mechanism on the FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift Adapters is linked 90 degrees to the shift mechanism, though they can be controlled simultaneously.  As an example, if you can shift your lens left and right, you will be able to tilt the lens up and down.  The lens adapter has the ability to rotate 360 degrees, so you can rotate the adapter so you can shift the lens up and down, but then you would tilt the lens left and right.  Regardless of how you rotate the lens, the tilting mechanism will operate 90 degrees from the shift mechanism, though you may tilt and shift the lens adapter simultaneously.  I hope that explanation makes sense.

Do they make a tilt-shift adaptor for Nikon lens to be used on Nikon bodies?

I was wondering that too. I'd love to use my existing f mount fx lenses, can shoot at dx or apsc to reduce vignetting. For real estate web shots you still have plenty of res. 

No, they do not.  To maintain the ability for a lens to focus at infinity without corrective optics, the flange focal distance of the lens must be longer than the flange focal distance of the camera on which the lens will be used.  However, there must be enough space between the lens' focal flange distance and the camera's focal flange distance for the thickness of the lens adapter.  As such, you cannot manufacture an adapter thin enough to adapt a lens for the Nikon F mount to connect to a camera with a Nikon F mount and retain infinity focus capability.  This is why it is easier to adapt medium format lenses to some SLR/DSLR cameras, or SLR/DSLR lenses to some mirrorless digital cameras.  However, you cannot design a lens mount adapter for a lens to connect to a camera that has the same lens mount as the lens.  As such, you cannot manufacture a tilt-shift adapter for a Nikon F-mount lens to be used on a Nikon F-mount body. 

You suggest the Hasselblad XCD 30mm f/3.5 as a lens to consider for shooting architecture with ample image circle on the sony FF, but is there an adapter combination that would allow that lens to be mounted on Sony?

Unfortunately, we have no lens adapters designed to convert the newer Hasselblad X-mount lenses for use on other non-native lens mounts.  As such, we do not currently have a solution to use the Hasselblad XCD 30mm f/3.5 Lens on Sony full-frame mirrorless digital cameras at this time.