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Tilt & Shift Adapters

These tilt-shift adapters improve the quality of a photo camera. With macro photography there’s always the challenge of getting the entire frame pleasantly sharp. Usually only the centre of the photo is sharp and the image becomes blurrier towards the edges. A tilt-shift converter offers a way to render the whole image — right to the edges — properly.

The interaction between adapter and lens

You screw the adapter directly onto the camera, then attach the chosen lens. The supports must therefore fit both the camera housing and the size of the lens. The tilt-shift adapter has two functions. The lens can be brought into a different angle relative to the camera. But the lens can also be shifted sideways to the device. You attach the tilt-shift converter to the camera in the same way.

Tilt

The tilt-shift function tilts the lens system, which shifts the entire field of view. This creates an image with a depth of field that reaches to the edge. With a photo using the macro function, only the exact point of focus is fully sharp. So it can happen that the head of a butterfly is in focus. It's clearly visible. Although the butterfly wasn't moving, the wings are already out of focus. They appear blurry. With the tilt-shift adapter, the whole insect can be seen sharply.

Shift

With this setting you can compensate for optical shifts. If you want to photograph a skyscraper up close, you'll notice that the contours are no longer correct. The walls and edges look as if they're crooked. The proper angles visible in reality can no longer be shown in the photo. This problem can be avoided by adjusting the adapter accordingly. Now the walls can be seen in the correct proportion to other surfaces and objects.

How does a tilt-shift adapter work?

After the adapter has been mounted on the camera, you choose the lens you want to use. If the tilt function now needs to be used, a corresponding mechanism must be set in motion. The lens can quickly be tilted into the desired position. The shift function is activated by a separate lever. This lets you experience the familiar camera in a whole new way. With some brands, two separate photos can be taken with the same camera setting. The lens is moved on the adapter once to the left and then to the right. The images can then be edited so that they look like a single photo. The intersection of the two images lies exactly in the middle of the two photos. After use, the adapter returns to the basic setting. The next photo is then taken again without these extra functions. The adapter stays on the camera and can be used at any time.

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