From the past: Samyang/Rokinon T-S 24mm F3.5 review
An edited version of my review first appeared in the British Journal of Photography* magazine well over a decade ago. With their range of movements, tilt and shift lenses offered in various focal lengths for 35mm full-frame DSLRs have become indispensable for architecture, interiors, still-life, food and product photography. Before Canon redesigned their film-era 24mm version with an improved optical design and, uniquely, adding a user-selectable option of aligning the tilt function with the shift movement, these lenses were quite reasonably priced. A little over four years ago, Canon offered three focal lengths (24, 45 and 90mm). At just £899 inc VAT, the low price suggested that these were marketed…
Fujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S specs
Technical Data Manufacturer Fujifilm Model Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S Web www.fujifilm-X.com Elements/construction 16 elements in 11 groups (1x Super ED, 3x ED) Angle of view 84.7° (diagonal) 24mm equivalent Tilt/Shift +/- 8.5° Tilt, +/- 15 mm Shift Max aperture F5.6 (9-blades, rounded) Min aperture F32 Min focus distance 0.3 m (11.9 in) Mount GF mount Filter size 105mm (with adapter ring), 72mm front cap* Length 135.8mm (5.5 in.) Diameter 87.1mm (3.4 in.) Weight 1340g (2.95 lb) Price £3,899 inc VAT ($3,999) The Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S will be sold with an RRP of £3899 inc VAT. User manual at: www.fujifilm-x.com Additional coverage/press release. Pre-order: WEX UK | Amazon | Park…
Nikon PC Nikkor 19mm F4E ED tilt shift lens review
Key features +/- 12mm shift and +/- 7.5° tilt movements can be applied in parallel (same axis) or perpendicular 90° rotation left and right in 30° increments, tilt 90° left only with a 45° stop Shift movement operates without having to lock it Three extra-low dispersion elements reduce chromatic aberrations Two aspherical elements minimise coma, distortion and enhance sharpness Nano Crystal and Super Integrated Coatings reduce reflections, lens flare, and ghosting Fluorine coatings protect front and rear elements from water drying marks, fingerprints Electromagnetic aperture mechanism ensures stable and accurate exposure control What is it? The Nikon PC Nikkor 19mm F4E ED is a F-mount retrofocus lens designed specifically to…
Novoflex announce the Qube: a modular geared head to rival the Arca Swiss Cube
Novoflex has announced the Qube, a geared head potentially aimed at Arca Swiss Cube users. With brass guides, the Qube looks to be robust, particularly as there are no geared teeth visible in the supplied photo. Cube users will know that the geared teeth are susceptible to wear and are easily damaged in the field. However, it’s not clear from the photographs or the text from Novoflex how the geared movement on the Qube is employed and what, if any, steps have been taken to ensure reliability during everyday use. Neither does the press release mention the most likely potential customers for the new head; namely architecture, landscape and studio…
Fujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S review
What is it? The Fujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S is a highly anticipated lens in the GFX system. Why? Because it’s the first serious challenger to the Canon TS-E lenses (and the Nikon PC Nikkors), which are routinely adapted to fit on the larger-sensor GFX cameras. As a 30mm lens designed to cover the 44x33mm MF sensor, it is the equivalent of a 24mm in full-frame 35mm terms and is, without doubt, the most popular focal length for architecture and interiors. The manual-focus lens will also appeal to landscape photographers. (Arguably, a 35mm tilt/shift might be as popular or even more so (the Nikon and Zeiss 35mm shift-only models are…
Fujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S three-shot hand-held panorama at maximum shift (± 15mm)
Handheld three-shot pano with GF30mm F5.6 T/S, totalling 175 MP. As this was shot without a tripod, there’s quite a bit of overlap in the centre, but what’s of interest here is that maximum shift ±15mm has been applied to show the worst case. Focus was confirmed using magnified LV, which is my preferred option of the various focusing aids. This three-shot pano was stitched in Lightroom Classic with an automatic (built-in) lens profile applied, which can’t be turned off. Still, no further ‘manual’ corrections were made to display the vignetting, and it’s no big deal, as it could be cleaned up. Automatic profiles like this don’t show what’s…
Fujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S specs compared with Canon EF 24mm F3.5L TS-E
I realise this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison but as many architecture photographers adapt the Canon 24mm TS-E to use on their Fujifilm GFX system cameras then the side-by-side contrast makes more sense. It’s surprising how similar the specs are but early testing of the Fujifilm GF30mm T/S with the 100MP Fujifilm GFX100 II (which has an optimised sensor for this lens, apparently) suggests super-impressive optical performance, even when shifted to the maximum. Also, if there was any doubt that the tilt and shift functions can be oriented separately to use in the same ‘direction’ (it wasn’t that clear in the press release), then I can confirm they can. When fully…
Fujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S specs
Technical Data Manufacturer Fujifilm Model Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S Web www.fujifilm-X.com Elements/construction 16 elements in 11 groups (1x Super ED, 3x ED) Angle of view 84.7° (diagonal) 24mm equivalent Tilt/Shift +/- 8.5° Tilt, +/- 15 mm Shift Max aperture F5.6 (9-blades, rounded) Min aperture F32 Min focus distance 0.3m (11.9 in) Mount GF mount Filter size 105mm (with adapter ring), 72mm front cap* Length 135.8mm (5.5 in.) Diameter 87.1mm (3.4 in.) Weight 1340g (2.95 lb) Price £3,899 inc VAT ($3,999) The Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 T/S will be sold with an RRP of £3899 inc VAT. Read our review here. User manual at: www.fujifilm-x.com Additional coverage/press release. Pre-order: WEX UK |…
