Using 645 MF lenses as shift lenses

Part of our series of brief lens tests, using various lenses we found laying around the office...

We regularly use the Canon 17, 24 and 90mm tilt shift lenses .

How about an adapter for using Mamiya Sekor 645 medium format lenses on a Canon 1Ds Mk3?

Using old Medium format lenses

We've a collection of Mamiya 645 medium format lenses sitting round.

Actually we've a camera and accessories too, but I don't really see me using film again.

The lenses are not at all bad with a basic M645 to Canon EF adapter, but given the range of Canon lenses I've got I just don't see much use for say, the 55mm f/2.8 Sekor-C

One useful point to note, is that MF lenses have a much bigger image circle than 35mm lenses, so potentially could be used as shift lenses.

Ebay quickly provided me with a shift adapter from the Ukraine - search for Arax.

Note - If you're new to shift lenses and why I use them for much of my interior and architectural work, then I've written several articles, starting with an Introduction to tilt/shift lenses.

The picture below shows the adapter mounted on the front of my Canon 1Ds3.

It's set for shifting vertically. You can see the shift adjustment knob at the bottom and the shift scale (in mm) at the side.

The adapter is solidly made, but lacks a bit of camera engineering 'finesse' - then again it's rather cheap compared to many other adapters you'll find.

Note that reflection you can see inside the aperture - I'll come back to that...

The front of the adapter rotates allowing left or right shift too. It's shift away from a centre point, so to get left/right shift, you need to rotate the lens.

The lenses are set to manual for aperture control, and are manually focused.

Mamiya 645 Sekor lenses

A set of lenses that go with the Mamiya 645 pro medium format camera body we've got sitting in a dust covered case.

The lenses tested here are:

Sekor C 35mm f/3.5
Sekor C 55mm f/2.8
Sekor C 80mm f/2.8
Sekor C 210mm f/4

I thought that since there was a 210mm, I might as well try it out...

I've tried these lenses directly with an adapter and they seem of quite good quality, but that's only the centre of the field of view they were designed for.

35mm Sample images

I'm just testing the general quality of the lenses, not creating any great artistic works ;-) I've used liveview to focus on the brickwork next to the red door over the road.

This article tries to give a bit of a feel for using the old lens rather than any detailed optical analysis - and when it comes down to it (IMHO) photography is about actually taking photos ;-) I'd suggest doing some quick tests like this for any new lens you try out, just to get a feel for what differences it might offer.

First up, the 35mm - here it is at full vertical shift (11mm)

As you can see from the edge of the lens, this one has had some use...

The stitched image below shows the coverage with 11mm shift, left, right and upwards - all shot's taken at f/8

Just for comparison, this is a left/right stitched image taken with the new Canon TS-E24

Here's the centre of the image with the 35mm (all crops at 100%)

and this with the TS-E24

The top (fully shifted) corner shows a bit of softness and slight chromatic aberration, but not enough to worry about.

At f/11 the results were a bit sharper. Since I'd be using lenses like this with the camera on a tripod, I've not bothered any testing with them fully open.

Vertically shifting doesn't show any real problems either

55mm

The 55mm would still be considered a moderately wide lens on a 645 camera. Although a solid lens, it has more plastic in its construction than the 35mm.

Here shifted upwards

As before, I've stitched some images to give an idea of the coverage.

The stepping along the bottom shows where I've not got the shift axis precisely horizontal...

Some 100% crops suggest that this is a good lens at f/8.

Centre

Top RH side (shifted 11mm right)

80mm

A near 'standard lens' on the 645. Once again, of similar build to the 55mm and also of good optical quality

Shifted up

Vertical 11mm shift.

Notice the manually stopped down aperture diaphragm (6 blade).

Shifted left.

However not shifted down, since the adjustment knob catches the extension at the top of the 1Ds3.

This is as far as it goes - for any more you'd need to remove the knob and cut it down in size.

Here's a set of the stitched images (11mm shift) and 100% crops for the 80mm.

Centre

Top LH corner when shifted fully (11mm) left

As you can see, virtually no image sharpness problems at all, even at full shift.

210mm

OK, I can't actually think of a use for a 210mm shift lens (on 35mm), but it had to be tried...

A centre crop

Two front doors...

Two 210mm images flat stitched together.

If anyone can think of a good use for shifting the 210mm, then please do let me know :-)

Conclusions

All the lenses work fine at f/8, with the 35mm benefiting the most from f/11.

The 35mm and 55mm now form a useful addition to my lens collection for architectural work.

Although the 80mm is very sharp, I already have the Canon TS-E 90mm which is a very nice lens, and has tilt too.

The 210mm? Nope, I still can't think of a use for it where I couldn't just move the camera and stitch the images. but at least I can say I've got shift lens coverage from 17mm to 210mm.

There are clearance issues with the adjustment knob, but like the internal reflections I'll show in a bit, this could be fixed with a bit of careful effort in the workshop.

One design feature I just couldn't explain was the off-centre oval nature of the hole in the sliding part of the adapter.

If the long axis of the hole was aligned with the shift axis, I could understand it, but at 90 degrees?

A close look at the shift scale shows that although there is 11mm of shift available, there is a green mark at 7mm.

I believe (there are no instructions with the adapter) that this represents the limit of shift before you -may- get problems with obstruction of the path between lens and sensor.

Internal Reflections

The image below was taken with the 35mm at 8mm of left shift and 11mm.

Roll your mouse over the image to see what happens at 11mm

The next example shows part of the image shot with the 80mm.

If you move your mouse over the image you can see part of the image from when the lens was shifted right by 11mm

This looks like a reflection from somewhere, and the prime candidate is the shiny black inside of the adapter, the part that goes into the camera.

I'm currently checking some different kinds of matte black paint to see which works best here, but I believe it should improve the contrast of images, even at zero shift. As you can see, other thin metal (brass) parts have been coated, but the EF mount and adjustment screw still have shiny finishes.

A quick warning

The spring detent providing click stops for rotating the lens is quite firm. When you rotate the lens I've noticed that some small particles of paint can collect in this area, thus I'd recommend that you use a blower to clear dust etc. out of the mechanism before/after using the adapter.

Summary

A real use for some of my old lenses.

Whilst I don't anticipate that that much use for the 35mm/55mm/80mm lenses (else I'd have bought a TS-E 45mm before now) it's just useful to know you have different options sitting in the (extended) camera bag on a job.

The adapter can best be described as solid - it works. If you have even better quality 645 lenses then you might want to look at the Zoerk adapters, which offer up to 20mm of shift, but for at least 6 times the cost ($600+)

This article is mentioned on our blog, where you can leave comments.

More Info

Canon view camera adapter
Zeiss Flektogon 20/2.8 on 1Ds3
Olympus Zuiko 24/2.8 on 1Ds3
The 1Ds digital pinhole SLR camera
Using your film scanner as a microscope
Tilt shift lenses - the Canon 24mm TS-E
How to use tilt
M42 lens compatibility for 5D - lots of old lenses on a 5D
Alternative lenses - Forum on the Fred Miranda site with lots of info on using different lenses.

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