good old tilt and shift

Special Canon tilt and shift 35mm lens

Toronto. Back in the good old days of large format cameras, tilt and shift was de rigueur. After 35mm cameras took over, special lenses were designed with the T&S functions built-in. For example, Canon described a 35mm f/2.8 lens with the feature:

“The world first “tilt and shift” wide angle lens for 35mm SLR cameras. The “tilt and shift” mechanism changes relation between the lens optical axis and the film plane to obtain special effects.

“’Tilting’ is used to swing the plane of focus so that it is not parallel with the film plane. You can adjust focus using the tilt mechanism to a very shallow or a very deep zone without change of aperture.

“’Shifting’ is used to correct or enhance perspective distortion, shifting the optical axis from the center of the film plane. The tapering off of the building in [a] picture can corrected by “shifting” the TS lens easily. The “TS” stands for “tilt and shift”.

By the way, one of  these lenses (lot 100) are in our November auction. Time to get out and seek a piece of photographic history!

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