L-Mount L-mount pictures, open thread

Leica L-Mount cameras and lenses
Thompsons and Booth Texas on a gloomy wet day
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Railway Workers in Thompsons

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Thompsons Mercantile from across the tracks
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Cattle, Booth Texas
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Abandoned Post Office, Booth Texas
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Paul puts me to shame at this location - but a local trip thanks to my daughter's NT membership birthday present. I've had these two Canon shift lenses for a good while and this morning was their first outing. Went up to see if it was possible to sneak in before sunrise. It isn't!

First is the TS-E 17mm, second a vertical pano with the 24mm ver II.

Hoping to so some stitched pano's at Cosford and Hendon with the 17mm this year. I've got a frame on the way from the USA which should help overcome parallax issues.

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That chimney really is on the wonk.

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Paul puts me to shame at this location - but a local trip thanks to my daughter's NT membership birthday present. I've had these two Canon shift lenses for a good while and this morning was their first outing. Went up to see if it was possible to sneak in before sunrise. It isn't!

First is the TS-E 17mm, second a vertical pano with the 24mm ver II.

Hoping to so some stitched pano's at Cosford and Hendon with the 17mm this year. I've got a frame on the way from the USA which should help overcome parallax issues.

View attachment 527716

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That chimney really is on the wonk.

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Super set Richard! That first one is the best I've seen of that aspect. No shame on you by virtue of my efforts!!

I must get myself a shift lens. That Canon 17mm is the one I'd get. For places like Baddesley, it really is a huge benefit.

Went up to see if it was possible to sneak in before sunrise. It isn't!
I can let you into the secret of how to do it!
 
Beautiful images Paul.

I got the version 1 90mm first which I started to use for virtually all of my product pictures. I quickly traded it for the much better L version with close focusing (difference in sharpness was like night and day in that case).

Then I kind of got swept along with the old 'this piece of gear is going to seriously improve my life' thing - and ended up with the two wides, mindful of the fact that I really struggle to take distortion free panos of busy subjects like aircraft museums. Then my circumstances changed and I literally stopped going out.

These are relatively old lenses and have their limitations. Maximum shift is rarely recommended because like the vast majority of lenses, the edges of the image circle are not as sharp as the centre. Anecdotally, the sharpest 'edge-to-edge' aperture for the 17 is around f18. That said, my JPEGs always look a bit soft on this site, so don't read too much into them. Both lenses are prone to flare and CA - keep the sun behind you. My first picture has much better contrast.

My Sigma 14-24 appears sharper than both of these lenses. I could have used that one at this location for all three images. I'll take it next time. Biggest issue I had yesterday was taking the wrong tripod. My Manfrotto 190 has the long centre column so I couldn't get low level and didn't know how deep/dirty the moat was and could see myself over-balancing and taking a swim. What I really could have done with was a ground spike. Might get one. Be great for fending off muggers.

People will of course say that you can do everything that a shift lens does in Lightroom. There is some truth to that, but straightening verticals in Lightroom on a tight crop often results in missing corners, so you crop or use generative fill, then you never are quite certain you haven't over-stretched your subject vertically. it's very satisfying not to have to use the transform tool.

One word of caution. Think carefully before buying a tilt-shift lens privately. They are not weather sealed. With all the movements come opportunities to fill the lens with dust or break a gear or a knob. Easy to buy a dud.
 
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We took a trip to Rockport / Fulton area on the Texas Coastal Bend to view the Whooping Cranes and other bird life. It was a good tour that took us up into the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The tour gives you better access to the birds as they tend to hang out in marshy areas.

Adult and Juvenile Whooping Crane. A Great Blue Heron is in the distance.
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Adult Whooping Crane
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Seagulls along the bank of the Intercoastal Canal. There are oysters growing on the concrete blocks that prevent erosion.
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Fulton Harbor and ship yard in the background. The harbor is primarily for working shrimp and oyster boats. A small portion of the boats in the harbor are pleasure craft.

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Two tugs passing each other. The barges carry petroleum products. Notice the difference in the barges. One is loaded, the other empty

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Beautiful images Paul.

I got the version 1 90mm first which I started to use for virtually all of my product pictures. I quickly traded it for the much better L version with close focusing (difference in sharpness was like night and day in that case).

Then I kind of got swept along with the old 'this piece of gear is going to seriously improve my life' thing - and ended up with the two wides, mindful of the fact that I really struggle to take distortion free panos of busy subjects like aircraft museums. Then my circumstances changed and I literally stopped going out.

These are relatively old lenses and have their limitations. Maximum shift is rarely recommended because like the vast majority of lenses, the edges of the image circle are not as sharp as the centre. Anecdotally, the sharpest 'edge-to-edge' aperture for the 17 is around f18. That said, my JPEGs always look a bit soft on this site, so don't read too much into them. Both lenses are prone to flare and CA - keep the sun behind you. My first picture has much better contrast.

My Sigma 14-24 appears sharper than both of these lenses. I could have used that one at this location for all three images. I'll take it next time. Biggest issue I had yesterday was taking the wrong tripod. My Manfrotto 190 has the long centre column so I couldn't get low level and didn't know how deep/dirty the moat was and could see myself over-balancing and taking a swim. What I really could have done with was a ground spike. Might get one. Be great for fending off muggers.

People will of course say that you can do everything that a shift lens does in Lightroom. There is some truth to that, but straightening verticals in Lightroom on a tight crop often results in missing corners, so you crop or use generative fill, then you never are quite certain you haven't over-stretched your subject vertically. it's very satisfying not to have to use the transform tool.

One word of caution. Think carefully before buying a tilt-shift lens privately. They are not weather sealed. With all the movements come opportunities to fill the lens with dust or break a gear or a knob. Easy to buy a dud.
Thanks for all the useful info and tips Richard. It would be nice if one of the low-cost Chinese brands (TTArtisan, 7Artisans etc) could make a more modern shift lens. MF would be fine and it could be easily made to fit all the modern mirrorless mounts (L, FE, Z, R) which would hopefully give whoever makes it a sufficiently wide customer base. A modern-day interpretation of the 17mm Canon TSE would be great.
 
Thanks for all the useful info and tips Richard. It would be nice if one of the low-cost Chinese brands (TTArtisan, 7Artisans etc) could make a more modern shift lens. MF would be fine and it could be easily made to fit all the modern mirrorless mounts (L, FE, Z, R) which would hopefully give whoever makes it a sufficiently wide customer base. A modern-day interpretation of the 17mm Canon TSE would be great.
Actually, it seems that Laowa do a 20mm shift lens (FF):

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Actually, it seems that Laowa do a 20mm shift lens (FF)

Interesting. Lacks tilt, but I don't think I've used the tilt function with the wides, although respondents to Michael Breitung's video panning the Canon 17mm have suggested that a 1 degree downward tilt is helpful when keeping the tops of tall buildings in focus when attempting to use wide apertures.

Looking at his results, I suspect he had rented a bad copy. Easily done. The first TS-E 24mm I bought was persistently soft on the left edge. Rotating the lens moved the image around the film plane - it had had a knock. The replacement from MPB was not in as good cosmetic condition but was optically fine.
 
Interesting. Lacks tilt, but I don't think I've used the tilt function with the wides, although respondents to Michael Breitung's video panning the Canon 17mm have suggested that a 1 degree downward tilt is helpful when keeping the tops of tall buildings in focus when attempting to use wide apertures.

Looking at his results, I suspect he had rented a bad copy. Easily done. The first TS-E 24mm I bought was persistently soft on the left edge. Rotating the lens moved the image around the film plane - it had had a knock. The replacement from MPB was not in as good cosmetic condition but was optically fine.
The Laowa looks decent. Dustin Abbott did a review of it on Sony FE.


But it's not a cheap lens - almost £1200. About the same as a Canon 17mm TSE on the used market.
 
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The Laowa looks decent. Dustin Abbott did a review of it on Sony FE.


But it's not a cheap lens - almost £1200. About the same as a Canon 17mm TSE on the used market.

"But it's not a cheap lens - almost £1200. About the same as a Canon 17mm TSE on the used market."

That, in a nutshell, is a bit of a dilemma.

It's hard to say whether one is better than the other without getting hold of some raws. Mr Abbott doesn't seem to have levelled his camera very well either.
 
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