Perspective Control Lenses

[te51cle]

Made to fit all the common manufacturers SLRs. Somewhat cheaper than the manufacturer's own models !

Anyone ever heard of these [url]ebay link|http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/35MM-PERSPECTIVE-CONTROL-PC-LENS-IN-CAP-CANON-EOS-EF_W0QQitemZ7554949473QQcategoryZ30033QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem[/url] ?

[v6gto]

I think, basically, you can move the central lens up to 3.5 degrees to prevent converging virticals...a less expensive way around the problem than a tilt & shift lens...if it works. Plus there will be a cheap piece of plastic in front of your expensive glass.

Martin.

[simpo two]

PS 'Transform' works for me :-)

[te51cle]

Seems to be a replacement body cap instead of a lens add-on, Only moves about 4 mm off axis where a Canon 24mm TS-E gives a 10mm movement, but as its so close to the film maybe the effect will be greater. Yes the lens is plastic, and fixed focus, and no doubt wil suffer from flare, but I'm thinking of getting creative rather than technically precise images, and at £23 delivered I think I'm talking myself into ordering one just for the hell of it !

[simpo two]

Mate, it's a kid's toy. Save yourself £23 and use Transform.

Tell you what, for £20 I'll you how it works

[malc350]

Kid's toy it is: can't be much of a substitute for this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Nikkor-PC-shift

Amazingly these "proper" PC lenses have really dropped in value, forget the £300 "buy it now" shown as these typically sell for £200 or less.

However as a couple of posters say above maybe it's down to the use of "transform"!?

[v6gto]

Transform is a stonking tool once you've sussed it (doesn't take long)

Martin.

[te51cle]

Thing with the transform tool is that you either end up with Photoshop doing some interpolation with possible undesired effects or you have to crop some of the image (which I will have forgotten to allow for when snapping !). Getting it right on the film means that the full frame stays as it was shot.

Now whether Photoshop's interpolation corrupts more than a cheap plastic lens remains to be seen. Yes, it probably will be better to do it in Photoshop but its an excuse to buy and play with a new toy !

[LongQ]

te51cle said:

Now whether Photoshop's interpolation corrupts more than a cheap plastic lens remains to be seen. Yes, it probably will be better to do it in Photoshop but its an excuse to buy and play with a new toy !

The description suggests it has 3 elements so might not be quite the cheap toy we would guess. It's almost overly complex for a pinhole lens!

It's on my list of toys to obtain as well so I would be interested to know what you think. The real question is, if the quality is acceptable, what creativity does it allow at the point of capture that Photoshop cannot provide in post processing? Can it, for example, provide extreme depth of field adjustment from relatively short distances?