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Kipon tilt adapter, would you please show some of your images?


milandro

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I have been wondering whether to buy one of these simple adapters to get some pictures, mostly portraits, where I can place the sharpness on only a limited portion of the image.

 

I would like to see some work of the forum members and I particularly would want to see different lenses in the range 50mm to 135mm used on a Fujifilm body.

 

I’d also appreciate comments on the ease of working with this particular implement.

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well, As you may know, I have suggested precisely that technique somewhere else 

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/805-using-the-camera-miniature-effect-for-portraits/

 

however, there are limitations.

 

1) you can only do this in one film setting, the one chosen by the advanced mode, you can’t even shoot RAW’s with this method.

 

1) you can only put a sharp pictures between two bands of unsharp image an that only works top and bottom of the sharp part, you cant have the focused area in a diagonal or in a really tilted plane.

 

Nice though that is, it is not the same!

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well, As you may know, I have suggested precisely that technique somewhere else 

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/805-using-the-camera-miniature-effect-for-portraits/

 

however, there are limitations.

 

1) you can only do this in one film setting, the one chosen by the advanced mode, you can’t even shoot RAW’s with this method.

 

1) you can only put a sharp pictures between two bands of unsharp image an that only works top and bottom of the sharp part, you cant have the focused area in a diagonal or in a really tilted plane.

 

Nice though that is, it is not the same!

I don't know that adapter.  Is it kind of what a tilt-shift lens does? Or the lens baby?

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I am surprised nobody, among the forum’s members, has done any work with this or any other tilt adapter.

 

This one has the advantage of being better made than the lensbaby and that one could fit proper lenses on it.

 

In fact, if anyone would care to share his pictures and experiences I was wondering which focal length would have given the best results on a Fuji camera.

 

Using a 50 to 60mm would be the obvious and cheapest choice but I was wondering if a 85 to 90mm wouldn’t have been a better choice.

 

I have been thinking of this and researching the market with disappointing results.

 

Due to all this adaptive photography going on the price of these lenses which you couldn’t give away a few years ago has shot up and now there is a lot of people who have obviously scoured the market buying everything, which are now offering these lenses at premium prices.

 

One of the obvious candidates are the many Russian M42 screw lenses.

 

85mm would be a nice size.

 

I also wonder how usable lenses for 6 x 6 cm are ( with an adapter to mount on this adapter)

 

Another thought is to use a macro bellows on this adapter and using an enlarging or special macro lens ( a bit clumsy perhaps)

 

Any thoughts?

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I'm almost positive there is a member here who has almost every one of the Kipon Adapters.  I've seen the photo of them all that the member posted, but I can not remember his name..

 

This gentleman has stated in a couple of posts that he has at least one...http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/user/435-antony/

Perhaps he will share his experiences??

 

Also found this link searching the forums for Kipon..

http://aboutphotography-tomgrill.blogspot.de/2014/01/tilt-shift-adapter-on-fuji-x-e2-x-pro1.html

 

Perhaps it is another forum I saw that massive picture of all the adapters...

 

Ok...It was the other X-Forum...

http://www.fujix-forum.com/index.php?/topic/5769-kipon-tilt-ring-on-x-pro1-first-results/

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Thanks for suggesting these pages.

 

I had already seen them in my on line wanderings researching the subject.

 

Most people who have spoken of this on line talk of the more expensive, and perhaps more interesting to most,Tilt-Shift adapter which is not what I want to buy.

 

I have in fact already bought this kipon tilt only adapter knowing very well that that is all that I am ever going to use for the intended purpose of portraits.

 

I have considerable experience with the use of studio cameras and I know that, for what I want to do at present, this will be the only type of lens movement that I need.

 

I have read a few things about this adapter though and they taught me the following.

 

1) It tilts a maximum of 9 degrees.

 

I would have appreciated some more tilting, but this somewhat limited movement ability comes as a consequence of the compact size and operational ease. 

 

2) It only has a “ free” and “ locked” position.

 

It would have been nice to have also a “ clicking” mechanism to indicate that the adapter is in a central, non tilted in any direction position, in order to use this as an adapter also when you do not intend to tilt anything at all and just adapting a lens to my X camera.

 

 

What I would really like to see though ( and I’ve found only few examples on line) is how it works on a Fuji camera with several focal lengths in portraiture.

 

I am not interested in the “ miniature” effect ( of which I saw several examples) and only have minimum interest for still life or macro applications, but I am particularly interested in seeing portraits, close up and the whole figure, and the level of sharpness at different apertures, with different type and focal length lenses.

 

This would help me selecting one or two lenses.

 

I think that I will go for an Helios 58mm ( due to its low budget cost , I had a few in the past and sold them). Maybe I will go for a 85mm with M42 fitting  but they are considerably more expensive.

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I am the guy that has (almost) all Kipon adapters for the Nikon F to Fuji X combination.

 

Your observations on the Kipon tilt (only) adapter are correct. For precise or repeatable work, this adapter lacks any form of scale for the tilt angle, not even a way to (re)set it to the 'zero' position.

The ring operated by the two pointy protrusions has a clamping effect: you can loosen the ball socket to a more or lesser degree. But the operation is not necessarily smooth, somewhat degrades over time (lubricant?) and unstable especially with somewhat larger/heavier lenses.

 

For those reasons, I almost always move over to the tilt&shift adapter.

 

When I do use the tilt only adapter, I set it fairly loose and move the lens around while I compose and focus, a bit like you would do with freelensing. I use focus peaking to have some indication of  where the sharp zone ends up. As you have experience with studio cameras, you will know that both tilt angle and focus distance directly affect the position of the plane-of-focus. 

 

I hardly shoot portraits, so I don't have any meaningful sample images around. Besides, I am not fully clear on exactly which type of effect you are looking for.

 

If you are willing to do some playing around with math, to see the differences resulting from varying focal length and aperture, I can point you to two resources:

  1. there's an excellent article on using tilt shift lenses to control depth of field at cambridgeincolour.com. It includes (near the end) an interactive Depth of Field Calculator; make sure to select the advanced mode;
  2. if you have an iOS phone of tablet, there's a brilliant Tilt Calculator app from snapi that will show you a lot of data related to a specific setting.

original.jpg

 

I am rather busy with some other projects at this time, but I do have 20/24/35/50/85/100mm Nikon lenses at hand. If you could more precisely describe a test setup, I would at least look into whether I could be of assistance.

 

Good luck!

 

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Thank you for you kind answer.

 

Having had a long professional and didactic experience in studio photography, I am very experience with the effects of camera movements with large and medium format , however, not so much with the same thing done on small format cameras.

 

Despite your, no doubt, useful links to the theoretical side of this type of photography, I am still convinced that a photograph is worth 1000 words or formulas.

 

I’d like to see, if possible and at your leisure and convenience, the effect of the kipon tilt adapter used with a 50 to 60mm and 85mm for portraits from close up to entire standing figure with a few aperture settings ( from 2 to something closer that that).

 

Thank you in advance for whatever contribution to my quest you will make in future and the one you have made already.

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The Kipon adapter has arrived but I don’t have, yet, a lens to test it with so no images yet.

 

It is very well made and very heavy but the action of the ball swivel system is not particularly fluid whatever fluidity it has it largely depends on grease, which I suppose it is vaseline, smeared on the ball and socket articulated swivel moving part.

 

I am a bit anxious about exposing my sensor to something with grease on it  :blink: . I had some bad , traumatic,experience last time I tried an adapter on a X-E1. Maybe, when I decide which lens to use and after a thorough clean I will leave it on the lens ( Keep-on right?  :D ).

 

Anyway!

 

I won’t rush into buying anything because I have no money  :rolleyes: and because I don’t want to go on the rampage buying things that I have to sell later on.

 

I seem to have set my mind in one or more lenses between the 50mm and 100mm focal range.

 

The most likely candidates seem to be 85mm Russian lenses ( the price of which has gone through the roof aver the years), another possibility would be some CCTV C mount lenses 50mm or 75mm , the last are very difficult to be found.

 

But maybe the 50mm will turn out to be good for what I want to do, mostly portraits, and I will buy one of those CCTV or a Helios, who knows! :rolleyes:

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Oh well! I got to look for some cheap M42 glass out there. It is getting more and more difficult to find these lenses at the price that you were finding them a couple of years ago.

 

Before the mirrorless era they were a penny a pound but now everyone has got word of the “ adaptive” photography craze and the prices, especially of the less common lenses, have shot up.

 

So, now German lenses ( even East German lenses) have reached serious money and even the unknown Japanese lenses have gathered a following which they never had in their heyday. Let’s not talk about Asahi Pentax M42 lenses which are, generally, very expensive (everything is relative though!).

 

What is still affordable are the Russian Helios 58mm ( Swirl Bokeh, Swirl!) and the omnipresent 28 and 135mm of any maker which before everybody bought and therefore are plentiful and not particularly sought after.

 

Different focal lengths are  difficult to find in any brand ad configuration 85mm, 90mm, 100mm, 35mm, 24mm, 21mm, 20, 15mm.

 

It is a good job that I will be experimenting mostly with portraits and the kipon tilt adapter so, focal lengths between 58mm and 135mm will be probably the most useful to me.

 

Still looking for someone else who has made actual use of this adapter and that cares to share his pictures here to help me choose the focal length which would suit me the most.

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anyway, some more tests with the Helios, very little tilt, about 2º is all you need really

 

 

 

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I bought it secondhand in the NL although one or two shops here have then in stock so, at least in theory, one could go there and try it out ( if you already have the lenses to adapt).

 

I really think that I am going to be using this for the purpose of portraits alone. The “ miniature” effect with anything else is nice but you grow weary with it very quickly ( at least I know that I would).

 

In another thread http://www.fuji-x-fo...-for-portraits/ I spoke of the built-in “ miniature” effect contained in the advanced modes of the camera. That does offer a similar effect but with many limitations.

 

Of course whatever it is, that is absolutely free.

 

This, on the contrary, has the defect of being something that you have to buy but if you enjoy fiddling around with old lenses and looking for them at street markets this might be your thing.

 

One thing has to be clear there is no way to use this particular implement for any serious architectonic photography, maybe you can do that with the even more expensive tilt -shift adapter ( which possibly is way more awkward to use due to being operated by the use of  two levers).

 

Of course others will find that none of this is needed since they can do this with their software while comfortably sitting at home.

 

There is is more than one way to skin a cat!

 

Adaptive photography has many limitations and it is not for everyone. It is, in a way, the opposite that any of the modern cameras are about.

 

The bulk of the innovation of the last software for the X-T1 was about the autofocus and this goes in the complete opposite direction.

 

Having said this it is fun.

 

the mechanism is really very simple and doesn’t operate with great precision but this gives the fun to shoot things on the fly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This the latest acquisition a 100mm f4 macro Asahi Pentax takumar.

 

The lens is truly spectacular and I might use it for different purposes too. The f4 maximum aperture causes a bit of noise in the EVF when using it in very low light but it performs very well with the kipon adapter very slightly tilted and is very sharp in the very shallow area in focus .

 

All these lenses are really performing very well for the intended purpose of portrait.

 

I have also bought a 28mm 3.5 Pentax which I have tried this one too on the kipon adapter.

 

Of course this is a medium wide-angle on this format and here the “ miniature” effect of the tilt adapter comes into its own (if that is what you are looking for )

 

Pleasant though it is, I am sure that if one would use this extensively the viewer would become rapidly bored with it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

never mind, I’ve solved the problem on my own and for the benefit of others I will add here my findings.

 

I didn’t have too much time to use the adapter after buying it and there was something that was bothering me a bit. Even tightening it well, there was still a little “ wiggle” of the lens after everything was the way it was supposed to.

 

At first I thought it was a problem which I had and addressed and resolved with the help of Kipon staff.

 

If you by mistake screw this off completely you need to reassemble it by aligning the studs of the front section to the hoses of the back section.

 

 

 

Having done this, you then tighten the front to the back sections with the screw in ring making sure that the studs stay in the holes. If you don’t do that the adapter will never lock.

 

But mine was locking and still there was a minute wiggle.

 

I had written the original owner who told me that this was normal but I wasn’t convinced.

 

So, I took a look at the adapter again.

 

 

 

Those 4 screws, they attach the M42 ring to the adapter and probably any version of the adapter has a different ring allowing the proper lenses to be fitted to the adapter.

 

I screwed those off.

 

Under that there are 4 more screws and they were a little loose.

 

Tightened those... et voilà !

 

Everything as tight as a drum.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...

resurrection of this thread

 

 

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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nice to know your buying plans, but if you don’t mind me saying this, this thread has a completely different scope and is to see pictures shot with a tilt adapter, not even the tilt shift one.

 

 

I’d like to see something in the manner of this or any other picture shot with this particular adapter

 

 

 

 

 

Peter%2BB%2526W%2B100mm%2Bpiccola%2B.jpg

Edited by milandro
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