Using the P.C. 28/2.8 Super Angulon R on XPan with adapter

[julio_m]

<p>I am not interested in arcquitectorial but solely in "street" panoramic photography. I am aware there is no range finder coupling; I can take care of that. My main concerns are vignetting and the "Shift" controls. How much vignetting ? How do I set the "Shift" control; for distance; for WHAT ? Is there a problem shooting wide open? How fast (or slow) are they to operate under street and indoor available light "real" world shooting situations ? Please don't tell me about what you heard or read, but about your actual shooting experiences. Thank you.</p>

[Rob F.]

<p>You don't need shift for street photography unless you want to raise the lens to include the upper parts of store

fronts, etc., to reduce vertical convergence.  Apart from that, you should just zero the lens:  set it for no

shift.  Shift has nothing to do with distance.  It will be a bit clumsy, and may not cover well at the left

& right extremes.  But with pre-set focus and a little practice, it will be workable.</p>

[vivek iyer]

<p>Buy a Mamiya 7II with the 43mm lens.</p>

<p>Using that shift lens or other similar shift lenses are clumsy. I do use a T/S lens specially constructed for ease of use on Nikon DSLRs.</p>

<p>A rangefinder and a perspective control lens combination is an exercise in futility.</p>

[julio_m]

<p>Thank you Rob and Vivek. <br>

If I understand correctly, for "people" pictures, I just set the shift on zero and forget about it - unless when I am shooting,  say about 6 feet when I will have to raise the lens to compensate for parallax. Otherwise, and in order not to lose time (and the shot) can I still leave the shift on zero and use the parallax compensation cut out lines on the Xpan's 30mm separate viewfinder ? <br>

What about vignetting ? Does it vary with the aperture ? I have been told this lens won't cover the full 65 mm width. Does anyone have actual images to post with this particuar lens, specially wide open? Thank you again.  </p>

[julio_m]

<p>Sorry for the duplicate edit; meant to delete.</p>

[Rob F.]

<p>Unless you already have the lens, you might want to think twice if you are considering buying it just for this purpose.  If you do have it, and the adapter is not too expensive, I suppose it would be a less-expensive way to use a lens wider than the normal 45mm on the XPAN.  It will cover perhaps 56 to 58mm or so in width; but the XPAN frame is 65mm wide.  So you may have vignetting at the edges.  Of course, if you are cropping the pictures to around 54mm for use in a 6 x 6 projector, you might very well get away with that! <br>

I don't think you need to shift the lens to correct for parallax--though it is a clever idea.  But unless you are doing something very exacting--in which case you need an SLR- raising the camera bit should be adequate.</p>

[julio_m]

<p>Because of the almost 3 stop difference I was considering the lens as an alternative to the XPan 30, not the 45 mm.<br>

Anybody out there with PC Super Angulon pictures? Rob F ?</p>

[vivek iyer]

<p>Julio, You need to check the MF places.</p>

<p>Look for Digitar 28mm which is the same (rebadged) or very similar to the 28mm P.C. Super Angulon.</p>

[julio_m]

<p>Enough talk and advise; thank you all. Now, let's SEE some pictures.</p>

[vivek iyer]

<p>Go through this:http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-iyer/sets/72157600151228051/</p>

<p>and see if you can recognize any that are taken with a perspective control lens.</p>

<p>If you want to see pictures of the lens, Schneider site would definitely have at least one picture.</p>

[ilkka]

<p>Sorry, no pictures either, and actually no experience either. But I do have an XPan, I have a 4/35 PA Curtagon on Leica R mount, an R to XPan adapter and a 2.8/28 Super Angulon on Sony/Minolta mount.<br>

The reason to use a shift lens on XPan is mainly to get larger image circle. Shift can be used, but it is not very easy and does not help with coverage. So you put the lens on zero adjustments and use as much of the coverage as you can. The PA Curtagon covers about 55mm and can give about 24x52mm images. The Schneider has a bit larger image circle, about 62mm, and can give 24x60mm images. You can get a bit more coverage if you choose small aperture and focus closer. With the Schneider, you should be able to just about cover the full 65mm width this way. I have seen images like that. I can post a full frame image taken with the PA Curtagon but I do not have a R mount for my Schneider, or XPan adapter for Minolta, so I cannot fit that lens on my XPan. I bought it to use on my Sony 900. It makes nice panoramas when shifted left and right, for about 40Mp total pixel size.<br>

The Fuji 30 lens is small, but obviously a bit slow at 5.6 plus 2 stop centre ND. The 2.8/28 Schneider is a huge lens. Not my first choice for street photography. I would not recommend it unless you already have it or can find a really good deal somewhere. It is also supposed to be stopped down to 5.6-8 for best results, which means that this is necessary to make use of the full image circle. So the speed gain over the Fuji lens is actually very small.</p>

[julio_m]

Ikka, THANK YOU. You said all.