Fuji GX680 focus at infinity with tilt

[oscar_ortega]

I am wondering about getting a Fuji GX680 but I would like to know if

it will focus at infinity and still be able to tilt for increased depth of field like the shots I have often seen of lanscapes in which

everything is in focus from 2 feet to infinity.

 

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I think Mamiya is coming out with a short mount lens for their new

tilt adapter for RZ67 so you can focus at infinity.

 

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Many thanks in advance

Oscar Ortega

[clay_fraser1]

In ansewer to your question, yes, the GX680 can be tilted fully while focused on infinity for all the focal-length lenses currently offered by Fuji. You will need the bag bellows for the wider angle lenses, however, to avoid impeding the front standard's movements.

[m._kary1]

I recently used a GX680 with 150mm (normal) lens, with the regular bellows, and found there was virtually no shift or tilt possible when focused at infinity.

 

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I don't know why my experience was different from that of the previous poster. Incidentaly, I found it was possible to focus slightly past infinity.

 

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[gordon_vickrey1]

>I recently used a GX680 with 150mm (normal) lens,

 

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First, a 150mm lens on a 6 x 8cm system is by any definition a telephoto, not a normal lens.

 

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>with the regular bellows, and found there was virtually no shift or tilt

>possible when focused at infinity.

 

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Secondly, I am having trouble visualizing why it is that folks want to go to infinity focus and *then* tilt. Tilting before you bottom out at infinity focus will produce a diagonal plane of sharp focus intersecting your former infinity focus, and moving the lens anywhere along the focusing rail will then swivel the new plane of sharp focus up and down until the desired line is found between you and your former optical infinity. You don't get to keep your old optical infinity when you tilt the lens away from the film plane, nor your old plane of sharp focus (which was vertical when the film plame was vertical), nor your old DOF, or even the shape of your old DOF. You do get to create a plane of sharp focus that can simultaneously include objects near your feet and the horizon--but not by focusing on infinity and then tilting. You have to play by the new optical rules.

[m._kary1]

Well, to clarify for the benefit of our original poster, who did ask a specific question: as you move the front lens standard of the GX680 closer and closer to the untilted infinity focus, the degree of vertical tilt available becomes less and less, dramatically so in fact. By the time you reach that point, virtually no tilt, or shift for that matter, is available. Of course a tilted plane of focus will aways include a line at infinity somewhere in the image, but I don't believe the original poster was ignorant of that. I believe he was asking about what limitations there were on placing this line in the image, and this was just the briefest and simplest way to state the question. The end of it all is that these limitations on the tilt available do cause a significant restriction on your ability to put the desired plane of focus exactly where you want it. Nor in my experience were these limitations only with wideangle lenses, as poster #2 found. The 150 lens, roughly the equivalent of a 65 for a 35mm camera, displayed it too. The problem is the proximity of the front and rear standards, due to the length of the mirror box, and so I suspect all the lenses would exhibit it.

 

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[clay_fraser1]

I'm at a loss to explain our different experiences with this camera. To confirm my previous post, I focused my GX680 on the mountains outside my studio (a convenient point of infinity) and tilted the front standard successively with four focal-length lenses, ranging from 50mm to 250mm. With the bag bellows (which isn't so much a bag, like on a view camera, as it is a bigger, poofier accordian), I didn't find any impediment to lens tilting. The camera itself limits the amount of tilt to 12 degrees in either direction, but I could find no problems with lens focusing or bellows scrunching at infinity. Go figure.

[j.m._petras__jim_]

Oscar,

Fuji enabled me to use a GX680 fitted with a bag bellows. The lens axis of tilt (rotation) passes through the lens center. In this case, with the lens in the "zero position", you want to focus near. To bring the background into focus, tilt the lens (e.g., Deardorff). Repeat as is necessary to accomplish greatest DOF. If the lens tilt axis was at the base of the front standard (not the case with the GX680), focus the background first, then tilt for near objects (e.g., Arca-Swiss).

 

My great dissapointment with the GX680 was in the low level of illumination on the groundglass of the waist-level view finder (used indoors and outdoors). This made focusing very difficult. The GX680III may have a brighter screen. The opportunity to select from the 6x8cm, 6x7cm, 6x6cm and 6x4.5 formats was very appealing. Fuji needs to improve upon the brightness of the groundglass to facilitate maximal use of lens movements.

Jim (Thu 25 February 1999)