Medium Format Lenses with the Pentacon Six Mount
A comparative test
by TRA

Other Advantages of Shift Lenses



[45diag: Lens diagram for the 45mm shift
and shift/tilt lenses from Hartblei]
This is clearly identical to the lens diagram for the Mir-26
wide-angle lens,
which can be seen here.

[55diag: Lens diagram for the 55mm Arsat shift lens]

The instruction manuals that come with the 45mm Hartblei Super-Rotator and the 55mm Arsat shift lens suggest other circumstances where using these lenses can be advantageous.

Turn your 6×6 camera into a 6×8 or 6×9cm camera!

Hartblei and Arsat suggest that for some shots, you can get the equivalent of using a much larger format.

This results in a combined film coverage, according to my calculations, equivalent to slightly more than a 6×8 frame.  Hartblei says the same as me, while Arsat says that the combined frame (with the same degree of shift) is equivalent to a 6×9 camera.  A 6×8 camera in fact produces an image 56mm × 76mm.  This procedure will give you a combined image 56mm × 80mm.  Of course, you have to combine it, which involves scanning both frames to create one, wider image.  There is considerable overlap, and in imaging software you can use this overlap area to eliminate problems, such a walking person who appears in slightly different places in each frame.  You can erase one of them – or even both, if you prefer!


Paris shots from Super-rotator instruction manual
 – although it looks as though they either took the pictures with a 645 back or cropped both images






Avoid appearing in mirrors or shop windows

To avoid your reflection appearing in a mirror or shop window, you can move to the left, and then shift the lens to the right, to get virtually the same image, minus the reflection!


These shots are from the Hartblei Super-rotator instruction manual
(note the Pentacon Six with Waist Level Finder!)

The Arsat 55mm shift lens manual illustrates the same point with a diagram:


(note the Kiev 60 with metering prism – but then of course it is made by Arsenal, who make the lens!)

Eliminate obstacles

The Arsat manual also explains how on some occasions you can not only eliminate reflections, but even actual objects, such as street lamps or telegraph poles, with careful use of horizontal shift.  It illustrates the problem and the solution with another diagram:


Diagrams and text from Arsat 55mm shift lens instruction manual.
So, shift lenses offer many advantages!

But there is more!  As well as shifting lenses, it is possible to tilt them.  See the next section!

To go on to the next section, click below.
Next section (Tilt lenses)
 

For details of mount compatibility limitations in general, and movement limitations when using the tilt and shift lenses with the Exakta 66 with the Exakta 66 TTL metering prism, see the next section.

To go back to the section on Other Accessories, click here.

To go back to the beginning of the lens tests, click below and then choose the focal length that you want to read about.
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© TRA August 2007, November 2008