I have, for more than 20 years, stood behind a 4 x 5 view camera and composed my images on a ground glass.1 When I added digital, I chose a Canon 5D in part because of the three tilt and shift lenses that are part of the EOS system. These Canon TS-E lenses bring some of the geometry-bending camera movements of a view camera to Canon DSLR’s. The Canon operation and specs of the TS-E lenses are covered very well here and here.
However, the viewfinder of a DSLR is not to be confused with the back of a view camera. A View Camera allows close inspection of focus with a magnifying loupe as well as real time, interactive adjustments. A good view camera, even a not so good camera, is a precision instrument compared to the combination of a DSLR view finder and the fairly course tilt adjustments of a TS-E lens.
My two Canon TS-E lenses, I own the 24mm and the 45mm, have been, until recently, more useful for their shift capabilities (up and down or right and left) than their ability to tilt (changing the angle of the front of the lens relative tot he film plane.) When I shoot commercial architecture lens shift is vital in maintaining the geometry of buildings. Doing so on the camera results in far sharper and not incidentally, larger files than relying on Photoshop or any other software to correct geometry after the fact. Shift is also very useful for making two shot, stitched, panoramic images.
I suspect that few of the folks lined up to pay real money(tm) for the recently introduced EOS-1D Mark III did so wondering if, in addition to the the superior high ISO performance, amazingly smooth 14-bit RAW files, unmatched shadow detail, occasionally hinky auto focus, blinding speed along with a bewildering number of features and custom functions, if it might be a very good match for the TS-E lenses.
OK. It is possible I was the only one.
At any rate, the combination of a gorgeous 3.0-inch LCD monitor and Live View, which lets you composition and shooting directly from the camera’s monitor, make EOS-1D Mark III, hence forth the Mark III, a very nice, if somewhat over-qualified, match to the manual focus TS-E lenses.
Once you have the world’s fastest DSLR set firmly on a tripod and Live View enabled Canon has provided several tools that make the faux view camera work quite smoothly. First, a mouse like Multi-controller allows for quick navigation around the LCD screen. At any point one can hit the Magnify Button and jump to first 5x and then, with a second poke, 10x magnification. This makes checking focus, and adjusting tilt to achieve focus, nearly as accurate as a loupe applied to the back of a “real” view camera. Additionally, Canon has built in on-monitor masks for various aspect ratios. Because I will forever think that a 3:2 ratio makes for way to tall a vertical, 4 x 5 is my personal favorite.
Finally, when the world is in focus from here to infinity, there is the perverse joy of knowing you can fire off a 5 frame HDR (High Dynamic Range) bracket in a half-second or so. Now if only Canon would allow the LCD image to be upside down and backwards…
Icebergs, Jökulsárlón Lagoon, Iceland.
Canon EOS 45mm (58mm eqivelent on the Mark III) TS-E Lens
f 9.0 with front tilt. Foreground ice is 3 feet from camera. Distant Mountains at infinity.
1 It’s been a very long time since I used a ground glass, having switched long ago to far brighter focusing screen systems with a Fresnel lens and far more plastic than glass.