A general question,what may be considered the minimum degree of tilts (front and rear)to "handle" landscape subject matter.My previous work was with a Cambo view, and now a few years later looking to purchase a "field camera". Thank's for the imput. Larry

-- Larry Shearer (rlrajls@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

A field camera will work just fine for your purposes. In landscape type photography all you will need in most situations is a little movement.

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), November 25, 1999.

Larry, I seems to been the most common response that you only need limited movements or a little bit of front tilt. And in my limited experience that has been the case.

Yet John Fielder, who I consider somewhat of a master, has said that he has had occation to twist his Linhof Super Technika into the shape of a pretzel. It's my best guess based on seeing many of his books that he might be refering to some of the extreme near far shots he takes - such as a Columbine inches from the lens and a dramatic peak in the background. Since you have some experience with LF, maybe you can visualize you intended style and judge accordingly.

-- Roger Rouch (rrouch@msn.com), November 25, 1999.

Hi, Larry: View camera movements depend on the "near and far" relationship. For average landscape without a near object you would apply none or a little movement. It gets complicated when you have a near vertical and at the same time a near horizontal object. In this situation you have to use extreme "swing" (vertical rotation) and a "tilt" (horizontal rotation). This is why you have to have a lens or lenses with plenty of coverage. You may use the back for "swing" or "tilt" but if you do, you alter the geometry of the subject. Best,Tito.

-- Tito Sobrinho (z3sobrinho@prodigy.net), November 25, 1999.

I commonly have the camera about 6 feet above the ground, and want the ground in focus. So a few degrees of tilt satisfies Scheimpflug (the film and lens planes intersect on the ground). This is a 'typical' landscape situation.

But if I place the camera just a few inches above the ground, I need much more tilt to satisfy Scheimpflug, as much as 30 or 45 degrees. I don't do this very often, but you might want to.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), November 25, 1999.

Not much to add. Height above the plane of focus (generally the ground in landscape) tends to be the determining factor. Another appliation which calls for greater amounts of movements is macro work. However, in most cases, it is perhaps more likely to be the coverage of the lens rather than the camera, which proves to be the limiting factor. DJ

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), November 25, 1999.