Tilt experiments with Kipon Tilt adapter for Nikon lenses on Sony NEX cameras

Kipon manufactures an adapter which enables you to mount any lens with a Nikon F-mount to your Sony NEX camera. Additionally the adapter can be tilted in any direction. Tilting in this context means, that the lens is pivoted out of the optical axis of the lens.

The two following images illustrate this concept. In the first image the lens was tilted to the right (from the photographers point of view). In the second image the lens was tilted to the left (from the photographers point of view).

Nikon Nikkor 20mm/2.8 AI-s on Sony NEX-7 (tilted right)
Nikon Nikkor 20mm/2.8 AI-s on Sony NEX-7 (tilted right)
Nikon Nikkor 20mm/2.8 AI-s on Sony NEX-7 (tilted left)
Nikon Nikkor 20mm/2.8 AI-s on Sony NEX-7 (tilted left)

You can use a tilted lens to orient the plane of focus of your optical system in special ways. Normally you use a tilting lens so that the plane of focus is oriented in a way which maximizes the visually sharp areas of your image. Theodor Scheimpflug was the first person who described these facts and therefore the priciple is called the Scheimpflug principle.

But in the following example I tilted the lens in order to orient the plane of focus in a way which minimized the sharp areas of the image. As this looks nearly identical to a very shallow depth of field, the observer mostly gets the impression, that he is only looking on a photographed mock-up of a landscape rather than a real landscape.

Tilt experiment with Kipon NIK-NEX adapter and Nikon Nikkor 20mm/2.8 AI-s on Sony NEX-5
Tilt experiment with Kipon NIK-NEX adapter and Nikon Nikkor 20mm/2.8 AI-s on Sony NEX-5

In order to get this image, the lens was tilted and the camera was pointed down. Back at home, the vertical lines of the buildings were brought back to vertical alignment. In other words I tilted in the real world and shifted in the digital world…

Cross on Summit of Mount Hirschberg

North of Bad Hindelang arises the Hirschberg. It is a mountain, that is 1500m high. Near the cross is a beautiful viewpoint to the valley of Bad Hindelang, Bad Oberforf and also towards Oberjoch.
[pano file=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20120731_0034_GipfelkreuzHirschberg.xml” preview=”https://www.panotwins.de/wp-content/panos/MMatern_20120731_0034_GipfelkreuzHirschberg.jpg”]
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Wireless remote control and panorama setup for Sony NEX-7

Markus already wrote two articles about controlling the NEX-5 with a wireless remote control. The first article presented the code and the schematics. In the second article he wrote about the final ‘product’, a boxed version of his Arduino.

Inspired by his design I tried to reduce the size. Therefore I didn’t implement the infrared receiver part and I also used a Arduino Nano instead of a regular Arduino. And I also used a smaller radio receiver. I finally had these components.

Radio transmitter, opened controller-box, trigger
Radio transmitter, opened controller-box, trigger
Radio transmitter, opened controller-box, trigger
Radio transmitter, opened controller-box, trigger

The next image shows a detailed view of the guts inside the box. With all the connecting cables and the two circuit boards there is not much space left.

Arduino Nano, radio receiver, cables
Arduino Nano, radio receiver, cables

The next images are showing the final setup. The trigger is attached to the camera. The controler box is connected to the trigger. The radio transmitter is ready to fire.

Sony NEX-7 with attached trigger, controller box, radio transmitter
Sony NEX-7 with attached trigger, controller box, radio transmitter
Sony NEX-7 with attached trigger, controller box, radio transmitter
Sony NEX-7 with attached trigger, controller box, radio transmitter

The following image shows a detail of the mounted trigger on the Sony NEX-7. I used some florist wire to attach the circuit board to the connector of the hand strap. On the other side the circuit board is glued to an hotshoe adapter which connects to the hotshoe of the camera.

Sony NEX-7 with attached trigger (detail)
Sony NEX-7 with attached trigger (detail)

And finally some images of the complete panorama setup, including a custom made lens bracket (in fact it’s a simple pipe clamp from the hardware store), a Novoflex Alpha- to E-Mount adapter and a Sigma 8mm/4.0 fisheye. For panoramic photography this setup is used on top of a double-monopod construction.

The weigtht of the shown setup is 1145 g (2 lb 8 oz). My old setup (Sony Alpha 900 with shaved Sigma 10mm/2.8) has 1710 g (3 lb 12 oz). In both cases this includes camera, lens, adapter, bracket, trigger, controller box, batteries and memory card.

Both setups delivers equirectangulars with the same size (10.000 x 5.000) and with both setups I shoot 4 around and mostly no up and no down shot.

Complete setup (back view)
Complete setup (back view)
Complete setup (right view)
Complete setup (right view)
Complete setup (front view)
Complete setup (front view)
Complete setup (left view, wake up)
Complete setup (left view, wake up)
Complete setup (left view, trigger)
Complete setup (left view, trigger)

And here is the new setup in action.

Shooting a horizontal pole panorama
Shooting a horizontal pole panorama

Click here to view some panoramic images which were taken with this setup.

Unpacking a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100

The PanoTwins camera family got a new offspring: The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100. I did not expect the camera to be available before August. However several posts on different blogs talked about the availability of the camera. So I visited the home page of my local camera dealer – not expecting the sign: In stock. I headed for the store immediately, because I wanted to see it for real. I bought the camera 5 Minutes after talking it the first time into my hand. And now I can show you some unpacking images:

On the side of the box you can read about the sensor size: 1.0 type (13.2mmx8,8mm) CMOS Sensor 20.2 Mega pixels. I did not find the sensor informaion on the box of the Sony Alpha 77 😉

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box

After opening the box you find a second box containig a multilingual (15 languages: GB, FR, IT, ES, PT, DE, NL, PL, CZ, HU, SK, SE, FI, NO and DK) “Digital Still Camera / Instruction Manual”. Each language has roughly about 33 pages in the manual. No CD is included, but a leaflet stating: “PC software is in the camera. See instruction Manual or User Guide for details.”

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box Open
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box Open

After removing the second box the camera is revealed.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box Open Camera
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box Open Camera

The camera has several protecting covers and a small identification plate attached to it. This is the view from the front with the lens still closed.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100

Top view of the camera.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Top
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Top

First time with extended lens, that spans a 35mm equivalent range of 28-100mm with F1.8-4.9.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Lens Extended
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Lens Extended

After removing the camera tray you find the accessories on the bottom of the box.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box Accessories
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Box Accessories

The accessories include a rechargeable battery, that has to be loaded inside the camera by connecting a supplied USB cable. The included transformer has an USB connector that fits this cable. Furthermore you find three straps, that can be attached to the camera. However the shoulder strap is an optional accessory and is not included! You’ll only find a wrist strap and two short straps for attaching a shoulder strap.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Accessories
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Accessories

Another Experiment With a Cinemagraph

The original footage has been taken from a Full- HD movie. I exported some frames of the film to individual images and used Photoshop CS6 to create this cinemagraph (in fact it’s an animated GIF image).

View over Husavik harbour
View over Husavik harbour

Lessons learned: Use a tripod!

As I didn’t use a tripod in the shoot, I had to align each of the images to minimize the movement between frames.

Another reprojected Hallgrímskirkja (Reykjavík, Iceland)

This image also shows a reprojected image of the panorama Inside Hallgrímskirkja (Reykjavík, Iceland). The projection is “transverse mercator”.

Reprojected Hallgrímskirkja
Reprojected Hallgrímskirkja
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Reprojected St.Sylvester Church Interior

These reprojections are based on this spherical panorama. They both show the same church interior, however the first one uses a stereographic up projection, the second one a stereographic down projection.

Reprojected St.Sylvester Church Interior Up
Reprojected St.Sylvester Church Interior Up
Reprojected St.Sylvester Church Interior Down
Reprojected St.Sylvester Church Interior Down
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