Joe Cornish came to stay last week, and we got to talking about lenses. Despite it being a bit geeky, understanding what your equipment can do is still a part of being an artist (Knowing when to stop geeking out is the true test!). As Joe works with Sigma quite a bit, as evidenced by some wonderful videos that they have been producing which also include Colin Prior, I thought it would be good to chat about some potential lenses to use on my Mirex Tilt Shift adapter. I have a couple of old FD lenses with integral aperture rings that I have used but they’re not the sharpest tools, even if they do have a bit of old school character.

Joe mentioned that he had used some great ‘niche’ lenses, including a 24-35mm f/2 lens. I perked my ears up at this because I’d read a few mentions lamenting the lack of sub 2x zoom range lens because they can be exceptionally good quality. A quick check of the reviews and it seemed that this lens was no exception and it came in a Nikon mount which meant I could use it with an aperture lever adapter (from Nikon F to Canon EF, the mount my tilt adapter uses).

WEX had one available at a sub £300 price so I thought I’d check it out. It arrived last week and it’s definitely a whopper, which is to be expected at f/2, but it’s also crazy sharp with a lovely OOF quality. The lens has been taken out a few times and is now accompanied by a Sigma Art 50mm f/1.4 to share the tilt adapter. I won’t be carrying these up hills but as short walk assets, they’re incredible.

With cameras having built in focus stacking these days, you might think it redundant to use tilt but I’ve found that the results often have a special ‘look’. This includes a broad range of sharp focus while retaining ‘bokeh’ in places, another creative tool. I’ll be testing the lenses out over the next month or so but in the meantime, the photo below is from one of my tests which use copious swing.

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