Photography by Mike Mander |

Panasonic GH2, Lensbaby Tilt-Transformer and Nikkor AF 35mm f/2D

June 20th

These are tests done with an AF Nikkor 35mm f/2D mounted to a Panasonic GH2 with a Lensbaby Tilt-Transformer. Focusing and stopping the lens down was done manually, and the quick access to a magnified view on the GH2 generally made focusing accurate. If I was in a hurry... well, I was not so accurate, but was improving as the day went on.

Tilting the Lensbaby to the max and shooting at fairly wide open f-stops (usually f/2.8 to f/4) gave a very shallow plane of focus that sometimes seems to shoot straight out from the camera, seen most dramatically in frames 1 and 7. With photo 5, tilting the lens forward resulted in a plane of focus that extended from the top of the green box, all the way to the car in the distance. Most other shots relied on a reverse vertical tilt which very much minimized the plane of focus. Photo 3 was simply a straight shot showing how well that old Nikkor still performed on a modern, high pixel-density sensor.

Please note that I did not do any post-process blurring whatsoever. This was all done in-camera while shooting with the Lensbaby Tilt-Transformer! Also, to more dramatically see the effect, definitely click on the "open high-res version" button...