Originally posted by aegisphan Anyway, currently for Pentax, I'm only aware of the two following T/S lenses: the Arax and the Hartblei. The Hartblei is about $300 more, though I don't really know their differences. Optically, they're similar; both are manufactured in Ukraine.
So I wonder if any of you have used either of these two and care to give me some feedback. I read that depending on the body, the shift function might be limited due to the built-in flash blockage. If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears.
I have the Arax 35/2.8 Tilt & Shift lens. It's a good lens, optically and mechanically, though probably a notch bellow the Tilt & Shift Canon lenses. The Hartblei 35/2.8 lens is optically identical, as both lenses are based on the Mir-67N shift lens optical unit, which is a modified Mir-1 lens. The Hartblei has a superior tilt & shift mechanism, although it is heavier than the Arax lens. The first batches of the Hartblei had a very bad flare problem (see the
Photozone.de review), which was not present on the Arax version of the lens, but it it said to have been corrected on the later production samples.
The cheapest option to consider, even cheaper than the latest version of the Lensbaby (which is a special effect lens and does not feature high quality optics), is to buy a
tilt or
shift adapter from AraxPhoto and to use it with a cheap 90/2.8 Vega-12 or 50/4 Flektogon lens. The lens has to be a medium format lens to offer sufficient coverage, meaning that you won't get wide angle field of view. Here are some pictures taken with my Vega-12 lens mounted on the tilt adapter:
Cheers!
Abbazz