Mamiya RZ67 75mm Shift Lens

Nathan King · Apr 19, 2014

I have been interested in architectural photography and am ready to take the plunge on a shift lens for my medium format camera. I have read much about the lens (most from this forum) but still don't fully understand something. The lens has 20mm of shift capability, but exactly how much shift is that in real world terms. Would a full shift bring the center of a vertical frame to the bottom? Only a quarter of the frame? How much is 20mm?

EdSawyer · Apr 19, 2014

In Rz67 terms, it is less than a third of the frame, which is 70mm high in the vertical dimension, and 56mm high in the horizontal dimension. Still, for architectural correction, it may be enough to do the job. I have had 3 or 4 of the rz 75 shift lenses, it can be hard to find a good one. The main issue is 2 elements in one of the rear groups have a tendency for haze to develop between the cemented pair. Something to do with the adhesive used probably.

ic-racer · Apr 19, 2014

I know the shift lenses in the Rollei 6000 system are very expensive, I don't know about the Mamiya pricing. I do know that medium format view cameras and technical cameras with bellows can be relatively inexpensive and many take Mamiya RB backs. Medium format view camera lenses can also be inexpensive.

Nathan King · Apr 19, 2014

EdSawyer said:
In Rz67 terms, it is less than a third of the frame, which is 70mm high in the vertical dimension, and 56mm high in the horizontal dimension. Still, for architectural correction, it may be enough to do the job. I have had 3 or 4 of the rz 75 shift lenses, it can be hard to find a good one. The main issue is 2 elements in one of the rear groups have a tendency for haze to develop between the cemented pair. Something to do with the adhesive used probably.

That may be useful, but 20mm of shift doesn't go nearly as far as I thought. I may have to think about going large format.

Amfooty · Apr 19, 2014

Large format will give you more movements than you will ever need--the main consideration is lens coverage. Check keh--I remember there being a few cheap monorails there recently. If you wanted to stick with 120 film, there are 6x7, 6x9 and 6x12 backs available for large format.

Mamiya RZ67 75mm Shift Lens

Nathan King

EdSawyer

ic-racer

Nathan King

Amfooty

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