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Panoramics with a 203FE and CFV

fotografz

Well-known member
Anyone with a CFV that wants to do sweeping panoramic landscapes get out there and snap up a PC Mutar NOW!!!!!!!

I hadn't tried it yet, but wondered if it would help solve the 1.5X crop factor issue for controlled wide work. If you shoot with a 40mm straight, and then crop pano you lose a lot of resolution for making big enlargements.

So, since it's raining here thanks to IKE, I tried it. What a no brainer solution. :thumbs:

Heck, it wasn't even a problem turning the camera on it's side for landscape oriented shots. Just used a 45 degree prism. (I have an old 90 degree long tube prism I'm gonna modify for the 203FE).

So, you just put the PC Mutar in the zero position, center compose and meter manually, extreme shift one way: shoot, extreme shift the other way: shoot. Done.

Select the 2 DNGs for Photoshop Merge ... and a few seconds later you have a slick Panoramic 12" X 23" tiff file from those 9X9 Micro pixels we love so much. An easy 24" X 46" print from the "Little Back That Could." What's cool is that the square is something of an advantage in that it yields a nice ratio with 2 quick shots

Here some of my "rainy day" experiments ... one outside shot from the shelter of my garage, and a indoor close-up about 6 feet away from Schnuffy hunkered down on the couch. A-freakin'-mazing detail. :thumbup:
 

spotmeter

New member
With the crop factor from the back and the mutar, what is the field of coverage of the normal 80mm lens equal to in terms of focal length?
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I dont know what a 'Mutar' is..some enlightenment please ..
Here ya are Peter ... some quick snaps of the PC Mutar mounted on the 203FE with the CFV. (sorry no camera porn ... just shots in the kitchen before I leave to try some more of these panos.)

Peter, the PC Mutar is made by Zeiss and has T* coated optics. It's really built well ... like a tank. Really smooth operation. Not very big, so it's easy to add to a camera bag.
 

David K

Workshop Member
These are tough to find and they aren't inexpensive when you do find them. I used mine a while back for the same thing and agree completely, it's a piece of cake for stitching. Nice looking kit there Marc...
 

EH21

Member
Marc,
Is the result good enough just moving the lens? Wonder it it would be even better if you moved the camera and equal and opposite amount so the lens stays in the same place for both shots?
Eric
 

David Klepacki

New member
Marc,
Is the result good enough just moving the lens? Wonder it it would be even better if you moved the camera and equal and opposite amount so the lens stays in the same place for both shots?
Eric
This is correct. There is a parallax effect. At infinity, with nothing in the foreground, then it is not always necessary to keep the lens position fixed as Marc has done above. In some cases, when you have things in the foreground that you also want correctly rendered, then you would use a rail to slide the camera left and right, so as to keep the lens position fixed the same in each of the shots.

I use this setup by mounting the PC-Mutar on the Contax 645 with a Hasselblad lens adapter (Contax MAM-1). It can also be used on the Mamiya/Phase camera with a similar adapter from Mamiya. With the adapter, the PC-Mutar can be mounted in either direction, so that the shifting can be left-right or up-down, without rotating the camera. With the camera rotated vertical though, you can create a two-stitch square format(!), giving you the equivalent of a Hassy V with 1.5 times the pixels. For example, with a 39MP CF back, you would get a square of just under 60MP. If you like square landscapes, this is ideal, as it can print quite large.

It is scary to think that with a new Phase P65+, this method would give a two-shot stitched square of just under 90MP.
 

woodyspedden

New member
These are tough to find and they aren't inexpensive when you do find them. I used mine a while back for the same thing and agree completely, it's a piece of cake for stitching. Nice looking kit there Marc...
I know that Dr Pham Minh Son had one for sale about two months ago. You might try contacting him. I was tempted but had just finished paying for the H3D and was tapped out so declined. I will probably regret that decision. So you better move fast as I may contact Son soon to see if he still has it.

Woody
 

PeterA

Well-known member
Marc - thanks for that - so many littel gizmos around the place arent there? Thsi one looks cool - made for the 40CFE looks like. Hopefully teh HC version will be just as nice.

Pete
 
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