DIY shift adapter for FF lenses on Nex cameras - completed

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

As long as all FF lenses have a covering circle much larger than the APSC format it means that they could be all used as shift lenses on APSC. And the SLR lenses have a longer register distance than the Sony Nex one, allowing for such a shift adapter to be made. On eBay there are a lot of tilt adapters but only few shift adapters, and all are of the rotating type. I like rotating type tilt adapters but find this type of adapters difficult to use for shift.
I like more the classical, separated H&V, geared shift provided on the old view cameras. And, as I have an old Voigtl�nder 6x9 cm. view camera in really bad shape and missing the lens, why not to try to transform its front standard into a shift adapter for my Sony Nex-7?
Of course such an adapter could only be used on a tripod for static subjects.

Let first see what could be the goals for such an adapter.

1. Any FF SLR lens could be used as a shift lens on Sony Nex cameras.

2.FF lenses could be used for taking near-FF parallax-free stitched high resolution pictures with Sony Nex.
For simplicity in use I�ll only consider an image made of 2 stitched frames.
I hope that, being a parallax-free stitch, only 0,6 mm of overlapping will be sufficient. If not then a 3 frames stitch should be made.

First conclusions :
- for a parallax-free stitch the lens should be fixed and the camera should shift. The lens-mount part of the adapter should have a tripod mount female screw.
- maximum vertical shift should be � 7.5 mm

3. FF lenses could be used for taking parallax-free stitched panoramas.

Conclusion : maximum horizontal shift should be �8.4 mm.

4. With medium format lenses could be obtained even higher resolution parallax-free stitched images.

Using the maximum H/V shift counted above with a medium/large format lens could be obtained a 80.72 mpx. parallax free 4 frames stitched image.

5. FF or medium format macro (or enlarger) lenses could be used for making parallax-free stitched high resolution digital images out of all formats of film negatives/slides.
This would be very interesting as an alternative to film scanners. HDR could be used for slides or contrasting negatives.

So far the conclusions are :
- The adapter should have a fix lens-holding part and a shifting camera part. The lens-holding part should have a tripod mount.
- Maximum horizontal shift should be �8.4 mm.
- Maximum vertical shift should be � 7.5 mm.

The front standard of my old Voigtl�nder is capable of 8.5 mm horizontal shift and 9.5 mm vertical shift. This is very convenient. If its vertical shift should be restricted to 7.5 mm. it could be used very well for the purpose.
I did some calculations and it results that if the central hole of the adapter would have minimum 49 mm it would not vignette while shifting a lens with 42 mm exit pupil.
This is more than enough for almost any FF lens.

Parts used for the adapter:
- The front standard of my old Voigtl�nder 6x9 cm camera
- A pair of Cokin adapters with threads of 49 mm and 52 mm used as shift masks.
- A metal spacer (lathe-made) with a M49 mm threaded hole, an exterior diameter of 57 mm and a thickness of 5 mm.
- A Sony E mount to whatever SLR lens adapter. The adapter was cut (lathe) at 3 mm from the camera side resulting a 3 mm thick Sony E mount for my shift adapter.
- I cut the in-camera little rail that holds the front standard when the Voigtl�nder is closed because it matches perfectly the front standard and it has a tripod threaded hole below as well. Very convenient.

I first made the camera-part of the shift adapter that is looking like that:

The shift adapter with both camera and lens parts provisionally placed:

The work is not finished yet as I still have to complete the lens-part of the adapter.
I�ll continue the post when it will be finished and, hopefully, add some samples.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Many thanks for this valuable contribution, look forward your success!

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

Thank you Attila. I hope that next week I'll find time to complete it.

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

I have just completed yesterday the work on the shift adapter project. It was not a simple DIY project. The idea is simple and efficient but a lot of precise work had to be done. For the alignment and centering of the shift masks and lens holder special pieces has to be made. The precise build of the initial Voigtl�nder lens standard helped a lot.

The only change of the initial planning consists in the fact that I gave up the idea of constraining the vertical shift to only �7.5mm. It has now �9.5mm of vertical shift and a (near)FF image can be obtained from 3 stitched frames.
Between the two shifting masks I placed, glued (self adhesive) to the lens shift mask, some special textile light seal of the type used at the LF film holders.
When fixing in place (screws) the front and back parts of the adapter the shift masks were pressed together. There is no light leak.
The adapter is quite solid and has a pleasant and precise move. I made some 0-shift H&V marks to help me find the precise no-shift position.
After finishing it the adapter proved to add to the 18mm flange distance of the Sony Nex camera another 16.5 mm. resulting a total flange distance of 34.5mm that will allow me to adapt on it most of the FF SLR lenses.
The first lens mount I made is for Leica R lenses. The Olympus OM mount will be the second because I plan to use the shift adapter with the recently acquired 24mm f/2.8 OM lens. Probably Minolta MD and M42 will follow.

The shift adapter with Leica R mount

And with the 50mm Summicron

ZoneV · Expire: 2011-12-02

Looks very good! Congratulations!

I would love to see images made with this combination!

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

Thank you Markus!
Your site is a permanent source of inspiration for my DIY work.
I'll do some tests with the above combination and post them.

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

Clever and creative, I bow to you sir!

my_photography · Expire: 2016-12-25

Looks great & very professionally done. This is of course beyond my capability. Thanks for sharing and hope to see some photos with your new toy.

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

Nice bit of workmanship and looks just right.
Interested to see the outcome of it.

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

Thank you gentlemen.
I did some in-house test with the adapter, of course, and the results are quite good. The Summichron produces quite nice and sharp ~50 mpx FF images (3 stitched frames). This adapter for landscapes and stills and a a Speed Booster for portraits makes me think twice if I really need to upgrade to the upcoming FF Nex-9.
But the shift adapter is intended for landscapes and architecture and I hope I'll find soon time to proper test it in the field. I'll post the tests, of course.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Congratulations, very nicely done! I would have mainly be concerned about getting it really light tight....