Do I Need A View Camera?

Modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras are capable tools – photographic Swiss Army knives, with wide feature sets appealing to all types of photographers.

Simply for serious projects, a Swiss Army knife isn't enough — you need a specialized tool that does i thing flawlessly. For many architectural and mural photographers, fifty-fifty in an era where digital 35mm sensors have become quite capable, this ways using view cameras, not different this ane:

This is a bit of an exaggeration of course — modern view cameras are a far cry from the behemoth above, with sleek designs like this:

Merely why on globe would someone apply what is fundamentally 19th century camera engineering over 150 years afterward? Well, information technology turns out that there are things that fifty-fifty the oldest view cameras tin can do that your cut-edge 35mm camera simply can't.

A few quick notes on terminology throughout this article:
ane. DSLRs and mirrorless cameras with standard 36 mm x 24 mm sensors are referred to interchangeably as "35mm systems." Systems with 44 mm x 33 mm sensors will be referred to as "medium-format crop systems," and systems with 54 mm x forty mm sensors volition be referred to as "true medium-format systems"
ii. We use "view camera" every bit an all encompassing term roofing monorail cameras, field cameras, and technical cameras, of all sizes, whether used with flick or digital sensors.

one) The Ultimate Perspective Control and Composition Tools

Perspective control may be the number one reason composition-focused landscape and architectural photographers use view cameras.

Perspective, or the way that objects in three dimensional space are rendered with respect to ane another in terms of size and position when projected in a 2 dimensional image, is a function of two things: where the lens is physically located in space, and the angle at which the motion-picture show or sensor the image is projected on (we'll call this the imaging plane) is oriented in relation to the subject.

With any camera — 35mm, view, or otherwise — the placement of the lens is simply determined by where you lot fix your camera in the scene. Setting bated composition for a moment, the first pace in epitome making is choosing where to stand!

Equally simple equally it may seem, this is exceptionally of import. Even small changes in position can brand a large divergence in perspective. Stepping a bit to the left or correct can modify the altitude between buildings in a skyline; moving the photographic camera up and down tin vary how objects in the foreground occlude those in the background, and moving closer into or further out of a scene can change the size of objects in the foreground and background relative to one another.

In one case we have our camera positioned in the right spot, nosotros need to institute the angle of our imaging plane to the subject. 99% of the fourth dimension, for mural and architecture, this will involve leveling the camera to the footing to eliminate a phenomenon known as "converging verticals," where lines that are parallel in space announced to come together at a single "vanishing point." Hither'southward an example of an image with converging verticals:

See how the vertical lines of the edifice come closer to one another near the top of the frame? Any fourth dimension a photographic camera is not level (or more precisely, any time the imaging plane is not parallel to the object – shooting the Leaning Belfry of Pisa with a camera leveled to the ground would really result in converging verticals considering the object itself is not parallel to the imaging airplane, but that's what you'd want given that it's not straight and that's kind of the point!), nosotros volition get this effect.

So far all of this can be accomplished on any camera. Just we still haven't considered the next pace of image making – composition.

The catch with 35mm systems is that in society to achieve your intended composition, you may have to move to a different location to become the framing you're looking for, changing the position and size of objects relative to i another, or suit the angle your camera is oriented with respect to the subject – for instance, leaning back to capture the top of a skyscraper, or down towards a valley or canyon – resulting in converging verticals.

In a case like this, in that location is technically one solution that does non involve movements – we can level our photographic camera and utilize wider and wider lenses, until we are able to go the desired framing in a subsection of our prototype, or capture the meridian of our building or bottom of our canyon. There are a few issues with this, however:

We are effectively throwing away a large portion of our image/resolution by capturing additional foreground/groundwork that we're not interested in.
A broad-enough lens for our system may non be, and as lenses go wider, they get more than and more difficult to design and correct for linearity without making compromises in optical quality.

Here'due south an example of an image where I've tried to practise that:

I've successfully kept my parallel lines straight on the skyline, but I've absolutely murdered my file through rotating, cropping, and keystone correcting slightly in postal service.

On a view photographic camera, we have movements which make these bug disappear! Amidst the various possible movements available, view cameras offer the ability to move the imaging airplane within the paradigm circle bandage by the lens without moving the lens position, tilting the camera, or resorting to ultra-wide-angle lenses.

As a result, we can set up our positioning and camera angle exactly every bit we want it, then utilize movements to perfect our composition without cropping and losing resolution, or causing converging verticals. In a super uncomplicated example, take a look at the image below — on my 4×v view camera, I'm able to shoot straight at the horizon, avoiding converging verticals, and shift my epitome plane to completely avoid the ugly construction sight in the foreground. Like shooting fish in a barrel!

Using these techniques, I was able to become this paradigm that evening without cropping, rotating, or keystoning:

Now I know, you may be thinking I'k not giving 35mm systems a fair milk shake hither – what about Tilt/Shift lenses? Great question.

Tilt/Shift lenses for 35mm systems are a great workaround, but have a few major limitations.

First off, there are a limited number of focal lengths available, typically no more three or iv for a item photographic camera system. By contrast, all lenses on a view camera have a full range of movements.

More than importantly though, all shift/rising/fall movements on 35mm cameras move the lens aeroplane rather than the imaging plane, resulting in slight changes in perspective — the very thing we are trying to avoid!

The last upshot is that typically these movements are limited to a narrow range, and often cannot exist used on multiple axes at the aforementioned time — for instance, on Catechism TS-E lenses, one tin can use horizontal or vertical movements, just non both.

Now what about keystone correction tools in epitome processing programs like Capture One? Another great question!

Keystone corrections are typically used to eliminate converging lines, and in pocket-sized amounts, tin can give good results given robust enough files. Withal, they inevitably cut into resolution, forcefulness odd crops onto images, and require image interpolation in uneven amounts beyond the frame. Additionally, while they tin can compensate for undesirable camera angling, they cannot compensate for imperfect camera positioning.

In short, modern engineering science has given the states great tools to compensate for a lack of movements in 35mm systems, but as every photographer knows, cypher beats getting images right in-camera. For another illustration of this principle in action, encounter this short commodity.

2) Simple Lenses, Sharper Images

While view cameras may seem circuitous than 35mm systems, in some ways they're actually much, much simpler. One of the ways in which this is truthful is in the way lenses are designed and focused.

On a 35mm system, a fixed mirror box or flange distance from the lens mount to sensor sets the design constraints around which an entire lineup of lenses is constructed. These differ from manufacturer to manufacturer — Nikon F-mount is different than Catechism EF-mountain, which is different from Hasselblad H-mount, which is unlike than Phase I M-mount, etc., and can fifty-fifty differ within a manufacturer's lineup if they have both DSLR and mirrorless options.

Because 35mm lenses must exist built effectually these constraints from the very beginning of their design, they have a set of hoops to spring through before annihilation else can exist addressed. This leads to complicated lens designs — for example, the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens pictured below has over xviii elements across several groups, many of which movement independently when zooming and focusing.

On the other manus, lenses built for view cameras are ludicrously elementary. Rarely containing more than ten elements or containing apertures wider than f/4, these lenses are straightforward to design, and the few companies that manufacture them (primarily Schneider and Rodenstock) tin can focus on spending extra time on R&D, making modest batches of lenses using quality materials and coatings, and maintaining tight tolerances in fabrication and associates. In contrast to the lens to a higher place, take a look at the diagram of a Rodenstock Apo-Sironar below:

Moreover, none of those elements ever move. To focus a view camera, all you lot take to do is move the lens closer to or further from the imaging airplane. That's it. The amount of extension y'all demand is adamant past the focal length of your lens and altitude to subject, and it's uncomplicated enough to ostend focus by using a loupe on basis glass or live-view with Focus Peaking on a modern digital back similar the Phase One IQ4 150MP.

DLSR and mirrorless lenses are much more complicated from an engineering standpoint, though the ease of autofocus tin can obscure this fact.

The maximum amount of move immune past lenses built into barrels is often only a few inches, so for long lenses, which would typically need to be moved dandy distances to focus near and far, this necessitates workaround lens designs.

On the other end of the spectrum, broad angle lenses may need smaller distances between their rear elements and the image plane than the mechanics of the camera mount allows, requiring other kinds of lens design workarounds.

Sometimes this ways all of the elements of the lens moves in one management within a butt, other times it ways simply a few elements shift while the balance remain stationary, and in more complex lenses, tin even hateful multiple lens groups shift in unlike directions all at once. Each of these workarounds requires tradeoffs in one aspect or another — sharpness, distortion, lite falloff, size and weight — that unproblematic, bellows-focused lenses avert.

Don't get me wrong — DSLR and mirrorless lenses use these convoluted optical designs to achieve incredible feats. Lenses with enormously broad apertures, zoom capabilities, and features like image stabilization and autofocus simply aren't possible to pattern for a view camera system. Simply in a mural or architecture scenario where a photographer can ready in accelerate and precision is the only thing that matters, view camera lenses are perfect.

A terminal interesting note here though – considering view cameras are modular and don't accept mirror boxes, they tin often be adapted to have any lens fabricated by any manufacturer, similar to nigh mirrorless cameras. With the right lens board and a medium format digital dorsum, yous can use virtually whatever lens from any manufacturer on a view camera organization digitally, with a total suite of movements! Catechism TS-E Lens on a view camera? Check! And now we tin can move in any management, on multiple axes all at once!

3) Less broad-angle distortion

Before we offset talking about distortion on wide angle lenses, nosotros demand to talk most what wide angle lenses are.

Broad angle lenses are lenses that provide a wide angular field of view (FOV) in a particular camera configuration.

They are NOT defined by a certain focal length range. Take a look at our Lens Visualizer tools, designed by DT'southward Head of R&D, Doug Peterson:

A 24mm lens, for example, might audio wide without any boosted context, and on a 35mm organization, it would be. But it would be fifty-fifty wider when used on a full frame 645 sensor similar the Phase Ane IQ4 150MP, and while not shown, placed on a small iPhone sensor, information technology would actually provide quite a narrow field of view. This is considering FOV is determined by two factors — focal length and sensor size.

When comparing lenses on unlike sized sensors, the concept of "ingather factors" often comes up. While "crop factor" isn't a great term for explaining why this concept works out, it does provide an intuitive rule of thumb for what to look FOV-wise betwixt lenses of the aforementioned focal length on different systems.

Perhaps the most common ingather cistron 35mm shooters know is that when using a lens on a smaller APS-C system, they volition feel a narrower FOV, like to that provided by a longer focal length, roughly numerically equivalent to the focal length of the lens on their 35mm sensor multiplied by a factor of 1.5x.

The same applies to larger sensors, but in contrary — when moving to a larger sensor size, lenses of the same focal length will provide wider FOVs than they would on a 35mm organisation, not narrower ones.

Keeping that in heed, we also need to sympathize what focal length ways contained of the sensor used. Consider a 100mm prime number lens for instance. All photographic lenses, with few exceptions, must be able to focus to infinity, and in mathematical terms, a simple, unmarried-chemical element 100mm lens focuses an object located at infinity when it is 100mm away from the imaging plane. This leaves a reasonable amount of distance behind the lens for mounts, mirrors, stops, shutters, or other elements, significant that most 100mm lenses tin can be designed without complex workaround designs and will have relatively little distortion.

Withal, to exercise the same affair with a 24mm lens, the lens would have to be 24mm from the image airplane to focus at infinity. This presents a problem in SLR systems, as the minimum distance the lens tin be from the image plane is express past the mirror box — 44mm for the Catechism EF mountain, and 46.5mm for the Nikon F mount. Fortunately, lenses can be designed with what is chosen a retrofocus configuration, allowing infinity focus fifty-fifty with rear focal distances greater than the lens focal length.

As with all complex lens designs though, this comes with merchandise-offs, well-nigh significantly in the form of more-difficult-to-correct distortion profiles. This effect gets worse equally nosotros move to wider and wider lenses, increasing the difference between focal length and rear focal altitude. While mirrorless cameras tin can theoretically circumvent this issue, the nearly mutual 35mm mountain, the Sony E mount, has a flange altitude of 18mm, and so ultra-wide options like 14mm and 16-35mm lenses are still forced into retrofocus designs (and the latter of those, equally a zoom lens, will exhibit an fifty-fifty more complex distortion profile just past merit of being a zoom lens). Additionally, adapting any SLR lenses like the ever-pop 17mm Canon TS-E or Nikon 14-24mm requires an adapter to make upwardly for the boosted required flange distance, relinquishing whatsoever advantage using a mirrorless organisation with a smaller flange distance would provide.

Nosotros can avoid this effect when using a larger sensor. To accomplish an equivalent 85º FOV provided by a 24mm lens on 35mm systems, we can use a 40mm lens on a true medium format digital back like the IQ4 150MP or a 75mm lens on a 4×v film system. Because digital and flick backs no hard limits on "flange distances" when used with the bellows of a view camera, we tin get abroad without having to use retrofocus designs in virtually whatsoever circumstance!

On top of it all, we tin can combine using longer lenses with the movements we discussed above to include more of our scene in any direction, effectively expanding our field of view through stitching.

Y'all can explore this more visually using our lens visualizer tool here: https://dtcommercialphoto.com/support/lens-visualizer-tools/.

four) Modularity – film formats, lens boards, scroll film adapters, DB adapters

Modularity is one of the most fun aspects of using a view camera. Nosotros already discussed how virtually whatever lens can be adapted for utilize with a view camera, simply there are many other components that can be mixed and matched. On the imaging plane, a DSLR or mirrorless photographic camera gives you lot one option:

Whatever sensor is built in

On the other manus, a view camera gives you a plethora of options. With the right adapters, y'all can apply:

Some 35mm systems
44×33 crop sensor medium format digital backs or mirrorless cameras
Total-frame 645 medium format digital backs

And depending on the type of view photographic camera yous have, you may also exist able to use:

120/220 roll film
4×5 picture show
5×7 pic
8×x film
16×20 moving-picture show
Glass or tin plates

Don't similar the meter on your photographic camera? Not a problem, use whatsoever kind you like! Diopter in your tiny viewfinder not potent enough? Use live view on a roomy medium format digital back, or a higher magnification loupe on ground glass!

In the picture show era, this flexibility came at the price of a lack of automation — no autofocus, metering, or bracketing built in — simply the ability to build your own perfect camera system from scratch was a unique advantage that cannot be ignored.

Nowadays, some of those caveats are fifty-fifty being alleviated. With true medium-format digital backs like the IQ4, bracketing is possible, as is automated metering, live view, and virtual leveling.

5) A Dissimilar Workflow Can Inspire Your Creative Process

It may seem clichéd, but adopting a slower, more thoughtful workflow tin can greatly amend your image making, if yous are willing to work at it. When I shoot with a view camera, I question myself at every step.

What is it about this scene I'm trying to capture?
Why am I placing myself at this spot in the scene?
Why did I choose to put my camera at the height it'southward at? Convenience? Or is it a meaningful function of my composition?
How does my foreground relate to my background? How much of each do I want to include in my paradigm?
How am I oriented in relation to the ground and my subject field? Where is my horizon?
How much depth of field do I demand? Do I desire my whole image in focus, or am I aiming to isolate a item feature?
How do I desire to expose my scene? Where are my highlights, if I'grand shooting digital or slide picture show? Where are my shadows, if I'm shooting negatives?
How much practice I need to move my image plane to capture the part of my paradigm circle I want?

The list goes on and on!

On 35mm systems it can be tempting and easy to capture hundreds of images quickly. Merely on a view camera, a more intentional, deliberate image composition and capture workflow almost invariably leads to new ideas and a higher percentage of quality images.

Summary

In short, at that place are numerous compelling reasons to use view cameras. While versatility is a valuable quality in a photographic camera, precision, purpose congenital tools are indispensable for serious landscape and architecture work. While older and more manual in function, the appearance of digital backs and technical cameras has streamlined view camera workflow, making them far more accessible to mod photographers.

Want to larn more about how view cameras tin can add together tools to your photographic arsenal? Contact usa for more about all things view cameras, erstwhile and new, and stay tuned for more articles on technical cameras and workflows!