Making the world smaller, touching miniature scenes. Tilt shift lenses focus on a single part of the photo and shift (blur) the surrounding area to create an opticalillusion of miniaturized scenery.

Nikon’s widest perspective control lens to date, the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED Tilt/Shift lens provides up to +/-8.5º of tilt and +/-11.5mm of shift, can be rotated 90° left or right with click stops at 30° increments, offers automatic aperture control when used with the Nikon D3 and D300 and electronic rangefinder-style focus confirmation when manual focusing with a range of Nikon SLR bodies. The lens incorporates five mechanical controls: an aperture ring, aperture stop-down button, focusing ring, shift knob and tilt knob.

The PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED Tilt/Shift utilizes both ED glass and aspherical elements and features Nikon’s Nano Crystal Coat lens coating. It has a maximum aperture of f/3.5, a minimum aperture of f/32, a close focus distance of 8.3 inches (21cm) and is intended for use on both FX and DX Nikon digital SLRs (though the built-in flash of certain models will interfere with the full range of lens movement). Filter size is 77mm, and a bayonet hood and soft case are included. It has an estimated street price of US$1929 in the U.S. and is expected to ship in the spring of 2008.

Get Perspective: PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED Tilt/Shift (Photo courtesy Nikon)

Real tilt shift lenses are quite expensive,but a similar effect can be achieved by using Photoshop after you take the photo.

Tilt shift photographs create an optical illusion that makes scenes appear as if they are actually miniature models (like your uncle’s train set). The outer edges are blurred which tricks the eye into perceiving everything in the unblurred parts as miniature. There is a Flickr group dedicated to this technique. It’s a fun post processing trick – and it’s quite easy to reproduce.

Image by mcsixth.

Image by wvs.

Image by B Tal.

Image by Topher Simon.

Photo by Rawksteadi