What are the advantages and disadvantages of axis tilt vs base tilt, not just theoretical, but in practical day to day use, both field and studio.

-- Ed Nygard (nygard@localaccess.com), December 08, 1997

Answers

Simply put, the advantage of on-axis tilts is that their use requires less refocusing and recomposing than do base tilts. I have a field camera (Wista SP) with on-axis front tilt and base back tilt and I find that the use of on-axis tilt takes less readjustment of focus and no readjustment of composition whereas use of base tilt with the camera back requires more focus readjustment as well as repostioning of the camera to obtain my original composition particularly when extreme back tilt is used. I would recomment reading Leslie Stroebel's "View Camera Technique". Chapter 13, View Camera Types, addresses this issue much better than I can.

-- Mark Windom (mwphoto@nwlink.com), December 16, 1997.