Canon patent novel tilt-shift adapter for mirrorless cameras

[GrahamL]

I don't know if this will come to fruition but Canon has apparently just patented a way of potentially making all of their EF lenses for mirrorless cameras have tilt-shift functionality.
See http://www.photographybay.com/2015/08/24/canons-coming-electronic-tilt-shift-adapter-that-works-with-every-ef-lens/

I guess a fair bit of development would be needed before it would come to production, as said in the article a degree of automation would probably have to be incorporated for many of their users to want to adopt it.

Interesting development though,

Cheers, Graham

[Mike Farley]

Hi Graham

Thanks for the link. Assuming this ever comes about, Canon is making a logical advance on what is already available. One example is this manual adapter and Kipon for Sony mirrorless cameras - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kipon-Nikon-F ... 1283113131. Essentially what Canon is adding are the electronic links to control aperture, AF and IS. Since an adapter is necessary to attach EF lenses to EOS-M, this potential new device could serve both purposes if a reliable way of centering it can be devised.

The author of the article clearly did not originally understand the optical principles involved, as indicated by the update. This device can only work with EF lenses due to the larger image circle required for full frame operating on the APS-C EOS-M sensor. The adapter occupies the space required for the longer distance between the rear element and the sensor to accommodate a DSLR mirror. Given there is a crop factor involved, I am not sure how much utility this actually provides as tilt shift lenses are most commonly used at shorter focal lengths. It could make a useful if expensive pairing with Canon's 11-24 zoom, though.