A Strange German Lens

Whilst wasting time surfing the net looking for a better copy of one of my Nikon shift lenses, A strange looking lens popped up on Ebay as an alternative. The Schneider Kreuznach PC Curtagon 4.0 35mm had an original take on a shift lens movement. Instead of the usual screw, you turn a ring to shift the lens.I resisted buying it for a while before GAS got the better of me, and this lens was just to curious to miss. It is also brand new in a box, and it cost me just €240. They usually go for much more. My local dealer has a sad looking one at €300 in Leica mount. So I was sure if I did not like it I will lose nothing when I sell it on.

My lens is the last version, and dates from the mid eighties and is multi coated. I only found a couple of reviews of this lens, and both talk about the lens having barrel distortion. I took it out today to see what it was like to use, and to see some pictures made with this lens.

I quite like the rendering of this lens, the images seem to have a certain smoothness. I might of been the overcast day though. The chromatic aberrations seem less than my Nikon 35mm PC and the lens at F8-11 seems nice and sharp. I used Capture 1 to straighten things out to my satisfaction, although the barrel distortion is not really noticeable in a real life photo. My lens which has been years on the shelf has a certain stiffness to the shift mechanism, but it seems to be freeing up a bit. Will it dethrone the Nikon 35PC? Well the Nikon has 11mm of shift, the Curtagon has just 7mm, so it is a toss up.

Here are a couple of shots of the lens and a few test shots I did in town.

From the lens construction diagrams I have this appears to be optically identical to the Leica PA-Curtagon-R 35mm F4 which you can play with in the PhotonsToPhotos Optical Bench.

Thanks for the interesting link

In fact Leica rebadged this lens, it seems from a quick hunt around Leica resources. The Leica branded lenses seem to sell SH at a premium.

If you want to try out shift photography, maybe you can adapt one of the old Nikon or Canon shift/TS lenses, you can fond the for about €300, but like a lot of SH gear prices are rising. The lens in my OP cost me €240.

Geometrically there is no real difference between using a shift lens, or doing it in post. I have done overlays to prove it. You can read about it here.

That said the advantage of a shift lens for architecture is that you see what you get, which is not a banal difference. I get the framing right in camera, which just a little adjustment in post. "Doing it in post", means you will be guessing the amount of space around the subject, you might even loose subject matter. With some complex shapes you will not remember what the object looked like

I recommend getting an older generation shift lens on Ebay. If you like it then do what I did and hunt down a second hand 24TS lens

One of my projector lenses (an ISCO 40mm 2.8 perspective control projector lens) has a similar circular control for shift, though I don't think it shifts as far.
40mm perspective control projector lens mounted by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

So far I've tried it quickly on MFT & then put it away & forgot it. I will have to dig it out & try it on the A7ii, an 80 equivalent FOV wasn't much use for shift use, if it has enough coverage it might almost be useful on FF.

Shift is most useful for wide angle lenses up to 45mm. After that tilt is more useful for product shots with a short telephoto