Tilt-shift photography is a niche but growing area, with some big releases in this space recently like Fujifilm's tilt-shift GFX lenses which our reviewer called "the best tilt-shift lenses in the world."
If you have never experienced tilt-shift photography, but want to give it a go, unfortunately, tilt-shift lenses do have a habit of being quite expensive. But recently there have been more affordable lenses in this area coming from a growing number of third-party lens makers, the latest – the 7artisans 50mm F1.4.
The 7artisans 50mm F1.4 is a tilt-shift lens for Sony E-mount or Fujifilm X-mount APS-C cameras and for Micro Four Thirds cameras. This gives the lens a 1.5x (APS-C) or 2x (MTF) crop, giving a full-frame equivalent focal length of either 75mm or 100mm. The lens will be a fully manual lens, so that means manual focus and manual aperture, and I can't see from currently available information if the lens has any electrical contacts for providing EXIF data to the camera. The wide f/1.4 aperture should help create some nice depth of field though.
But what is tilt-shift photography? Tilt-shift photography changes how a lens lines up to the camera sensor, changing this focal plane can manipulate the camera's focus and perspective to either change the view of a subject such as tall buildings in architectural photography, or get front-to-back focus as often used in landscape photography. There are also more fun ways of using tilt-shift lenses such as creating the miniature effect in model worlds.
The 7artisans 50mm f/1.4 is available now and costs $226 in the US, with pricing in other locations to be confirmed.
Check our guide to the best tilt-shift lenses for other options for you camera
