Tilt-shift lenses are expensive. Of that, there is no question. Even Laowa’s 15mm f/4.5 Shift is only a shift lens – no tilt – it’s only for Sony E mount, and it costs $1,200. What if there was a cheaper way? What if there was a way to turn just about any lens into a tilt-shift lens?
Well, that’s what we explore in this video from weird lens guru Mathieu Stern. In it, he takes a look at the Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR adapter ($159-329). This works like most other lens adapters, but it also adds tilt and shift capabilities with a full 360-degree rotation.
Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift Adapter
The Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift adapter is actually a range of tilt-shift adapters. According to a quick B&H search, there are 76 of them. Each of them adapts one type of lens mount to a different type of camera mount. The tilt-shift mechanism lives in between.
And while you can’t really adapt any lens, there is a wide range of them that you can. The Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR range offers a lot of different lens mount options, including the usual popular SLRs. Canon EF, Canon FD, Nikon F (and G lens versions), etc. options. But we’ve also got some less common ones.
Many of the mounts are for medium format lens mounts, which makes sense. When you need a lens with an image circle large enough to handle tilt and shift, especially if you have a full-frame sensor, it’s the logical choice. Several medium format mounts from Bronica, Pentax, Hasselblad and others are also in there.
On the camera side, it’s mostly all modern mirrorless camera mounts. In fact, the only camera mount that isn’t a current mirrorless mount is Canon EF for DSLRs. This, too, also makes sense, as there are still quite a few cinema cameras out there bearing a Canon EF mount.
No adapting mirrorless lenses, though
All of the mounts for lenses are SLR/DSLR or medium format. All of the mounts for the camera side, with the exception of Canon EF, are for mirrorless cameras. This is due to the same limitation as any kind of lens adapter.
A regular lens adapter is essentially a hollow tube with a lens mount on on side and a body mount on the other. All they do is correct the flange distance. This is the distance between the lens mount and the sensor, or film plane. The Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR tilt-shift adapter utilises the space this tube takes up to add its tilt and shift mechanisms.
With mirrorless lenses, there’s no room for such a mechanism, even attempting to adapt a lens from one system to another with a shorter flange distance. Removing the mirror box has allowed cameras to become so thin that there’s only a couple of mm between camera models now.
Some adapters allow you to mount lenses from one mirrorless system to cameras of another. They’re rare, but they do exist. The Megadap ETZ21 Pro AF ($249), for example, allows you to use Sony E-mount lenses on Nikon Z-mount bodies. But such adapters are extremely thin, with no room for a tilt-shift mechanism.
So, it’s not going to be ideal for everyone. But if you’ve got some old DSLR and medium format lenses at your disposal and you shoot just about any modern mirrorless camera, $159-329 is not a terrible price to upgrade them with tilt-shift capabilities.
Price and Availability
The Fotodiox Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift Adapter range is available to buy now from $159-329, depending on what lens mount you’re converting and what camera mount you’re trying to put it on.
