the D800 is cool and all, but let's talk about a real mfd killer!

[uaiomex]

Leave that to wides! Use tilt to control what's in focus and what's not.
Eduardo

Isn't this what all wide angle lenses do?  Create wildly distorted perspective between objects near and far from the lens?

The main point of a tilting sensor would be to allow the rotation of the plane of focus through the image.

That's the effect I wanted when I used rear tilt with my Shen Hao, and any distortions were pretty much unnoticable with my subject matter (landscapes).

I can see why architectural photographers would prefer T/S lenses, but I'd prefer to get tilt with the lenses I already own.

[EricV]

Sensor tilt would be very useful for setting the plane of best focus.  Lens tilt is even better, but for most landscape applications, the distortion difference would probably not be important.  I do not think getting back to the aligned setting would be much of a mechanical design challenge.  And if tilt was off by a little bit, how would you notice?  If you did notice, you would use the tilt function to correct it 

One problem with sensor tilt is that light would no longer be hitting the pixels at normal incidence, so the micro-lenses in front of the pixels would be off-center, causing color fringing and various other problems.  This is the same effect that already occurs at the edges of images captured using (non-telecentric) lenses not designed for use with digital sensors.

[BernardLanguillier]

I almost always used back tilt with my Shen Hao 4x5, as it made little geometric difference for the landscapes I was shooting, avoided coverage issues with lens tilt, and was far easier, and faster to perform accurately in the field.  At least on that particular body.

I know, the Ebony 45SU I still own is the original design that "inspired" many Shen Hao designs.

I used assymetrical back tilt in combination with back shift a loft in some environments.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Eddy M]

but for most applications it is probably more practical to tilt the lens, isn't it?

Cheers,
Bernard

True. This is almost like the IBIS vs ILIS, both have advantages.

[MoreOrLess]

A modular MF mirrorless system similar to the GXR M mount does seem to make alot of sense to me, saves size and means that you don't need to replace the rear screen each new sensor. Have a sensor say the size of the 645D and I'd guess you could come up with something that weighs less than a FF DSLR let alone a MF system, probabley easier to weather seal aswell.

As far as tilting and shifting goes if doing it to the sensor wasnt possible how about having it built into the mount instead? something similar to the hassleblad adaptor but without the teleconverter aspect.

[MatthewCromer]

A modular MF mirrorless system similar to the GXR M mount does seem to make alot of sense to me, saves size and means that you don't need to replace the rear screen each new sensor. Have a sensor say the size of the 645D and I'd guess you could come up with something that weighs less than a FF DSLR let alone a MF system, probabley easier to weather seal aswell.

As far as tilting and shifting goes if doing it to the sensor wasnt possible how about having it built into the mount instead? something similar to the hassleblad adaptor but without the teleconverter aspect.

It is going to be very difficult to keep up with the R&D going in to APS and FF sensors by companies like Sony.  Particularly as sales of MF digital continues to decline with encroachment from devices like the Nikon D800 / D800E.

If I were a boutique manufacturer I'd much prefer to buy a $1,000 FF sensor from Sony than design my business model around a $15,000 MF sensor from Dalsa.  You'll sell a lot more units at $4000 than $24,000 too!

[simonstucki]

You are close ! I am sure someone will build this soon. Parts of this are already happening in smaller formats. look at the GoProHero 2.
There is even much more which would make sense, like direct raw output for Video and Photo, large batteries, WLAN, electronic lenscalibration (like in the D800)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I have read this with large interest !

Greetings from Germany
Stefan

cool thanks for your comments. and true there is probably a lot more that could be improved on the "software" side, I was mainly focusing on the hardware side. but what do you mean with the GoProHero 2, I mean it is a great camera, but is there something fundamentally different from the previous version (I know it has been improved a lot, but it seemed to me that it is "only" the same as the previous version (which is already great) just much better) did I miss something?
simon