I got the TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt lens for the Nikon Z before an upcoming trip. A vacation was planned, driving up the coast of California from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and it was a chance to try and capture these familiar places in unfamiliar ways.
This isn’t a review of the lens - it’s not particularly sharp, it’s manual focus and manual aperture, but it allows for photographs that otherwise couldn’t be taken. I knew tilt lenses could be used to create a miniature diorama effect, but I was pleasantly surprised with how flexible and lovely it was as a do-everything, carry-around lens.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/2000 sec, f?, ISO 125
Flying into Los Angeles is always a treat - sit on the right side of the plane for a view of Downtown LA. It was unfortunately fogged in to see the city, but it was still an opportunity to capture the highways coming in for a landing.
With the tilt, I could align the focal plane with the 110 Freeway, and call attention to the cars.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/2000 sec, f?, ISO 100
Google Maps
This shot of Sepulveda Blvd mostly stands out because it’s near the closest In-N-Out to LAX, and you can get a remarkable similarity in Google Maps, albeit with less tilt lens and on a much clearer day.
A tech columnist, Matthew Panzarino, used to take the latest iPhone model to Disneyland for testing.
I always thought this was a really clever approach to testing a piece of technology - you’re going to the same place, using it in conditions that would be somewhat more strenuous than normal, and trying it out in a variety of scenarios, all within a day or two.
We arrived at the park early in the morning, getting through security around 7am, the ticket stand around 7:20am, and up for the rope drop, when they start letting people in at 8am.
Getting to the front, and stopped down to around f8 and shot straight on with no tilt, the lens does a decent job capturing everything sharply.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/40 sec, f8-ish?, ISO 100
But where the lens really shines in a place like Disneyland is on the rides. Heading over to Adventureland and boarding the Jungle Cruise, the lens is able to draw the eye’s attention in unique ways, and transform the photos into something that looks like a carefully crafted model.
Here the plane of focus was adjusted to run along the boat, getting it in focus while blurring out the trees above and the dock below.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/800 sec, f?, ISO 1250
Pirates of the Caribbean really exemplifies how the tilt shift, along with some bumping of the saturation and contrast, can make something life-sized feel small.
As the ride begins, the pirates are dead and the skeletons are lifeless and still.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/50 sec, f?, ISO 6400
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/80 sec, f?, ISO 6400
And as the ride continues, the skeletons start to move, their stories of the past start to come out, until a full pirate siege on a local port.
The lens really shined when it was used in Galaxy's Edge.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/640 sec, f?, ISO 250
The TIE Echelon was originally designed to fit into Disneyland, with space for Kylo Ren and his stormtroopers to enter in and out from the shuttle. The word on the side spells out ‘CAUTION’, I assume to warn pilots to avoid whatever's below that red arrow.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/640 sec, f?, ISO 64
One stormtrooper was out harassing the locals visiting, standing under the banner for the First Order.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/60 sec, f?, ISO 560
DJ Rex was the original pilot for Star Tours, but in his retired life, he spins the 1s and 2s at the local cantina.
Disneyland has rides everywhere, and the River of America going through the middle of the park has a few of the best rides in the park. Tom Sawyer’s Island is easy to get lost, and with so few people taking the boat across to visit, a nice place to sneak away for a bit.
I love it - virtually unchanged for years, it has kid-sized caves to explore, where you enter in one end, and the exit is on the other side of the island. And, thanks to the fact it's an island, it's still not too hard to get lost.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/1000 sec, f?, ISO 64
The Davey Crockett's Explorer Canoes opened in 1956, and are self-propelled by park guests as they do a lap on the river. We hadn’t gone on it before - the river does have sets and dioramas to see, it’s not just physical labor disguised as a park attraction. Our river guide noticed my camera on the boat, and we spent the ride chatting about different lenses as the canoe worked its way around the river.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/1000 sec, f?, ISO 64
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/40 sec, f?, ISO 6400
Speaking of slow, older, Disneyland rides, the dinosaurs along the Disneyland Train were originally from the 1963 World Fair, and then brought into the park to serve as a permanent attraction.
The lens' wide aperture (f1.8!) combined with the Nikon Z's in-body sensor stabilization means that it was surprisingly easy to take sharp photos on a moving train. Advances in Lightroom's denoising also helps make high-ISO shots come out sharp.
Coming back to the park in the evening, the wide aperture means the lens is still easily usable as the sun sets to darkness.
The submarines demonstrate a shot that’d be impossible with a normal lens - with the right angle, both submarine titles were captured in focus, and your eye is drawn from the front to the back, passing the bouy ducks along the way.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/1600 sec, f?, ISO 900
Galaxy’s Edge feels completely different in the evening - not just from the lighting on the Millennium Falcon…
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/60 sec, f?, ISO 2500
…but also from the number of people out in force with lightsabers. There was a group of about a dozen people with various single and double-bladed lightsabers, fencing each other next to the TIE fighter.
For this lens, I’d leave my camera in manual mode, moving the shutter speed up or down as preferred, and letting the ISO automatically adjust accordingly.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/60 sec, f?, ISO 1800
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/60 sec, f?, ISO 1100
The park has fireworks, and sets a separate storyline and audio track in Galaxy’s Edge that goes along with the fireworks going off over the castle. I've never seen tilt-shift shots of fireworks before, the bokeh changing across the frame stood out.
Leaving Disneyland and heading up to San Francisco, the lens was fun to play around with at the Apple headquarters. They have a smooth, white, diorama of the Infinite Loop. Even the stairs down to the bathrooms were polished stone.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/100 sec, f?, ISO 64
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/800 sec, f?, ISO 1800
A clear, gorgeous, windy day at the Golden Gate Bridge afforded some lovely looks across the bridge, and more beautiful views down from Coit Tower.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/800 sec, f?, ISO 64
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/4000 sec, f?, ISO 220
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/1250 sec, f?, ISO 64
After using it for a week on vacation, is this a good lens? The quality doesn’t come close to a Nikon Z lens, but the manual focus assistance made using this lens in fast-moving environments a lot more forgiving than I would’ve guessed. It was usable to leave on for the day as my main lens, and shoot what I wanted to shoot without feeling constrained or like I was missing shots I'd catch with the Nikon Z 50mm.
It also changes how to think and frame shots - it’s no longer getting just the subject in focus, it’s what plane across the frame do I want to draw the eye towards, how focused should the entire shot be. It scratched a different, new itch for photography.
Nikon Z7 + TTArtisan 50mm f1.4 tilt, 1/2500 sec, f?, ISO 450
It's also fun to take to baseball games.
