Tilt Lens Simulator

Canon, Nikon, and Olympus make 35 mm lenses that allow you to tilt the lens axis with respect to the film plane, similar to the way a view camera works. The consequences of doing this, especially for those who haven't spent time with a view camera, can be a bit surprising. I've seen several messages in discussion forums stating that tilting of a 35 mm lens is ineffective because it only tilts about 8 degrees. As you'll see by playing with this lens simulator, the effect can be dramatic.

Set a lens focal length and adjust the tilt, subject distance, and aperture parameters. You can also adjust the circle of confusion if you disagree with the commonly used .035 mm definition.

The yellow line represents the plane of focus for any given combination of focal length, tilt angle and subject distance. The two blue lines indicate the near and far limits of the in-focus region, based on a given circle of confusion diameter.