The latest View Camera, which I just received has an article entitled "What Scheimpflug Didn't Tell You". I wonder if anyone has figured out what the author is trying to say.
It looks as if it might contain some kernels of useful truth, but I've been having an awful time trying to decipher it. Part of my problem may be that I am a mathematician and have studied and taught geometry for over 50 years, so for me certain terms have definite, well established meanings. What he says is often either false or meaningless with the conventional meaning of the words. . For example, he says that the plane of sharp focus in subject space "contains" two other planes, but when one plane contains another, in the usual meaning of the word "contains", the two places have to be identical. It is possible he means "intersects" rather than "contains". But perhaps a non-mathematician might read these words differently.
I don't mean to dump on the article because writing about mathematics, including geometry, can be difficult, and sometimes even skilled mathematics teachers have difficulty doing it clearly. I used to spend hours using preparing colored 3D diagrams for my classes. A non-mathematician may find it even more difficult to say what he means. I would just like to know if there is anything in this article which I don't already know. I am about halfway through, and I still don't see what the point is. I plan to dig my way through it, but if anyone has any clues as to what it is about, I would be glad to hear about it.
In trying to figure out what he is saying, i did come across one useful bit. Namely, if you use the distance from the lens to the image plane along the (tilted/swung) lens axis, some formulas take on a simpler form. Also, that image point always corresponds to a point in subject space (possibly at infinity.) T.here is another useful image point often considered, that along the original (un-tilted/swung) lens axis, perpendicular to the image plane. Its distance to the lens is useful because it is what you control directly as you focus, but there may or may not be a corresponding subject point, depending on how far you tilt/swing.
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