Digital BW, The Print

>... can't tilts and shifts be done in Photoshop post production?

I agree, in general, with George.  

More specifically, I think mild perspective controls work well in PS, but I suspect a perfectionist would see and could measure some distortion.  Also, the sharpness -- effective mp count -- goes down when you use the PS perspective controls.  The information is stretched, squashed, and interpolated. 

With respect to tilt and focus plane control, at 24mm the depth of field allows reasonable zone focusing, but with longer focal length lenses the number of zones and amount of work that is needed becomes a real hassle.  At 90mm, it's nearly impossible to match what a tilt can do.  (I've never had very good luck with the automated frame-combining routines.)

Note also the problems with movement in the image if you make multiple, zone-focused exposures.

Tilt is a really nice tool to have for landscapes.  The advantages, of course, need to be weighed against the costs and disadvantages of the tilt-shift lenses.  The only TS lens I've used that did not have a significant sharpness reduction over a non-TS lens of about the same focal length is the 90mm. 


Paul
www.PaulRoark.com