[JJ_SO]

Let me go through it one by one.

1.  You CAN shift the lens around, take individual shots and stitch them successfuly. You can't tilt them while doing that, that's true but shifting works just fine. And yes, static subjects only but you'd be surprised how well this actually works in many scenarios.

2. Yes the files are huge. If I remember correctly, a 24MP APS-C camera would yield a 120MP stitch.

3. If you use an adapter to keep the lens in place and shift the camera body around, instead of mounting the body and shift the lens around, the stitch will be pretty clean. No interpolation, no nodal change, no need for a motorized tripod head.

4. You are simply overlooking that most APS-C cameras have a much higher pixel density than FF cameras . It is true that the difference is not that dramatic anymore but there is still a difference. When you are shifting the lens around to "scan" the image field generated by the TS/PC lens, a higher pixel density will give you a higher resolution in the end. Right now every major company has an APS-C body which has a higher pixel density than any of their FF models. Again, used to be even more dramatic since you could've simply gotten a 24MP APS-C body but the best you could do with FF was 36 or even 24MP.

5. As for APS-C x1.5 crop and why I sometimes prefer it, simple. Sometimes I'd like to have a deeper DOF at a certain aperture and APS-C crop gives me that. It's about one stop more DOF at the same aperture with the same composition, since the camera has to be positioned further away. That's one stop less power on my speedlights. Of course I could just shoot them on a FF and crop later but then I lose the resolution. My A7 is merely 10MP when cropped to APS-C but even a cheap old Nex 7 could've given me 24MP with the same crop.

6. Teleconverters and tilt shift. This is tricky. First of all, forget everything I've said above. If you are shooting architecture and you need those ultra wide angles, you either go for a 17mm or a 24mm TS/PC lens. APS-C is simply no-no. So, you got your FF camera, you got your 17mm lens. You need the 24mm but don't have the money or don't want to carry it around? You can actually use Canon's x1.5 Teleconverter on their TS-E 17mm. Quality is actually quite close to what their excellent TS-E 24mm II can do, and you get even more shift range. It's a pretty neat trick, not sure if you can do the same with Nikon's PC lenses.

First of all, thanks fot the interesting input to look a bit more into PC lenses. Especially the "keep the lens in Position and scan the scene by shifting" is a cool idea.

I think there are a couple of 42, 46, 50 MP FF bodies which would deliver a higher pixel count. So, by using the same distance of shifiting a FF HighRes body will get you more pixels - or less shft ops.

As for "not enough DoF": my current recipe to get the DoF I want is also not stitching but stacking.



Don't look to close, I didn't invest much time in cleaning the zones of Affinity's confusion  as railings, spokes or nets always will be a problem.