ROGETI TSE Frame For
Canon 24 mm II TS Lens – Part 2

In part one of this series, I shared my experiences with the ROGETI TSE Frame and my mistakes. Based on some questions and comments, I realized I should have shared more information. In this second part, I will try to present some missing information from the first one along with close-up pictures of the frame by itself and on the lens.

Disclosure: ROGETI provided the review sample, but the post contains no affiliate links.

ROGETI TSE Frame Details

Although I mentioned that the frame included a nodal point slider and a small support to place a piece of cardboard to shade the lens, those parts were not mounted on the frame. I also mentioned that once the frame is mounted on the tripod, the camera or the shift axis could be rotated independently from each other by pressing their release buttons. In the first one of the following pictures, you can see the frame in full regalia with the nodal point slider and the shade support mounted on it.

The next frame shows the shift axis rotation button next to the slider lock knob. The other button at the base of the lens is to rotate the camera vertically or horizontally in 30° increments. And in the last two frames, you can see the lens fully shifted in both directions at 45° angle. Repeating the same after rotating the shift axis 90° will cover the other diagonal.

I also forgot to add that once the TSE Frame is on the lens, its tilt function cannot be used. The sole purpose of this piece of gear is to provide parallax-free shifting of the lens, or the camera in this case, to capture frames for panoramic stitching.

A New Attempt, More Carefully!

In a way, I am glad I made some mistakes on my first attempt at using the frame. It made me aware of what may go wrong and I was able to share them with the readers. This time, I will try not to repeat those mistakes. I am sure the stitched results will still need some tweaking but I will not end up with glaring gaps!

Last Saturday was sunny and warm. Jan and I headed to Roger Williams Park to enjoy the surroundings and photograph some buildings using the ROGETI TSE Frame.

The Museum Of Natural History and Planetarium

The museum is an ornate structure with decorations and turrets. I set up my tripod at an angle to the building and checked the angle of coverage with diagonal shifting. I ended up cropping most of the foreground so, I could have just covered the middle and the top row.

I remembered the horizontal right and left shift to eliminate the vertical gap along the edges. But (I blush), I forgot to capture the center frame while concentrating on the sides. Luckily, Photoshop content-aware fill covered the small blank rectangle in the center. If your camera has an APS-C size sensor, ensure to capture all seven frames: Four corners, and three horizontal. Here are the before and after crop versions of the stitched frames.

Click on the images to see them larger, uncropped, and read their titles.

Clark Dalrymple Boathouse

The boathouse presented me with a subject that needed a different kind of panoramic stitch. Since it spanned a wide vista, it called for using the nodal point slider and rotating the panorama head to cover the angle. On the right is the picture of the slider aligned with the center of rotation of the tripod. Below are the five vertical frames I captured.

I stitched the images using Lightroom and PTGui to compare the final image quality. I have several of them to show you, but this is the best-looking one for my eyes.

Avoiding Stitching Distortions

I discovered some time ago, that Lightroom tends to stretch the images horizontally as they get closer to the edges. This, of course, has nothing to do with the TSE Frame but I will share several stitches to show the differences.

I recommend exporting the images in TIFF format and stitching them in PTGui for several reasons.

• First, it has several other mapping options as needed
• Second, it does not stretch the ends of the panorama
• Third, while stitching, the potential stitched image can be moved to affect its angle and perspective

Here are the results from Lightroom and PTGui, see for yourselves. Pay particular attention to the width of the horizontal window on the right behind the aluminum pole. You can even compare it to the original vertical frame.

Click on the images to see them larger, uncropped, and read their titles.

To make comparison easier, I measured the pixel dimensions of the right most window in the center and the window behind the aluminum pole on the right. Here they are including their aspect ratio for easier comparison. The worst one is the Lightroom perspective panorama.

Right most window in the center on original image
300 h x 122 w 2.459:1

Lightroom perspective panorama
302 h x 125 w 2.416:1

Lightroom cylindirical panorama
294 h x 120 w 2.45:1

PTGui perspective panorama
290 h x 120 w 2.416:1

PTGui equirectangular panorama
288 h x 120 w 2.4:1

PTGui cylindirical panorama
290 h x 120 w 2.417:1

The window behind the aluminum pole on original image
124 h x 258 w 1:2.08

Lightroom perspective panorama
164 h x 430 w 1:2.622

Lightroom cylindirical panorama
122 h x 262 w 1:2.148

PTGui perspective panorama
122 h x 258 w 1:2.115

PTGui equirectangular panorama
120 h x 258 w 1:2.15

PTGui cylindirical panorama
122 h x 258 w 1:2.115

In Closing

The ROGETI TSE Frame is useful if you own a Canon TS lens it supports. When using diagonal stitching, be very careful to cover the entire scene if your camera has a crop-frame sensor. When stitching them, either capture extra content around the edges to crop after stitching in Lightroom or use an external stitching software like PTGui. Subject permitting, choose cylindrical over perspective for Lightroom stitching.

Thank you ROGETI for providing me with a review copy of the frame. And, thank you all who read the articles for forgiving me for my oversights!