You don’t need a medium format camera to shoot medium format photos anymore. Well, sort of. FotodioX RhinoCam Vertex adapter lets you shoot digital medium format photos with your full-frame camera. Mathieu Stern tried this $300 gadget, and it seems to do the trick pretty well.
First things first, how does the RhinoCam Vertex work? You’ll need your full-frame camera, a medium format lens, and Photoshop for stitching the images. The adapter lets you attach the medium format lens onto your camera and rotate it 360 degrees to take four photos.
Then, you need to stitch your photos in Photoshop (or any other software that lets you do it). The adapter works with Canon EOS R, Nikon Z, and Sony E mirrorless cameras, and Bronica ETR, Hasselblad V, and Pentax 645 medium format lenses.
Mathieu was curious how the adapter would work for portraits. He has used the “bokehrama” or the Brenizer method many times. However, its major downside is that it doesn’t do well with lenses that produce swirly bokeh. Additionally, Mathieu says that it’s easy to keep track of how many images you’ve taken for the “bokeh panorama,” so you’ll easily end up with too many. The RhinoCam Vertex plays nicely even with swirly bokeh vintage lenses. You need to rotate the camera four times to take photos, and the adapter will click each time to let you know when to stop. When you stitch the photos together, you’ll end up with a 6×6 medium format image. In the video, Mathieu also shows you how to stitch them for the final result. While this adapter seems like a handy gadget, there are some obvious downsides. A minor downside is you have to use a tripod to get the shots right. A more notable drawback is that it doesn’t work for all kinds of photos. If there’s movement in the scene, you’ll end up with some weird results. The same goes for fast-changing light with landscape shots. Still, it can work perfectly for genres like architecture, real estate, or cityscapes. And judging from Mathieu’s test, it can work great for portraits, too. [How to shoot True Medium Format pictures with a Full-Frame Camera | Mathieu Stern]
