A shift lens is an interchangeable lens that can move sideways or up and down in relation to the camera's sensor while the camera itself stays still. It is made for some DSLR, mirrorless and medium format cameras. It is also called a PC (perspective control) lens.
Its main use is in architecture photography. When you tilt a camera upward to photograph a tall building, the vertical lines appear to lean together. These are called converging verticals. With a shift lens you keep the camera level and shift the lens upward instead, so the lines stay straight. Many shift lenses can also tilt, and these are called tilt-shift lenses.
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