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Compact, wide-angle lens which enables tilt and shift movements. The floating optical system, with an aspherical lens element, corrects distortion and other aberrations. High image quality and compactness are the result. Great for architecture, landscapes and other wide-angle shots.
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Technical Details
- EF mount; tilt shift lens- Ultra-low Dispersion glass with Fluorite elements; aspherical lens
- 24mm focal length
- f/3.5 maximum aperture
- Manual focus only
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By Abdulrahman Aljabri (Jeddah)
I bought this lens hoping to upgrade my architectural photography method from shooting wide with the 17-40L and then applying perspective correction in photoshop and cropping. My reasoning for such upgrade was that shooting wide and applying correction wasted much needed resolution, added distortion, and made the scene look slightly different than my intended final scene.
Therefore I got this lens hoping to put an end to all of that and get the image to its final crop in camera. Sad to say, that didn't entirely happen. This lens has disappointed me on three very important aspects: soft corners, vignetting, and chromatic aberration.
SOFT CORNERS
By far that is the most disappointing aspect. Pictures are unacceptably soft in the corners and no I am NOT referring to corners of pictures captured with the lens shifted by 12mm or tilted 8 degrees. I am talking about 0 tilt and 0 shift. In such setting the 24ts-e compared terribly to the 17-40L. Pay attention to the last part, this lens could not keep its own vs a zoom, and one of cheapest L zooms from Canon for that matter.
I have uploaded several comparison shots for you to see. To answer some speculation in advance, however, no I do not have an exceptionally bad 24ts-e lens or an exceptionally good 17-40mm lens. I can confirm this because I posted my test results to other photographers on a respected photography forum. The feedback I got was consistent, the 24ts-e performs poorly in general and my lens exhibited the same poor performance.
VIGNETTING
Going past 6mm of shift the lens will start to vignette. By 12mm, which is the maximum shift possible with this lens, the vignetting becomes pretty bad. This is especially problematic for a lens that is made for stitching images. Pictures taken to be stitched at medium to maximum shift will not match in luminosity. In fact, Canon has the 6mm-12mm shift range labeled in red. I guess that is their way of saying you should not use that range. That practically throws away half of this lens shift capacity.
CHROMATIC ABERRATION
That is the least offending aspect but still annoying (check the picture with the window labeled "bottom right") I can live with this problem because CA correction software can compensate for most of this problem, but who needs extra steps in post processing when working professionally under deadlines and high quality requirement to deliver?
Given this last problem alone I would have given this lens 4 stars. However, with the other two, more serious, problems I cannot give it more than 2.5 stars and thus the two star rating.
So should you get this lens? People using average lenses such as the kit lens, 28-135, or 28mm 2.8 might not notice any of the problems I mention because they are used to such results. In such case the new mechanical features are a welcomed plus. That being said, given the lens price I would say its not a good lens to buy. If Canon, however, was to discount the price of this lens I still would discourage buying it. Most people looking for tilt and shift usually need better quality results than this lens can deliver.
By Mark W. Bohrer (Saratoga, California)
I've used this lens on an EOS 1D Mk II at Bodie, California and for Anasazi ruins and petroglyphs in northern New Mexico. Its only big shortcoming is flare sensitivity, most evident in bright hotspots in the restored Great Kiva at Aztec Ruins National Monument.
It's a great problem-solver for converging verticals. Shifting horizontally, it let me shoot all of Chetro Ketl's main wall without walking into thin air off Chaco Canyon's North Mesa.
Use it with or without a tripod - but a gridded architectural focusing screen is a must. Focus assist helps if you have less-than-stellar eyesight. Stop down to f/9 or more for best sharpness, and watch your depth of field.
Meter your subject manually before tilting or shifting, focus on important detail, then compose. Remember metering isn't accurate once you shift or tilt, and focusing is brighter and easier before adjusting.
I have three other lenses covering 24-25mm, and this is the one I use most when I'm in the field.
OTHER CONS - It may tilt by itself when you pull it out of a tight-fitting case, even locked. If focus across the viewfinder is fuzzy, check for unintended tilt.
Sometimes I wish for tilts and shifts in the same axis, but not enough to trade for the II version of this lens.
A good lens overall - main reason I didn't give more stars is flare.
By Luving it (Seaside, CA USA)
Never used cameras bigger than 35mm so can't comment on the similarity to the large frame world. But I suppose if someone does come from the large frame world, using this lens would be a piece of cake anyway. I am a hobbyist and like to use this for tall buildings and large landscape. On Canon 5D, it's not super wide, but wide enough. On a 40D it's much less wide, but the tilt effect is more prominent.
For best result it should be used on a solid tripod, but I found hand held completely possible in out door day light. Manual focusing is not that bad if you have camera with live view or a bright view finder (a 2x view finder would also help but then you need a tripod again). The metering used to be a science in the film world. But now with RAW and DPP (or photoshop), you can just give a few tries and find the right combination in no time. M mode is very useful since the camera won't mess your setting up once you settle on a combination of aperture and speed.
Can't wait to get out and use it on some real worthwhile scenes. If you've never used one, try it and see if it works for you! I don't know why this one is designated as L while the other two are not. I got my lens second hand so I can not comment on initial quality. But as a second hand in great shape, I'd say this is indeed an L lens. The lens is very sharp without T/S. The original owner told me it's sharper than the 24mmL. I don't have the 24mmL so I can't comment on that. But this lens certainly is really sharp all around. T/S increases CA around the border quite a bit.
By Jan Klier (Seattle, WA USA)
I had this lens for close to a year now, and have had many opportunities to use it. It's a great specialty lens if you frequently shoot what it is best at, and those type of shots are worth the money you spend on the lens.
There are two separate purposes for this lens: Shifting the field or shifting the plane of focus. The shifting the field applies to architectural and landscape photography. Tilting plane of focus is among other things an interesting and unique portrait style.
I've found that I use the shift 95% of the time on both architecture and landscape. I've found the tilt to be marginally usable on this lens, mostly because at 24mm this is not a great portrait lens - you would go for the 90mm version. The facial distortions at 24mm (particularly on full frame bodies) are just plain hideous and overpower any benefit gained from the tilted depth of field.
Any time you photograph a building this lens is exceptional in allowing you to retain the proper perspective. That's what tilt-shift lenses are famous for.
However, I've also found it helpful in landscape shots where I want to the move the horizon up or down to avoid a 50/50 split without introducing curvature on the horizon due to the wide angle. That can be particularly helpful when shooting canyons from the rim in Arizona, or wide angle beach scenes, both of which have strong horizon lines.
The two challenges to master with this lens are that it is manual focus only, which many of us are not as used to anymore with today's cameras, and the fact that a significant shift plays games with the camera's exposure meter. I've found that I either have to meter the scene with a light meter, or meter in camera unshifted, then switch to manual mode and shift the lens. Both workable, but extra steps forcing this to be a lens for very deliberate shooting.
People interested in selective focus may want to check out the Lensbaby lenses, which are purely artistic, but allow a lot more play with selective focus then this lens, which will only tilt in one direction.
In summary, I enjoy having this lens, and it has served me well. But it takes some time to get used to and to know which scenes it will help and which ones it will not work with.
By MGMcd (Columbia, MD USA)
I have had this lens for a few days. I ordered it since I was tired of stitching bad photos by hand, and finding everything out of alignment. I do mostly indoor and outdoor architecture, and nature scenes, so needed something with both a panoramic sweep, and to maintain parallelism in my subjects.
The lens allows 11 degrees of shift to either side of center, and it rotates, so shift is either left/right, or up/down. Out to 5 degrees of shift, I am finding the auto settings are not too perturbed. After 5 degrees, some manual setting skill is needed. I will develop more of those soon, I can tell. The lens also allows tilt capabilities, which produce a nice selective focus effect, not unlike a lensbaby. I don't use much of that, but may do some portrait work with it.
The build quality of this lens is rock solid. The optics are very nice. I got a Hoya UV filter, and there is not much light loss, although I think there is some peripheral CA.
Straight through photos (no tilt/shift) are very sharp out to the edge, but this is a manual focus lens. For my work, I set it to infinity and that is no problem. For closer subjects, this could be challenging for someone with old eyes. A focusing screen is next.
I attached a photo above of the US Capitol. This was hand stitched in PhotoShop from two images shot 5 degrees left and right off center. ON A TRIPOD, of course. Note that there is no misalignment of the vertical lines in the Capitol building. In fact, the blend line goes between the first and second bays next to center on the left side of the center section of the building. Even knowing where this line was, I couldn't see it. The alignment and metering is so good that there is a couple along the curb in the lower left, and the woman turns between shots, and there is some double exposure effect, but she is right where she is supposed to be from the previous shot 10 degrees to the other side. The original image was more than 5' wide, so I had to shrink this one down for posting.
Definitely a special purpose lens, but if you want to do good architectural shots (to preserve paralellism) this is the best you can do without going to medium format. IMHO.
Update from June 2008: I notice that someone has posted an image that seems to be taken without using the Shift effect, so that the flagpoles in the image are tilted toward the center of the frame. This happens when the plane of the image sensor is rotated out of parallel with the flagpole, and indicates the lens was not used properly for this shot. The poster there should have mounted the camera on a tripod, rotated the camera body and lens appropriately, and then shifted the lens UP. Then the flagpoles would be parallel with the edge of the frame and not be tilting inwards.
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Buy Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras Now
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