Canon TS-E 24mm lens
|
||||||
| Freaky, fun & very sharp 17/05/2010 Picked this up for an architectural photo project because I was frustrated by perspective correction in Photoshop and several guides said this (and/or its 17mm and 45mm brethren) would make a big difference. Reviews on Photozone and Fredmiranda said it was not L-quality image-wise, despite the name and the red ring. But I wasn't planning on blowing up the images to A1, and I got a real bargain with this V1 as the new MKII version retails at a whopping £2k. I reasoned that once the project was over I could still sell it with minimal loss - or even make a profit. Bad move. Having got it I first shot a tallish building with my 17-55mm EF-S at about 24mm-f/8 on the 7D, I then switched to to this lens and took the same shot, same tripod position, same aperture. It's very easy to muck up shifting the lens and get odd angles through the viewfinder/screen (making Photoshop even more difficult). But examining the best results in Lightroom @ 100% I was impressed. Not only did I have a more natural looking building than my from-the-ground perspective should have allowed, but also better resolution, sharpness, colour rendering, absence of CA. This is from a lens that often seems to review badly (though the MKII is hailed as a God among lenses), versus the 17-55mm which is pretty good. The results I got were shifted, so the lens was a few milimetres higher on the sensor than it had any right to be, and yet it was amazing. Subsequent shots confirm that resolution is very good in shift mode, certainly from f5.6 onwards. Maybe I have a good copy - better than the pro reviewers (except for Bryan at The Digital Picture maybe). Of course purists will tell you it's because it's a prime lens: but it's a pretty odd one since you can shift the barrel up and down, and tilt it sideways, and swivel it around in 30 degree stops at the press of a button. Weirdly for a wide angle lens, it seems very happy to take a teleconvertor and even extenders for macros. The Canon EF12II ext tube works well, but the EF25II takes the front of the lens unmanageably close to a subject. Neither the extender or my Kenko Pro300 2x tele significantly alter centre sharpness to the naked eye (though it does at 100% and effects corner darkness and edge resolution much more, as does anyting other than slight shifting/tilting). I haven't really tested it fully tilted and shifted with the tele, but it certainly works as an emergency 48mm prime. As a signed-up, die-hard zoom snapper I'm fully impressed, and now VERY short of cash as its so much fun and so high-res there's no way I can trade it back in. Three drawbacks are price - not for the faint-hearted. Also, its complexity means it has manual-only focus. Finally it's very hard to figure out what to do with it and how to actually judge and control it at first. But these shortcomings are what gives it a quirky appeal that goes beyond my normal electrojunkie cravings for extreme image stabilization and high-speed USMs. It feels like I've swopped my 7D for a venerable medium format camera where I have to think about things for a long time before I shoot them, sipping tea and working out exposure and angles. That can't be bad, can it? If you're considering one, The Digital Picture, Photozone.de and Northlight Photo all have good articles/reviews (even if some arent impressed with overall resolution). By ZoomClick London, UK | ||||||
| Expensive, but worth it if you are an architectural photographer 16/04/2010 When you photograph buildings from the ground they appear narrow at the top and wider at the bottom - which is the reason this lens and it's brethren exist. This is NOT an inexpensive lens, especially when you consider it is useful only for a small set of conditions. Solid as a rock, extremely well made, beautiful, clear optics. Killer lens. By Warren Harris Frisco, TX | ||||||
| Is this the original inferior design or the version II? 02/03/2010 The TS function is limited on the original design. You have to check which item this is. But there's also a lot of price difference with the new II version (about 1000 USD). Buy knowingly. By S. Agar | ||||||
| Mechanically fabulous, optically horrible 31/12/2009 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 Abdulrahman Aljabri Jeddah | ||||||
| Great for Anasazi ruins and ghost towns 30/06/2009 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 Mark W. Bohrer Saratoga, California | ||||||
