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This is a rolling review of the newly released Canon 135/4L TS-E. Since it's currently mounted to my Sony A7ii, I consider it an alt lens so am posting in FM Alt. Makes further sense because it's manual focus, and is not classified by Canon as an EF lens.
Build is all metal including the entire barrel, filter ring, and dials. Focus is internal and the greased helical moves smoothly without backlash or play. As introduced by Canikon in their 24mm and wider tilt/shift lenses, the TS-E 135 has independent tilt and shift movements thanks to a rotation feature.
The diaphragm is electronic so the cheap, dumb adapters are out. I selected the Sigma MC-11 for its build quality and flocked interior: by their nature, tilt/shift lenses generate a lot of stray light.
Optical performance is top grade. Brief summary: the lens is flawless! Note that all my testing so far has been at 1-4m distances, not at 1:2 macro or infinity. Vignetting is absent wide open until extreme movements are dialed in. With maximum tilt and shifting the "wrong direction", the short edge will be shaded, while the long edge will be cut off. Suppression of stray light is effective, and making my Rokinon 135/2 redundant in the studio. There is no TCA over most of the image circle (and we're talking a big circle). There is no LCA. Sharpness is spectacular, with graceful softening off-axis wide open. Minimum aperture is f/45, and I see no debilitating softness at f/32. Aperture is circular at all settings. For those that like T/S panoramas, the long-edge shift results are excellent. I detect no linear distortion. Bokeh is smooth fore and aft, no onion rings, moderate cat eyes, clean defocus chromatics (perhaps the best ever). No field curvature detected.
A7ii IBIS is effective at 1/15sec, although the rig is heavy enough to affect handheld stability. Focus assist (shimmer) is especially valuable for quickly setting movements to a first approximation. I find further refinement with magnified view is desirable but, then, a tripod and more time is required. Electronic first curtain is really important if you are using slow shutter speeds because the front-heavy load is not super stable. I'm looking for a tripod support ring to fit the MC-11 (a certain Novoflex model might work).
Test images of child's bike are SOOC JPEG with strobe lighting at f/16, The full images are uncropped and have been resized and lightly sharpened to web standard. The crops are not sharpened!
1st pic shows full tilt, no shift, and 20° rotation:
2nd pic shows no tilt, and slight shift to restore framing:
1x-scale crops:
Any softness is caused by DOF only, the lens isn't breaking a sweat for sharpness. Speculars are color perfect whether focussed or defocussed.
More to come...
Edited on Jan 23, 2018 at 02:02 AM · View previous versions
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