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	Visit the FM Store · Image Upload · Buy & Sell FM Forum Rules Canon SLRs, primes, and zooms lenses reviews FM Forums | Canon-mount SLRs Pages: [1] 2     Tilt-shift lenses (archived topic)

lexybeast Offline Buy and Sell: On Registered: Feb 11, 2005 Total Posts: 408 Country: United States Tilt-shift lenses Hello all, I'm strongly considering getting one of canon's tilt-shift lenses as my next purchase... they look like loads of fun. However, I'm having trouble deciding which one to get. I lean towards the 24, because I tend to like wide angle... If anyone has any of these lenses, has thoughts about them, and best of all has sample shots, they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :D Dec 29, 2005 at 08:00 PM

EOS20 Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Mar 06, 2005 Total Posts: 11401 Country: Australia Re: Tilt-shift lenses Apparently the 24mm is the worse of the lot, The 90mm is the sharpest, and the 45mm is also good. Dec 29, 2005 at 08:12 PM

BrianP Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Dec 21, 2002 Total Posts: 3454 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses EOS20 is correct. You really need to pick the lens based on your need though. Architectural type shots - The 24 is nice since you normally prefer (or don't have the option) to be too far back. Product/Portrait/Macro -- The 90 is a very nice lens for any of these purposes. The 45 is more of a good general purpose lens. It can be used for a number of things. I keep thinking about picking one of these up for certain types of portraiture that I am interested in. Dec 29, 2005 at 08:17 PM

DaveEP Offline Image Upload: On Registered: Aug 14, 2004 Total Posts: 3096 Country: United Kingdom Re: Tilt-shift lenses The 24mm is a good lens, but you have to use it right. Wide open on full frame can be very soft in the corners, especially wide open. I have the 24 & 90 (I would like a 45 but don't have the 'need' at this point). I use the 90 more simply because I am doing more with product shots. The question is (as Brian said), what are you going to use it for? Architecture? Landscape? Panoramics? When using the TS-E for panoramics, you only get a shot that is roughly (or just over) twice the width of a normal lens, because the rest is cross over between the shots. It does make it easy to merge/stitch them though :) Using it on any camera is a challenge, but on your 1.3 crop Mk2N I recommend buying the Angle Finder C to go with it, otherwise some of the adjustments may be hard to see through the view finder (they can be a challenge on FF too). Using this lens takes practice, so don't be discouraged if you don't get the results you were hoping for on the first shot.... :) Dec 29, 2005 at 08:39 PM

munckee Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Dec 12, 2004 Total Posts: 566 Country: N/A Re: Tilt-shift lenses Uneducated question: what does a tilt-shift lens do? Dec 29, 2005 at 09:16 PM

DaveEP Offline Image Upload: On Registered: Aug 14, 2004 Total Posts: 3096 Country: United Kingdom Re: Tilt-shift lenses munckee wrote: Uneducated question: what does a tilt-shift lens do? Check out the spoons in this article ! Link Dec 29, 2005 at 09:27 PM

s4iscool Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Jul 12, 2005 Total Posts: 264 Country: N/A Re: Tilt-shift lenses great write up showing amazing results...awesome Dec 29, 2005 at 09:35 PM

gpfmartin Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Apr 14, 2005 Total Posts: 159 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses I own and enjoy using the 45mm TS-E. It's very sharp and very useful for landscapes that are somewhat far away and products (I think the manual recommends it for photographing tools!). For example, you can photograph a mirror without having your reflection showing. It allows you to recompose an image to eliminate distractions with tilt-shift. munckee, check out the excellent articles on FM about TS-E lenses. They are very comprehensive. Edit: I forgot to mention that I chose the 45mm because: 1) it was tested as very sharp optics 2) its effective focal length on my 20d is 72mm. When I need to shoot at 45mm I shoot with a film SLR! :O Edited by gpfmartin on Dec 29, 2005 at 07:37 PM GMT (Reason: my aging brain forgot stuff) Dec 29, 2005 at 09:36 PM

Ken Tanaka Offline Buy and Sell: On Registered: Aug 03, 2004 Total Posts: 1305 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses I have each focal length, use each, and cannot claim any are bad. The "soft" rep on the 24mm is mostly Internet mythology in my own experience. All wide angle lenses require a bit more diligence than many people understand, and the 24mm TS-E is no different. But as others noted, select the one that best fits your application. 24mm is best for architecture and landscapes. 45mm is ideal for most product and layout work. 90mm is often used for portrait-oriented work, although I use mine mostly for creative images (as I rarely shoot portraits). As noted in another recent thread, the December issue of EOS Magazine (a UK publication) has a very nice article on the TS-E lenses. You may be able to find a copy at a photo store or even online at their site. CPS Europe also has a nice Flash article on the TS lenses at: http://cps.canon-europe.com/articles/article.jsp?article.articleId=90140 Have fun! Addendum: I should also note that I did a series of sample images with the 90mm for a fellow FM'er quite some time ago. He specifically wanted to see the lens used with a 10D. These samples can be found here. Dec 29, 2005 at 10:05 PM

mediahound Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Jul 15, 2004 Total Posts: 290 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses People say the 24 is the worst TSE lens compared to the 45 and the 90 but I use the 24 fairly regularly and have sold numerous images taken with it with no problem. While it may perform not quite as well as the 45 and 90, it's still a great lens. Dec 29, 2005 at 10:30 PM

DaveEP Offline Image Upload: On Registered: Aug 14, 2004 Total Posts: 3096 Country: United Kingdom Re: Tilt-shift lenses mediahound wrote: People say the 24 is the worst TSE lens compared to the 45 and the 90 but I use the 24 fairly regularly and have sold numerous images taken with it with no problem. While it may perform not quite as well as the 45 and 90, it's still a great lens. Yep.... 'worst' is a relative term. It's still a damn good lens ! :D Dec 29, 2005 at 11:02 PM

bret Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Nov 11, 2003 Total Posts: 72 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses I went to B&H and bought a 24mm TS-E and I love it. I have tried several other wide angle lenses and nothing compares. I had a sigma 15mm fisheye which was fine but not exciting, I had a 35mm f/1.4 which was fine but nothing I thought was so special, I had the 17-40mm f/4 which was nice but not much nicer than the 18-55mm kit lens. I think the 24mm TS-E is great. Here is a picture I took today without using tilt or shift, it works just fine. Dec 29, 2005 at 11:16 PM

lexybeast Offline Buy and Sell: On Registered: Feb 11, 2005 Total Posts: 408 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses Thanks for the advice all. I've heard about the 'softness' of the 24, from what I understand it is basically comparable to the 16-35, which I have no problem with. Wow, Ken Tanaka, from looking at that CPS article you sent, I think I am sold on the 24... I'll do more research though. Thanks everyone! Dec 29, 2005 at 11:21 PM

sapro Offline Buy and Sell: On Registered: Jan 15, 2004 Total Posts: 2800 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses I too have both 24 and 90 TS-E, and love both. Everytime when TS-E is brought up to front, people will say 24 is not sharp, and 90 is the best. But look, when you set your eyes on a tilt shift lens, you are really attracted by its speical functions, not how sharp it is. So for architecture or landscape, go for 24 or 45, for portrait, closeups, get 90. Even 90 is sharer, it can't really replace 24, and vice versa. Dec 29, 2005 at 11:50 PM

CorruptedSanit Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Jul 05, 2005 Total Posts: 1428 Country: United Arab Emirates Re: Tilt-shift lenses lexybeast wrote: , from looking at that CPS article you sent, I think I am sold on the 24... I'll do more research though. Thanks everyone! Same here, I was going with the 45mm for my 20D and future FF as an architectural/landscape lens. I know I would suffer a little with it (45mm) currently because of the 20D's cropped sensor. But as many pointed out. The 24mm is not soft. It less sharp than my 135 L for example. But the 135L/200 1.8 are on different levels. Also wide angle lenses do a good job of resolving power actions to be able to capture such a wide FOV. All lenses have limited resolving power. Wide angles in particular have the hardest time. So the flaw is not with the TS-E 24mm, its with the technology or limit of technology that is at flaw. In fact, the Ts-E is technically the best out of all in regards to glass. Its an L series lens. Dec 30, 2005 at 01:30 AM

slau Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Aug 24, 2003 Total Posts: 5195 Country: Canada Re: Tilt-shift lenses I have also the 24 & 90 TS lenses. While I am still pretty new with the 90TS, I have been using the 24TS for some time and never have had any problem with its image quality. I used the 24TS mainly for landscape and pano shots, usually at f11 or f16, with both my 1DMk2 and 1Ds. I still don't understand why and how people claims the 90 (or the 45) is a better lens than the 24. They are so different and what does it prove to compare the sharpness of a wide angle lens with a medium tele (or regular lens) ??? . The 24 can do something the 90 cannot and vice versa. Internet can be a very dangerous place to learn :) . I wish that people with no actual experience with certain subject will refrain from providing advise. Just buy the lens that most suits your need and shooting style, and you should be happy. The following is one of my test shots with the 24TS with front tilt on my 1Ds. Nothing exciting but it provides me with some of the features can only get from a field camera: The followings are links to 3 of my pano shots if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474333 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474332 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34774698 Dec 30, 2005 at 06:30 AM

EOS20 Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Mar 06, 2005 Total Posts: 11401 Country: Australia Re: Tilt-shift lenses I am thinking of picking up a 24 TS-E or a 45 TS-E. Everyone always said the 24 TS-E was a poor performer, But now I've seen all your samples it gives me more confidence to take the plunge for the 24 TS-E. I do alot of landscapes and architecture so this lens will come in handy. :) Dec 30, 2005 at 09:50 AM

bret Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Nov 11, 2003 Total Posts: 72 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses Slau, Those are beautiful pictures. Dec 30, 2005 at 12:16 PM

Verdi Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Jan 13, 2005 Total Posts: 98 Country: Austria Re: Tilt-shift lenses Whatever focal lengths you decide for be prepared that it will take some time until you can master a TS-E lens. Especially if you have never used a view camera before it can be very helpful to google for 'scheimpflug rule' for understanding what a lens tilt is actually doing. Dec 30, 2005 at 12:37 PM

jmilich Offline Image Upload: On Registered: Oct 07, 2005 Total Posts: 102 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses I find it easier to critically judge focus (making use of tilt) with the 90 compared to the 24, as you would expect due to lesser DOF. Even using a magnifier, you will get eyeball strain with the 24. So I put in the Brightscreen microprism/diagonal split prism viewing screen. much better. the last step will be to add some vertical/hoizontal grid lines to the screen. Unfortunately, brightscreen doesn't provide them if you choose the microprism, so it's off to the workshop. Dec 30, 2005 at 01:13 PM

bill vann Offline Image Upload: On Registered: Aug 22, 2004 Total Posts: 687 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses If 1/3 the people who bash the 24mm ts-e had one it might be canon's most popular lens. and i doubt some of the people who've used it really knew how to use it and blamed operator error on the equipment. how soft is soft anyway? at what magnification? anyone serious about it wouldn't shoot it wide open anyway. mine is way more than acceptably sharp, i shoot stopped down to 8 usually and at 8 it is very sharp it is not a pixel peepers lens and software cannot duplicate the results. CS2 has some correction but introduces a myriad of other problems. to be honest i haven't taken mine in the field use it primarily for architecture and there are no other lenses that will do the job (excepting other t-s lenses of course). and as for the 24 being the softest, DUH all retrofocus wide angles are less sharp than medium and short to medium telephoto lenses. ever wonder why the 85L, 135L and 200L are touted as the best lenses canon makes? no maker touts their wides as the absolute best, too many design compromises and other complications. GREAT LENS b Dec 30, 2005 at 02:23 PM

Mike K Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Mar 01, 2002 Total Posts: 985 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses Verdi wrote: Whatever focal lengths you decide for be prepared that it will take some time until you can master a TS-E lens. Especially if you have never used a view camera before it can be very helpful to google for 'scheimpflug rule' for understanding what a lens tilt is actually doing. Agreed, manual focussing can be tricky, especially with a smaller viewscreen, an anglefinder C helps a bit. I'm hoping my new EcB split screen will help too. The amount of tilt is very sensitive to the focal length. I was able to get the table for tilt angles from my friend who did the calculations, thanks Andy! These calculations (via Scheimpflug) assume the center of the sensor distance above the ground (first column), and the required tilt angle to keep the ground plane in focus for the 24mm, 45mm and 90mm Canon T/S lenses. First table is in mm above the ground, the second inches. As you can see at normal tripod heights, the 24 mm uses less than 1 degree of tilt while the 90mm lens uses 3 degrees. I initally found surprising the relatively small amount of tilt required by the 24mm TS while the 90 runs out of tilt capability 2 feet from the ground. . Swing angles would also be the same, assuming an imaginary vertical plane, which you want to maintain in focus. Mike K Dec 30, 2005 at 05:28 PM

andregold Offline Image Upload: On Registered: Aug 29, 2005 Total Posts: 380 Country: United States Re: Tilt-shift lenses slau wrote: The followings are links to 3 of my pano shots if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474333 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474332 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34774698 Stephen, great shots! I wonder if you ever experienced parallax problems when doing the stitching. I ran into this article on the web that recommends shifting the camera to the opposite direction of the lens shift, so that the lens remains relatively in a stationary position, to avoid parallax. http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_58/essay.html Dec 30, 2005 at 05:41 PM

slau Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Aug 24, 2003 Total Posts: 5195 Country: Canada Re: Tilt-shift lenses andregold wrote: slau wrote: The followings are links to 3 of my pano shots if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474333 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474332 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34774698 Stephen, great shots! I wonder if you ever experienced parallax problems when doing the stitching. I ran into this article on the web that recommends shifting the camera to the opposite direction of the lens shift, so that the lens remains relatively in a stationary position, to avoid parallax. http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_58/essay.html Yes, I did run into the parallax problem until I found those articles regarding camera shifting to compensate. I used the simple method of marking my camera plate (in 11mm interval) and shifting the camera in the oppositie direction of the lens shift. It works great an cannot be any easier. The process may sound very confusing at first. But, if you just set up the camera and do a few 'dry runs' following the instruction, it makes sense after a few trys. Dec 30, 2005 at 05:47 PM

slau Offline Image Upload: Off Registered: Aug 24, 2003 Total Posts: 5195 Country: Canada Re: Tilt-shift lenses andregold wrote: slau wrote: The followings are links to 3 of my pano shots if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474333 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34474332 http://www.pbase.com/stephenl/image/34774698 Stephen, great shots! I wonder if you ever experienced parallax problems when doing the stitching. I ran into this article on the web that recommends shifting the camera to the opposite direction of the lens shift, so that the lens remains relatively in a stationary position, to avoid parallax. http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_58/essay.html Yes, I did run into the parallax problem until I found those articles regarding camera shifting to compensate. I used the simple method of marking my camera plate (in 11mm interval) and shifting the camera in the oppositie direction of the lens shift. It works great and cannot be any easier. The process may sound very confusing at first. But, if you just set up the camera and do a few 'dry runs' following the instruction, it makes sense after a few trys. Dec 30, 2005 at 05:48 PM

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