I was lucky to get a TS-E 24 II in Guangzhou/China. Price was RMB 12800 (USD 1.900/EUR 1350). China warranty only, but ... :-)
Like always, one should test Canon lenses before buying (most are not perfectly centered assembled which results one side to be less sharp than the other). This one seems to be a good sample. Just very slight lower edge sharpness and higher CA on left side, compared to right side (only visible at full 12 mm sidewards shift).
Very astonishing, even at full shift, the lens shows barely any CA or distortion, and that's at about a 15 mm angle of view.
For 12 mm shift upwards, f11 is sufficient to achieve optimum corner sharpness, for 12 mm shift sidewards I would recommend f16.
Full resolution pictures (nothing special, just some primary tests):
http://www.pbase.com/chrismuc/test_canon_tse_24f35_l_ii

PS
some TS-E 17 pics added
http://www.pbase.com/chrismuc/test_canon_tse_17f4_l

I seriously can't wait to buy one of these lenses. I'm on 5 call lists as is. Lucky you that you found a copy in China. I enjoyed the pano.

Cheers!

Wow...

Wow is Right!! Great lens, just like the 17 mm TSE. Canon is warming to ultra-wide lenses!

Oh, it's an f/3.5, not 2.8. But no big deal - we know what lens you are talking about.

Ok Canon time to update the 45, even though it's a great lens. I'd like to see it do 0.4x-0.5x at mfd.

I'm curious. Do you usually test lenses at f/8-16?

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Yakim Peled wrote:I'm curious. Do you usually test lenses at f/8-16? Yakim.


Yakim, I can't speak for OP, but for me most of the TS-E lenses' sweet spot is around f11 and I never shoot them below f8. Of course diffraction's a problem from f11 on, but it's matter of balancing that against the reduced CA these lenses have.

RalphJ wrote:
Yakim Peled wrote:I'm curious. Do you usually test lenses at f/8-16? Yakim.


Yakim, I can't speak for OP, but for me most of the TS-E lenses' sweet spot is around f11 and I never shoot them below f8. Of course diffraction's a problem from f11 on, but it's matter of balancing that against the reduced CA these lenses have.


35mm lenses should have sweet spots at around F5.6. At F8 and beyond diffraction can kick in. Also depends what lens you're talking about as some lenses (not all) have sharper far corners at F8 than at F5.6. But for most cases, F5.6 has sharper centers than 8.0.

Concerning CA at F5.6 and larger aperture:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=486&Camera=453&Sample=0&FLI=0&API=0&LensComp=347&CameraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=3

It's 2009. Lenses have improved. I rather shoot the 24TS-E II at 3.5 than at 8.0 anyday unless I need more DOF.

ILOVECANONL wrote:It's 2009. Lenses have improved. I rather shoot the 24TS-E II at 3.5 than at 8.0 anyday unless I need more DOF.

To each his own. I have the 24TS-E II and have already shot more than 1,000 images with it in the past week. While it's much better at 3.5 than the TS-E 24 MkI was at 3.5, there is no doubt that I will choose 8.0 over 3.5 if there is any shift involved at all.

But why listen to the guy who has one? (Me and the OP, I mean.) We'll just wait and view the EXIFs as others start posting images from the 24TS-E II and see how often they shoot it wide-open.

I've got the Mark I, but the II seems so good. My wallet is yelling at me...I can't afford this or the 17....

RalphJ wrote:
Yakim Peled wrote:I'm curious. Do you usually test lenses at f/8-16? Yakim.


Yakim, I can't speak for OP, but for me most of the TS-E lenses' sweet spot is around f11 and I never shoot them below f8. Of course diffraction's a problem from f11 on, but it's matter of balancing that against the reduced CA these lenses have.


Sweet spot is one thing. Testing lenses is another. Well, at least IMHO.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

such an impressive lens!
you get a much better price over the too wow....

grasmuc wrote:
Full resolution pictures (nothing special, just some primary tests):
http://www.pbase.com/chrismuc/test_canon_tse_24f35_l_ii

"5dII: horizontal shift +/-12mm stiched to 60x24mm (@f11) "
Can you elaborate on that 60x24mm "stitch" ?
What post processing SW have you used to combine ? Is it made of 2 +- 12mm shifted PICs ?

Thanks

The price is pretty good in comparison to a Philippine parallel import copy that goes for about 100,000 PHP / 2,071.20 U.S. dollars / 1.485,05 Euro. It amazes me how much of a margin Canon puts on these optics.

welcome to my city - Guangzhou, and
wow you are support us to buy L lens at here, haha....

can not wait to watching more shots from you...

That's Jacky Chan holding a 50D!!

Ugh, still can't decide between 24 and 17 TSE...

to Leslie168
Thanks! Hope to see you there, I work and live half the time in Guangzhou, great city! The pics are from Marina hotel at Panyu square. The street in GZ with the 50 or so photography stores (new and second hand) is my favorite place:-)
This saturday, only a few hours before I left for Munich, the first TS-E 17 arrived in GZ. I had just enough time to pick it up:-)
Also an extraordinary lens. The most astonishing thing for me is how Canon succeeded in calculating the two new lenses completely free of distortion while Zeiss was not able to do so with their new 21mm, 25mm and 28mm lens designs.
The prices in Guangzhou are much lower than in Hong Kong even that the China prices include 17% VAT while the Hong Kong prices are VAT-free (are they?). Unfortunately China does not refund the VAT at the border, this would make purchases even more attractive.

to roli bark
This pic is simply one pic (camera horizontal) shifted 12mm upwards and another 12mm shifted downwards. Then in PS both combined by placing them in two layers on an enlarged canvas and with a layer mask with an smooth diagonal edge through the water area.

very first TS-E 17 pics (sorry, again nothing special ... did not have time yet ... too much work)
http://www.pbase.com/chrismuc/test_canon_tse_17f4_l

Christoph

Question, how quick can you tilt/shift these TS-Es and shoot another frame?

Thanks for sharing your results and the stitched pictures.

f/8 to f/16 is exactly where *I'd* use the 17mm too...

Christoph,

So when you return to Germany with your new lenses, do you go through the green "no items to declare" lanes?
I'm looking forward to a future trip to Germany where I'll be watching one of the seemingly many TV documentaries about how Customs is cracking down on undeclared imports by air passengers when one of the officers opens a camera bag and pulls out a new TS-E 17mm...

Back to the topic: thanks for posting your findings. I'm waiting for the 17 to arrive. Now just wondering if it makes any sense to wait longer for the 24 since all initial feedback seems to indicate there's nothing to worry about. When you have time, some side by side evaluation would be appreciated! The safe guess of course is the 24 will outperform the 17 in terms of sheer technical quality, but half of what I want the 17 for is simply to eliminate the 16-35... so I'm sure I'll be happy enough in that respect.

Ron

Ron

you would have to go through the red line "lenses to declare :-)" at german customs (and pay some percent customs plus 19 percent German VAT)

Back to topic: As soon as I have time I will do a comparison of the TS-E 17, the TS-E 24 and the Zeiss CY 35 PC with a Zeiss N 17-35 and a friend's good sample of a Canon 16-35 II but I assume that all three primes will outperform both zooms (not much but a bit).

I am in Shanghai right now and that 17mm TSE is asking for 20,000 rmb. Blood suckers here.

Venus that's a ripoff.

Look at the bright side. It's in stock.....

Happy shooting,
Yakim.