Can anyone share examples of a tilt-shift lens in action for buildings? I'm a little frusterated with WA for buildings...see example below. And I really don't care for the post processing corrections...would prefer to have a lens that was made for it.
However I don't see many posts with images made with a TS so hoping some of you with one of the TS lenses would share some shots.
Also share any thoughts you might have about using them..preferred focal length (I'm thinking 24 or 45, but those are two very different perspectives), any difficulty with focusing and do you use a certain screen to focus, or anything else of interest. Thanks!
Love to help you out but I mainly use the 24mm TS-E for landscapes and the 90mm for flowers... Focusing can be difficult, I'll be getting an angle finder to use with the 90mm soon.
Oh yeah, thoughts. I always loved the idea of the TS-E lenses, but I never found them quite as useful in practice as I had imagined. First of all, the 24 is a 3.5, which I found made it difficult to assess perfect focus on a 1D Mark II with the grid screen (although Live View on the newer cameras might help that somewhat). Also, the copy of the 24 I had was a real dog, soft when compared to the 17-40 and useless at the extremes of tilt and shift (Canon even puts use-at-your-own-risk red marks on the lens to indicate this). I've heard that this is consistent with other users' impressions, as well. In the end I found the 17-40 + Photoshop "Lens Correction" to have equal (if not better) quality.
The 45 was much better in terms of image quality, and I would have kept it if I owned a FF camera. (I really wanted to use this lens handheld, and I have a feeling it would be easier if I had owned a FF camera and an EE-S screen instead of a 1DII and a grid screen.) The 45 is a 2.8, which makes it easier to see what's in focus vs. what's not, and also allows for those neat portraits where the plane of focus cuts through at an angle. It's also considerably sharper than the 24 at the extremes of tilt and shift.
"My" 24TSE (which I consistently keep borrowing from a friend, who never uses it ) has always been good to me. I think it's easy to focus at infinity because like FD lenses, it simply "locks" at infinity. That never failed me, esp. at night when it's hard to see anything. When used recently on my 1Ds3 I screwed up royally by locking in at infinity (force of habit) even though subject matter wasn't there. I totally forgot that I now have LiveView and could use it with this lens, too. So I won't show you those examples
The lens is not super sharp but sharpens up very nicely. I had a somewhat different Eiffel Tower picture printed 24x36" on a wall at the office after I took it (2004, 1Ds) and people were amazed at the detail & sharpness. No, it's not a Zeiss but I find it's very easily treated, unlike other lenses (16-35 comes to mind). In addition, the 24TSE is amazingly distortion free (no barrel). At extreme tilt / shift, you'll get vignetting but at least to me that's expected. Even on the 1Ds3, sharpness is great, if you actually focus it correctly (which I screwed up as mentioned).
I have found the 24TSE also useful for panoramas. Not in the same way most people use it (shifting side to side from same position) but rather shifting it up / down (depending what you're shooting) and rotating the base as usual. If you tilt a "normal" lens up (for a building) or down (forget the sky, I want to see the grass!) you're in a world of hurt if you're doing a pano because of the perspective. With shifting the TSE down (or up), you have perfectly straight lines. Not all pano programs are able to deal with this unusual arrangement, but some do (I use AutopanoPro and it works like a charm).
The 24TSE is the one lens that I only virtually own, but if my friend were to move away or start hating me, I'd have to buy it
Great shots, thanks!!! The Eiffel Tower is perfect, exactly the kind of image I was hoping for...in other words, TS is now on the official wish list. Guess a 24 will be the way to go, or maybe the 45...naw, 24 for buildings.
I have a small (older, haven't added to it for a bit) gallery showing the use of a 45 TS with a variety of techniques--shift for convergence correction, tilt and swing for increased perception of DOF, flat stitch panos, both vertical and horizontal, selective focus and just as a good manual focus f/2.8 prime.
I don't live in an area (or visit one often) that has very large buildings so there are some of architecture, but I also use it for more 'intimate' subjects. Love the lens but have gotten out of the habit of carrying it and its now back in my bag. I really do think its the most creative lens to use (and due to circumstances, often use it handheld). I have at least one shot with it also used with a 1.4x converter (all shots with a 5D) which works nicely bringing it to 63mm FL. I'm playing with it a bit now on a focusing rail for 3 over 3 panos, but haven't really had occasion to try it in real life.
) has always been good to me. I think it's easy to focus at infinity because like FD lenses, it simply "locks" at infinity. That never failed me, esp. at night when it's hard to see anything. When used recently on my 1Ds3 I screwed up royally by locking in at infinity (force of habit) even though subject matter wasn't there. I totally forgot that I now have LiveView and could use it with this lens, too. So I won't show you those examples 