Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L II Tilt-Shift Lens Review

Ahhhh [drool], I’ve been eying and anticipating the arrival of this lens for sometime. I think it will be either number 2 or 3 on my list of next purchases – just got the 300mm f2.8L IS USM this week, so I’m going to have to wait a few months for the bank account to recover. Hopefully by then this lens will be in stock for more than just a few hours. However, the next purchase will most likely have to be the new (to be released) 1D. It’s debatable whether to pick up this lens or the 5D Mark II after that. I’m thinking that this lens really haulers to be on a full frame camera.

Great review (as usual). I felt like I was all cool with my shiny LNIB 24-105L until I read this :)


The size of the image circle covered by the new TS-E lenses is very interesting...it probably explains why the lenses are so sharp corner-to-corner, even in comparison to Canon's other excellent 24mm lenses. When a 24mm TS-E II is used on a full-frame camera with no tilt or shift, you're getting a similar sweet-spot advantage to the one that crop users normally get when using full-frame lenses...better edge sharpness and less vignetting. It's the same reason why certain ... types of people ... use adapted medium-format lenses on their 5Ds...a lens that is a slightly-above-average performer on a 645 camera is likely to be excellent when you're only using the middle of the lens.

Wow, I didn't think Canon could make a 24mm prime this sharp.

Have been renting this one from LensRentals for a month now, and I'm VERY impressed with it. Haven't tilted much yet, but been shifting all over the place. And as someone who's transitioned from model photography to architecture in the last few years, I can now hardly wait to save up and buy my own.


One issue to consider adding to the review - the knobs can get in the way and rotation can be impeded by built-in flash on the consumer and prosumer cameras. That same conflict creates some problems when wishing to shift in portrait orientation as well - the shift knob gets right under the flash assembly. The 5D's (or models higher up) without their flash would probably be the ideal bodies for use of this lens.


I am, incidentally, finding handheld shifting to be quite practical. Not ideal, perhaps, but completely feasible for simply adding correction or exaggeration to any shot with parallel lines in it. And since focus to infinity is reached quite quickly, one doesn't have to futz with the manual focus very much.


Btw, the most stunning information from the review for me was the 8.3" MFD. I'm amazed to learn that, and glad I have a few more days before I have to return the copy I've been renting. LensRentals has been fantastic to me and for me, btw.


Finally, as my own nutshell impression of this lens, I'll repeat what I told a friend the other day. He asked if I was going to buy my own, and I said, "Well, it's interesting. It adds a lot more variables to every shot, and thus it can seem a lot more complicated to juggle them. But I can't imagine shooting architecture without one EVER AGAIN."

TSE24 II is available in stock in Norman Camera (Canon's authorized dealer)!!! Act quick before it's gone in second!


http://www.normancamera.com/product-exec/product_id/20046/nm/Canon_TS_E_24mm_F3_5L_II_Tilt_Shift_Lens

Bryan: Thanks for a very thorough and thoughtful review.


One question from this review and that of the 17 TS-E is I'm trying to understand the difference between the positive and negative shift value test results using the ISO 12233 chart.


Both the 24 TS-E II and 17 TS-E show considerable differences in their border and corner performance when comparing the positive vs. negative shift values (ie. +12 vs. -12 tests for the 24 TS-E II) at a common aperture.


From the test results it seems possible that the -12 shift image has the lens shifted "away" from the corner crop being shown (so the test shows a corner from further out into the lens' image circle than the normal un-shifted image border), while the +12 looks like it could be a corner crop with the lens shifted "towards" the corner crop being shown (with the corner crop now now closer to the centre of the unshifted image circle than it would be in an unshifted shot).


Am I interpreting this correctly, and if not, how should we read the results for the positive and negative shift values?


Thanks in advance...

Thanks David.


What you will see in the shifted results is that the side of the image that is enlarged becomes softer.The target is framed identically in all shots.


Hope that helps!

Between reading your review and checking out the other links the only thing that comes to mind is "awsome".


The only problem is I would have to clean out some of the other glassin my bag to make room for it.


Anybody need a 16-35