TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens
Product Details
Web ID: 21777369Excellent Architectural Photography Lens
These two photos was taken in one frame shot - not in five frames then stitch later. It was taken around 5:30PM in Long Island NY. I am challenging myself into taking my photographs AS IS, without heavy editing in the end of the shot (only touched contrast, exposure and thats it). This lens performs well for me, and in the long run this lens will save me a lot of time editing for i can correct distortions in the field immediately. I heard there are people using this lens for portraitures and landscape and they produced amazing work. The price will compensate the use in the long run and the lens was built to last. I advise people to have external monitor for composing for the built-in camera monitor is getting smaller every year. The lens is a prime lens, a mechanical equipment manual all the time, i consider this a machine built with metal and glass - not automatic/electronic lens. This lens moves in three different directions, tilt, shift, and rotate --X, Y and Z axis, in aviation roll, pitch and yaw. The thing negative is it doesnt come with hood for protection in the field you have to be very extra-careful for the glass protrudes out of the barrel. When i go out for shoot the positive effect is the lens is so obviously protrudes and the people respect you immediately for they think you are a living legend in photography, LoL. You can actually hear people from the background say "shht move back the guy is serious look at the lens. Is that a lens?" the bleeding wallet will heal right away. The lens cap was poorly designed for an expensive lens. The lens is remarkably beautiful, engineered and well-built to last.
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Customer review from canon.com
Mind-boggling quality and technology - and photos
This lens takes some work to understand, but there's no other piece of equipment at any price that makes the near-perfect pictures this lens takes. Panoramic vistas, distortion-free architectural shots, expanded or shortened DOF shots - all from one lens. And it is hideously cool looking in and of itself - a masterpiece of optical sculpture. If any of those types of photos are in your sights, there's no substitute. It's worth every penny.
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Customer review from canon.com
Simply Amazing
This lens is technically flawless and simply amazing. I shoot landscape and architectural photography. This lens handles both so well. Of course, it's main application will be architectural photography. But it shines in landscape as well, especially if you would like to look up towards the sky at a 45 degree angle and not have all the trees vertically converging toward the center of the photograph! So, if you are wondering is it worth the money, it is for me. And if you are a serious landscape or architectural photographer, it will be for you as well. And yes, there is a third party filter and pinch cap attachment that allows full movement with no vignetting, contrary to what other reviewers say. So, have your cake and eat it too!
Customer review from canon.com
SUPER!!! Canon 17 TS
I am a professional photographer in Seattle. I shoot interiors for both commercial and residential builders, architects, and interior designers. I also shoot many yacht interiors for builders, brokers, and dealers. I have had the 16-35 zoom… and it worked OK but you lose a lot of both quality and image when you straighten out the lines with software. So far the 17mm tilt shift along with the 24mm tilt shift and numerous other lenses I have are the way I shoot. The 17mm is clearly the best lens Canon has ever made. Maybe you could argue about the 24mm too? I have an aftermarket lens hood and a 145mm circular polarizer for the lens…. which is quite useful. My only beef is the knobs hide the adjustment lines and you really need a flashlight in your hand to work the lens in a dark restaurant or yacht environment… relatively a small problem.
Customer review from canon.com
Amazing Lens
I bought this lens after my extreme satisfaction with EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM. I wanted a lens that corrects the super wide angle distortion effect. I took this lens with me to Paris and used it to photograph cathedrals and buildings. After few attempts, I was able to control focusing without then need of a tripod and captured tall structures up close with virtually no distortion. In the narrow streets of Paris, it is the only way you can capture the beauty of the Parisian architecture. As described in the manual, aperture and focusing need to be adjusted after tilt or shift. While this may sound complicated, it really is not. You can still take advantage of the in-focus indicator by manually adjusting focus while half depressing the shutter release. Exposure can be easily corrected by viewing the recorded image. In short, I was able to take crisp and sharp images with virtually no distortion by keeping the aperture relatively small and making successive corrections with few exposures, all without the use of a tripod.
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Customer review from canon.com
Best Lens for me
I have these lens to use it in architectural photography, but the amazing thing it's that you can do a lot of things with it. It gives you a lot of possibilities to expand your imagination. Now I use it everywhere I go, for example I go to vacations to Las Vegas with family and I take amazing photos from the city and family only with these lens. Its a little bit hard to get an exact tilted picture without a tripod, but, they are better than if I take it with another lens. Quality of the pictures are very good, it's my first L lens and I just love it.
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Customer review from canon.com
Must Have in the Camera Bag
I've now owned the 17mm TS mounted on a Canon 5D MarkII for several months shooting home interiors for the Real Estate market. My 'backup' lens is now my 7D with a Canon 10-22mm lens, which is my comparison setup. I will not go into detail here as many others have already provided that type of excellent feedback. This lens is simply awesome and does what the top-notch 10-22mm lens could not do. When I stand on the sidewalk in front of a building and cannot get back any further due to traffic, the shift capabilities of the lens simply captures all the building while maintaining the straight vertical lines of the building. The quality is simply amazing. Often when viewing the photo on my computer for the first time, I just sit back and say "Wow" out loud. The build is great and since I always use a tripod, the weight isn't a problem. Speaking of weight, some have suggested it can be used hand held. This is something I tried and decided I would not attempt again without the tripod. The reason? If I'm outside shooting the exterior of a building or home and it is raining, then it would be much easier to hand hold rather than carrying a tripod. However, using live view to get focus in addition to trying to keep the camera level both vertically and horizontally is a real challenge. Yes, it can be done, but under an umbrella in the rain, it is a challenge!! Of course, even if not raining all that I mentioned would still be true. I've also noted a challenge early on with sometimes not getting the focus right. The depth of field for some shots turns out very shallow, which is the opposite of what I need. I'm convinced for an interior shot in a home, I don't need to use the Tilt feature of the lens. I've also noted that using F8 or F11, F8 seems to give better quality results, so a higher F stop isn't the answer. Perhaps it was just operator error as not all shots have the focus problem. The bottom line is that if you want to have all the tools at your disposal to produce fantastic results, then spend the money and get this lens. If you can deal with 'bent' vertical lines and crop out much of your shot just to keep verticals straight, then go with the 10-22mm. However, the 10-22mm is made for the EOS line with the 1.6 sensors, which means it effectively is a 27mm lens. It cannot be mounted on my full frame 5DMII.
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Customer review from canon.com
a TS-E lens I dreamed of came true!
I've been an architectural shooter for over 20 years. I've been through several wide lenses starting with the 20mm, then the 17-35, 17-40, 16-35 and I currently have the 16-35 Mark II. While it's the best of the zooms and better than the fixed 20mm, it can't even come close in image quality to the TS-E 17mm. The only thing lacking is the ability to polarize this lens, which is something I do quite often when shooting interiors. So then I need to use the 16-35 instead, but I'm eventually going to get the TS-E 24mm Mark II and then will have that option, albeit not as wide. Otherwise this lens combined with my 5D Mark II creates files that look almost like photo-realistic illustrations. The edge sharpness has always been an issue with other UWA lenses, until this lens. If you think this is an expensive lens, then you're probably not the demographic that should be using it.
Recommends this product
Customer review from canon.com