martinimages
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Canon 24mm TS lens MK1
Having used my 24L TS lens now for a few weeks here's my mini review following the hands on usage.
This is one of those lens you look at and think, Hmm, expensive do I need one. Well thats the question I asked myself but eventually bought one, although I was patient and waited for a used one to come up for sale, one did and I saved quite a few hundred £ $ in the process.
First thing that might put potential buyers off is the lack of AF, this is a manual focus lens, works like a dream and is beautifully geared, smooth is the word that comes to mind, it has one big advantage that I have found being non A/F it slows you down and makes you think about what you are doing, how often do we take shots and look at them afterwards and realize we got the focus in the wrong place. You can use your cameras A/F manually, just turn the focus ring slowly and when the desired area is in focus, your cam either bleeps or the green light stays on in the viewfinder to show you have achieved focus.
Now me being a landscape nutter  , I find it frustrating wanting to get the whole shot in as i see and compose in camera, but often as not I have to tilt my wide lens upwards to include more sky and less foreground then correct the perspective in PS, but then loose the composition as I have to crop the image after straightening, plus the image suffers in quality and the file size is reduced, not with the TS lens, shifting up or down keeping the film plane level you get a correct perspective, no quality loss, maybe a little to the extreme edges on full frame and you keep the original in camera composition.
Contrary to popular belief you DO NOT have to have this lens mounted on a tripod to get it to work correctly, its easy to shift up or down, all you do is compose, focus, adjust the shift keeping the cam level and take the shot.
I have also found that using the lens in conjunction with live view enhances the enjoyment in taking a picture, bit like using a scaled down field view camera, compose, focus, adjust live view exposure simulation, shift or tilt and take the shot, just makes you feel your taking more time and care in the whole image taking process.
Build quality is as you would expect from Canon L series, superb. Optically is probably not as sharp wide open as the 24mm L but improves stopped down from wide open I have, found it so far to be excellent, with great detail and contrast resolved on my MK3 sensor.
Another important area I have to experiment with more is the ability to get "apparent" DOF using wide apertures and hand holdable shutter speeds using the Tilt function, there are many times I have wanted to stop right down to get max DOF but this in turn gives long exposures and makes the shot impossible using a standard W/A lens, the Tilt does not increase DOF but alters the focal plane and therefore you can get huge DOF on a subject using wide apertures with sensible shutter speeds, a great asset in all areas of photography.
So whats my verdict.
Well for me this is FOUR lens in one package,
1/Its a great walk around wide lens, not to big and heavy and takes great shots.
2/ The shift control saves time in PP, keeps max resolution and original composition, and turns it into a different working tool to a standard fixed 24mm.
3/ The tilt gives greater freedom with exposure, shutter and aperture settings plus far more DOF control [its not actually DOF but focal plane adjustment but looks the same]
4/Doing pano shots is a breeze with this lens, just three shift movments you get images that align and stich together perfectly, quick and easy to do using the lens shift control knob.
So is it worth the money, IMHO YES, without a doubt, its one of those items that when you use it you wonder how you ever managed before.
So to rate this lens in all important areas out of ten
Image quality 8
Functionality 10
Build quality 10
Value for money 9 [buy it second hand would give it a 10 rating]
Thinking about getting one, don't hesitate you wont regret it.
Down sides
Can darken edges in full shift and exposure can be out, live view counteracts the exposure though.
Not sure about this, but on a 1.6 crop 24mm might not be wide enough. However Canon now do a 17mm but that is very expensive.
Cameras that have a flip up flash and a overhang could make it awkward to adjust the tilt and shift knobs at the top.
Martin 
Last edited by martinimages, 27/Mar/09, 10:41 pm
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27/Mar/09, 9:20 pm
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humblestum
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Re: Canon 24mm TS lens MK1
Another excellent review, Martin. Interestingly, there is a quite comprehensive feature article on the TS-E lenses in the Oct-Dec '08 edition of EOS Magazine. The writer looks, amongst other things at the merits of the three TS-E lenses (24mm, 45mm & 90mm) and actually comes out in favour of using the 24mm with the 1.4x Extender. With regard to tripod use, he writes "It is pointless investing in one of these lenses if you are going to tilt the lens up accidentally while hand-holding the camera..." However, he does appear to be writing on the basis that the lens will be mostly used for photographing buildings, rather than landscapes.
I would be very tempted by the new TS-E 17mm, but only if my Premium Bonds come up trumps!
--- Keith
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28/Mar/09, 8:40 pm
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anotherKeithM
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Re: Canon 24mm TS lens MK1
And another note of appreciation for posting your thoughts Martin - having got to know your work adds context to what you've written.
Controlling DoF is one aspect that interests me - but I hadn't thought in terms of keeping shutter speed reasonable - more about being able to stick with reasonable apertures ( f/5.6 say ) and use plane of focus to get near/far in focus to avoid stopping right down to the point where difraction may overly soften the image.
Small question: are the relative axes of tilt and shift fixed on this lens... I notice the newest Canon T&S lenses allow for the T and S to be rotated independently ( like the Hartblei super rotator ) which is obviously far more flexible. Have you used T and S in combination yet, or needed to ?
I would be looking at Nikon's f-mount offerings which have T and S at right-angles, but can be modified to be on the same axis - I'm not sure which would be the most useful orientation though ( I suspect modified with T and S inline as you could then tilt to rotate plane of focus,then shift to regain composition ). Having said that, Hartblei are now using Zeiss optics, but if you could get one, what would the price be ??
Keith.
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29/Mar/09, 11:05 am
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martinimages
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Re: Canon 24mm TS lens MK1
If I understand question , the lens rotates and both tilt and shift can be adjusted indipendantly, the lens can be adjusted by Canon to the parallel system, but can be done , with care yourself with a good watch makers screw driver, I have not used the tilt and shift together much, but when the occasion arises I will certainly have a go. The most useful orientation is subjective, some like the modification others leave alone as its not needed for there type of work, I would imagine the newer Canon TS will be more flexible, but at a cost
Martin
Last edited by martinimages, 29/Mar/09, 10:16 pm
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29/Mar/09, 10:15 pm
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