Comments about Canon Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens with 104 Degree Angle of View:

I have used T/S lenses and bellows cameras for many years but this lens takes some getting used to. Unshifted it is a very impressive lens - considerably better than the 16-35 F2.8 II. The tilt / shift modes are very good and light fall off is not a big issue. However, the extreme wide angle of this lens makes focusing and framing quite difficult - especially when tilted. In general this lens needs to be used on a tripod with the rear LCD carefully reviewed. You can shoot handheld but it is not an easy operation. I found that getting the results I wanted took several weeks of experience and it takes months to get the best from this lens.

Comments about Canon Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens with 104 Degree Angle of View:

The lens arrived a couple of days ago, and I went out today to shoot one of the most famous churches in the US, San Francisco de Asis, in Ranch de Taos, NM. It was built in 1772, with adobe walls that are four feet thick, with buttresses to hold them up..

The front element of the lens is exposed and huge, but the unique lens cap protects it.

The first shot was from about two feet off the ground, using a Canon 5D Mk II. I deliberately underexposed a stop to contrast the opening in the wall, and to highlight the church and the white crosses against the blue sky. The camera was carefully leveled using an Arca-Swis C1 Cube tripod head, and then the lens shifted upwards to frame the church properly. Even after magnifying the JPEG in LightRoom to the point where the individual pixels make the details on the diagonals show the "jaggies", I don't see any loss of sharpness or chromatic aberrations anywhere.

The second shot, with the statue of St. Francis in the foreground and the entire church in the background, could not have been made with any other lens, at least without a lot of PhotoShop correction.

The photos are unaltered, except to add metadata.

Comments about Canon Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens with 104 Degree Angle of View:

The results from this lens are breathtaking. It really feels like a precision instrument in your hands, and visually, it's just perfect. It's a must-have for architectural photography.

Comments about Canon Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens with 104 Degree Angle of View:

Already owned the 24 TSE, could not resist and bought the Adorama, the 17 TSE. Great for incredible angles with prospects fully remedied. I was even surprised. I recommend to Shift extreme, that you use the diaphragm tightly closed.[...]

Comments about Canon Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens with 104 Degree Angle of View:

I'm a designer of museums and aquariums, and have been using both the 14mm 2.8 and the older 24mm tilt/shift lenses to document my firm's work, first with a 5D and now with a 5D Mark II. The 17mm at first seemed at a real sweet spot between the two other lenses. It turns out to be much more than that.

The 17mm (and the new version of the 24mm) now have the ability to swivel both the tilt and shift functions independently, giving a far greater degree of view camera-like control than previously was available with the older models (my other camera is a Linhof). The 17 is fantastically sharp, and the controls are much improved (a sliding tilt lock prevents unnoticed tilt movement and the adjustment knobs and locking knobs for both tilt and shift are much more positive and effective).

Though this is a lens that begs for a tripod to be fully utilized, I have also been using it hand-held on site visits and have found it to work very well in that capacity. It gives a great degree of added control even when used speedily.

The outer element is unprotected, so it's not a lens to be casually carried about, however. The lens cap is unusual in the way it surrounds the end of the lens, and large. It has a strap that turns out to be very useful on a wrist to pop the cover off and back on, particularly when using it hand held.

Color depth with this lens is extraordinary. There is remarkably little flare in most cases even in challenging lighting.

I lusted for it the moment I saw it, and have found it to be astonishingly useful and good.

Comments about Canon Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens with 104 Degree Angle of View:

If you shoot architectural with a Canon System then you need this lens. Period. It will be on your body a small percentage of the time but when it is needed it simply will deliver results that will pay for itself many times over.