Tilt Shift Lens

rjackjames · Oct 31, 2012

I am currently moving to Korea, I am thinking about getting the Tilt SHift lens. Have anyone used this lens? I want to photograph a lot of the temples around the Korean Peninsular. I have the 16-35mm lens also. So I use the 16-35mm or get a Tilt Shift lens?

bazooka · Oct 31, 2012

I have the 24mm (ver 1) and it is my least used lens so far (I have many). However, I am developing a new appreciation for it. I took a shot of several pinecones on the ground, one of them being about 6 inches from the lens, the furthest about 3 feet, and I had no problem getting them all in focus wide open. If you are shooting temples, I think it would be a very useful lens for you due to the shift ability. This will allow you to keep your verticals vertical without having to shoot wide and crop out half the image. You can correct the verticals in photoshop or raw converter, but you'll lose some pixels.

The downside of TS is it is manual focus only, and when shifting, the metering is usually off by a stop or so, so you'll want to either bracket or take a test shot and adjust.

Big Mike · Oct 31, 2012

It's not too hard to fix/correct minor distortion problems. But the closer you are, and the taller the building are (for example) the more distortion you'll have to deal with. A T/S lens can be helpful...but do you need it? It depends on what you want your photos to look like...unless you are shooting them for someone else, then it matters what they think.

rjackjames · Oct 31, 2012

Big Mike said:
It's not too hard to fix/correct minor distortion problems. But the closer you are, and the taller the building are (for example) the more distortion you'll have to deal with. A T/S lens can be helpful...but do you need it? It depends on what you want your photos to look like...unless you are shooting them for someone else, then it matters what they think.

This is for my personal use. I heard so many photo opportunities while being in Korea, especially the temples. I newer TS-E 17mm runs around $2500, I dont want to use for a while n never use again. We will see how much shooting i can do while Im there, that depend on my justification on the lens.

Big Mike · Oct 31, 2012

Unless you have a professional need for a T/S...or maybe if you really enjoy playing with camera movements (tilt & shift)...I don't think it's a great idea IMO. You can still photograph the same things with your 16-35mm...and it would be faster and easier. If you are shooting with your 5DIII, you will have plenty of resolution, so if you want to correct the distortion later, you can afford to loose some pixels when cropping.

TCampbell · Oct 31, 2012

I own the TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II. Yes... it's a FANTASTIC lens. BUT... these lenses have a fairly significant learning curve. You can correct the "lean" of buildings in editing software such as Photoshop (which is what the "shift" feature of the lens will handle), but you can't alter the plane of focus (which is what the "tilt" feature of the lens will handle) like you can with a tilt-shift.

I'll agree that it's one of my least-used lenses, but I do own several special-purpose lenses that don't see a whole lot of use but I sure am glad I own them when I need them.

These are manual focus lenses (to my knowledge, there is no such thing as a tilt-shift lens (from any manufacturer) that has auto-focus). They are not for shooting in a hurry. You learn to be patient, slow, and careful with your adjustments and assessment of whether you've got it right before you shoot. When I use this lens, I am usually on a tripod (not always, but mostly).