TS-E45mm lens

[john_komatsu]

<p>I have a chance to buy a second-hand TS-E45mmF2.8 lens to go with my 5D II. I was wondering if this was actually designed with a digital sensor in mind. Canon have replaced their older TS-E24 with a mark II version because the original had some serious vignetting issues and I wonder if there might be similar issues with the TS-E45.Does anyone have any experience using this lens with a 5D or 5D II. Any comments appreciated.</p>

[sheldonnalos]

<p>It has a great reputation, but is less often discussed due to it's "in-between" focal length. Here are some user reviews....</p>

<p>http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=50&sort=4&cat=2&page=3</p>

[jeff_conrad]

<p>The lens was first released in 1991, so it certainly wasn't with a digital sensor in mind. It's nonetheless a good lens, as most of the linked reviews indicate. There definitely was some vignetting with the original 24, especially wide open at full shift, but it's not nearly as bad as some might have you believe (I've had mine for 15 years; it's a good, if perhaps not great, lens). Vignetting isn't an issue with the 45 because the angle ov view is much narrower.</p>

<p>It boils down to this: if you need either tilt or shift on a lens of that focal length (and I use both), you don't really have much of a choice. The essential question is what you plan to use it for.</p>

[mark_schafer1]

<p>After years of shooting 4x5 and 8x10 i started missing a lot of correction/creative options when i moved to digital capture with SLR cameras.<br>

Well, i found the TS lenses, got the whole set and have to admit the 45mm is my most used lens for fun projects and the occasional curveball on paid gigs (You'll find some on my website under Gallery/Washington).<br>

I love the focal length and range of manipulation. Sharpness is great and vignetting only becomes an issue at the very extremes, but even this can have it's artistic usage. <br>

So these days it travels with me to most places and i often leave the zoom at "home/hotel" and just bring the TS45mm for a fun day around town/or a party.<br>

The problem with the older TS24mm is that it's just not as well corrected and while the fringing was totally acceptable for film it became a very visible problem for digital capture. Most people still find it acceptable when not shifted too much, but for the quality concerned photographer it is a definite issue (I still use the old version, but very, very rarely, and combat the fringing in Lightroom and with desaturation brushes in Photoshop and that takes time).<br>

I guess calculating a wide angle lens is much more involved than we think, but Canon had to redo it to compete with the new line of Nikon PC lenses. And i expect that over the next couple of years all the lenses will be re-calculated, but i would jump on the opportunity to buy a well preserved TS 45mm any time.</p>

[jeff_conrad]

<p>I fully expect Canon to eventually release new versions of the TS-E 45 and the TS-E 90 (or thereabouts). In particular, the ability to independently rotate the tilt and shift functions would be a great improvement—for what I do, it would be far more useful than on the 17 and 24. But the new versions may come at commensurate prices, and we don't know when (or even if) this will happen. So I agree with Mark: if you need the movements, just get the lens and don't worry that it may not be perfect. Nothing is.</p>

[abrepsom1]

<p>I have used a TS-E 45mm on my 1Ds III with excellent results, so it should be fine on a 5D or 5D II.</p>

[peter_e]

<p>Works great on a 5Dii. The independent rotation of the tilt-shift axes is not a big issue--with a screwdriver, you can change the relative orientation of the axes by 90 degrees in a matter of minutes. For landscape photography you probably only do it once to change the axes from the factory preset.<br>

You do have an alternative: using a medium format lens with a shift or a tilt-shift adapter. You may get more shift but TTL light metering may be off (depending on the shift direction). I use an external light meter in these cases. With good lenses (e.g. Mamiya, Zeiss) you get excellent results as well, and at comparably low cost if you already own MF lenses. This is not an issue with Canon TS lenses.<br>

With all shift lenses, you get some loss of IQ with increasing shift amount.</p>

[jeff_conrad]

<p>I agree with Peter that changing the orientation of the tilt and shift functions is no big deal, but it's not something you want to be doing very often, especially in the field. For landscape work, changing the orientation once will probably suffice if you even need to do it. For one who does different kinds of work, the independent rotation is a nice feature. I know of someone who carried two of the original TS-E 24 mm lenses, one with the orientation of the features each way. He's obviously delighted with the new version that allows him to carry only one lens. I can count the times I've used tilt on the 24 on one hand, so it's not such a big deal for me.</p>

<p>Though the independent rotation would be a nice feature, it's hardly essential I've done fine without it, and quite honestly don't need to use both tilt and shift all that often. YMMV, of course.</p>

<p>Yet another alternative would be a <a href="http://www.hartblei.com/">Hartblei</a> Super-Rotator, which has had independent rotation for years. I've never used one, so I can't comment on the IQ. I also don't know how easy it is to find a used one.</p>

<p>Again, if you need the tilt and shift functions, the TS-E 45 is a great lens.</p>