Product Description

This is the world's first 35mm-format telephoto lens with tilt and shift movements. Gaussian optics give high-quality delineation and true background blur. The lens is suited for a variety of subjects, from products to portraits.

Product Details

• Brand: Canon
• Model: 2544A003
• Dimensions: 5.40" h x 5.50" w x 6.70" l, 1.95 pounds

Features

• EF mount; tilt shift lens
• Gaussian optics give high-quality delineation and true background blur
• 90mm focal length
• f/2.8 maximum aperture
• Manual focus only

From the Manufacturer
With a Canon TS-E lens, you can control the angle of the plane of focus and the picture’s perspective. The effects of large-format camera movements can be obtained with TS-E lenses for EOS cameras. Although manual focusing is required, automatic aperture control enables autoexposure and autoexposure bracketing. The tilt and shift axes intersect at a 90° angle. They can be made parallel at an authorized Canon Service Facility (modified at owner’s expense).

Telephoto perspective, f/2.8 speed, and full tilt and shift movements in a compact, professional package. Impressively sharp, its ability to alter the plane of focus can provide a "look" that previously required a view camera to achieve. Pros have found it a great option for portraits, products and even fashion work. At its closest focus distance (1.6 ft/0.5m), it gives magnifications of about 1/3 life-size.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic capabilities
This lens is a macro, a short telephoto, a portrait lens, and a landscape lens that offers new creative possibilities. Because depth of field can be manipulated as in a view camera, this is proving to be my most versatile lens in my bag, in spite of the fact it is "just" a 90mm prime lens. For macro shooting, even with an extension tube, additional depth of field possibilities open up with the tilt. The lens is a fantastic straight-on prime lens for portraits. I find entirely new possibilities for landscape shooting. And hand-held shots are no problem at all, even with maximum tilt. Though it is strictly a manual focus lens (the AF does not work on this one) the image in the view finder is so bright I have no problem manually focusing. Because of the extreme depth of field capabilities, my wide angle lens gets used less now that I have this lens to play with. I love it!

A sharp, well saturated lens
I do a lot of flowers and scenery. The tilt and shift lenses are often thought of as primarily for architectural photography, but the 90mm Canon f2.8 TS EOS lens has gained a good reputation for its close focusing and portrait applications, areas that are of interest to me.

So far, I'm pleased. I'll upload a favorite flower shot as an example.

What surprised me more than the versatility of the manually focusing lens is the color saturation--far greater than some L primes and as good as Leitz lenses. That says a great deal about the quality of the glass.

Great creative tool
Before I start the review, let me state that I am a professional wedding photographer and my review will be from that perspective.

Having the TS-E 90 is, in my opinion, the equivalent to having a fish-eye lens. Once you get to a certain point in your career (or expensive hobby), you start to look for ways to trigger more creativity and give you that feeling you got when you bought your first L lens. Like a fisheye, this lens allows you to create images that stand out from the crowd. Of course the effects are different, but the reasoning behind the purchase/owning the lenses is the same: to give you more creative control.

This being said, the tilt-shift lens allows you to do several things that really make your images POP:

1. You can tilt/shift the lens to make a tiny slice of DOF which really makes your subject stand out. This is not tiny like an 85 1.2, but tiny more like a Lensbaby (but better). I use it to make the bride's eyes really pop out while giving a super-soft dreamy look to her dress and the background.

2. You can tilt/shift an image to make the subject(s) look like they're miniature. (If you haven't seen this before, Google tilt-shift photography) Although initially this seems gimmicky, and it is if over used, you can really utilize this feature to make some stand-out images. Whenever I employ this technique, such as a shot of a ceremony from a high vantage point, the bride and groom inevitably compliment the image and are amazed at how unique the shot it.

3. Finally, you can also tilt/shift an image of architecture (for me, churches) to stop the vertical lines from converging at the top. This makes buildings look like they should. Although this seems like a small benefit, the difference a tilt-shifted building makes is that much more professional than one that is not. It's another quality that makes clients compliment the image without really knowing why it's so good.

To conclude, while this is an expensive lens and is certainly not for everybody, I feel that if you can justify the price, it will most definitely be a great addition to your bag.