Alternatives to Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L

Antonio Correia · September 12, 2011

I would like to buy one of these toys. However they seem too expensive.
Any decent alternative, if you please ?

Thank you :bow

ziggy53 · September 12, 2011

There are a couple of Russian made tilt-shift/perspective-control type lenses that are much less than the Canon and Nikon counterparts, but they do not have as high a build quality or image quality. The Canon TS-E 17mm, f4L is the only 17mm lens with axis controls on the planet.

What is your application? (How would you use the lens?)

Matthew Saville · September 13, 2011

The Sigma 12-24, (full-frame) ...and then crop the image! :-P (At least ,for the purpose of perspective correction...)

=Matt=

Antonio Correia · September 13, 2011

@ Ziggy The use of such lens is for Architecture and to pursue my theme "Urban Decay".

However, the compulsory use of a tripod is something I have to bare in mind as it be comes a time consuming lens, if you know what I mean.

Even if I will not buy one I would like to try it in a couple of shots.

@ Matthew Thank you for your suggestion

D BUt... It's not Tilt and Shift is it ??? Not good ! for what I want ! I do have already a 16-35mm f/2.8 so...

900 US$

"better" than Canon.

Matthew Saville · September 13, 2011

Antonio Correia wrote: »

@ Matthew Thank you for your suggestion D BUt... It's not Tilt and Shift is it ??? Not good ! for what I want ! I do have already a 16-35mm f/2.8 so...

900 US$ "better" than Canon.

...I dunno about the "better than Canon" quote, but the Sigma 12-24mm is the best way to achieve perspective correction at 17mm without actually buying the 17mm TSE.

Explanation: Compose your shot at 12mm, parallel to the axis of whatever it is you want to correct, and then crop up or down for your composition and ~17mm. Voila, poor man's TSE! You'll lose megapixels, as I mentioned, but if you're shooting at 21 megapixels you should have enough to get the job done...

=Matt=

ziggy53 · September 13, 2011

To control perspective distortion with a rectilinear corrected lens, shoot to fill the scene and then, in Photoshop, use the following method to correct the perspective distortion:

Here is a Red Schoolhouse I shot in Indiana:

Note the slant caused by perspective distortion.

Brought into PhotoShop:
Select
...All
Edit
...Free Transform

You'll see control points on the edge of the image frame. On a Windows machine, Ctrl-left-mouse-click on one of the control points and draw out to distort the image. It helps to pull out a Guide Line from the Rulers in order to align an edge to the guide.

Here are the control points and a single guide line:

... and here is the image after the upper left control point is dragged to the left to adjust the building on the left side:

You need to draw the right side as well and probably extend the image vertically a bit to complete the perspective adjustment.

Here is where I wound up:

Pertinant EXIF:

Model - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
ExposureTime - 1/1000 seconds
FNumber - 8.00
ExposureProgram - Aperture priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 800
MeteringMode - Multi-segment
FocalLength - 13 mm
Quality - RAW
Exposure mode - Av-priority
Focal length - 10 - 20 mm (1 mm)

Lens used was the Sigma 10-20mm, f/4-5.6 EX DC.

I generally use Adobe Camera Raw to upres the image first, which just tends to avoid any visible "jaggies" caused by the perspective correction.

For a very tall structure, shot at close range, I'll also use a panoramic head and vertical stitching technique.

Antonio Correia · September 13, 2011

I am not that sure about losing pixels as I work in raw and ... Smart Objects ! but ...
Here is an image I just made to compare.
The first one is as shot, the other corrected.
Thank you for your advice.

From the theme "Postal cards"

Antonio Correia · September 13, 2011

Thank you Ziggy. I do everything in ACR with Smart Objects.
The image above - shot early morning as we can see by the shadows on the facade - was shot with a 5D at 24 mm with a 24-70 Canon f/2.8 L lens, 1/2500 f/4.5 ISO 500.

Antonio Correia · September 13, 2011

More dramatic changes can be done... with decent reasults just using ACR, CS5 and Smart Objects.

QED

ziggy53 · September 13, 2011

Looking good.

Sometimes you may also want to leave in some perspective if your vantage point seems to warrant the perspective.

Antonio Correia · September 13, 2011

Matthew Saville · September 14, 2011

Yeah, or you can always do it in post. :-)

=Matt=

Alternatives to Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L

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