A superb refinement to a true Canon classic, the new TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II offers enhanced functionality and image quality in its most popular tilt-shift focal length. Designed with UD glass to minimize and compensate for chromatic aberrations and a specially coated aspherical element for the highest possible glare-free image quality, this tilt-shift lens features an angle of view of 84° on a full-frame camera.New TS rotation lets users freely combine tilting and shifting within the range of +/- 90° in the direction of movement. The Tilt function has an enhanced range of movement of up to +/- 8.5°, a revolving construction for both portrait and landscape shooting modes, locking, ergonomically-designed and easily operated tilt and shift knobs, uses a circular aperture for beautiful out-of-focus areas, and is constructed using only lead-free glass and has an SWC lens coating that controls ghosting and flare to a far greater degree than earlier coating technologies.

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Reviews

Canon TS-E 24mm 1:3.5 L II review by DPReview.com

Conclusion – Pros

• Excellent central sharpness even at F3.5
• Minimal chromatic aberration
• Almost no visible distortion
• Extensive and highly flexible perspective control movements
• Exceptional build quality

Conclusion – Cons

• Soft corners when shifted (need to stop down to F11 – F16 to achieve best sharpness)
• Expensive

The Canon TS-E 24mm F3.5 L II is a lens which, given its price, has high expectations to meet. The good news is that, in almost all respects, it succeeds – the build quality is exemplary (certainly on a par with the EOS-1 series bodies it’s likely to be paired with), and the new, more flexible system of movements works very well indeed. The ability to rotate the tilt axis freely with respect to shift increases the creative possibilities substantially, but despite this additional complexity the layout and operation of controls is still very straightforward and easy to master. With this being a manual focus lens, the operation of the focus ring is especially important; fortunately its long travel and super-smooth, precise operation makes critical focusing a breeze.

Optically the lens is, on the whole, superb – indeed our tests show it to be possibly the best 24mm Canon has yet produced, certainly superior to the EF 16-35mm F2.8 L II (which isn’t at all bad at 24mm), and on balance arguably better even than the EF 24mm F1.4L II due to its lower chromatic aberration. In the centred (i.e. unshifted) position it’s exceptionally sharp wide open at F3.5, and there’s effectively no distortion or chromatic aberration. Move to the extremes of shift, and those latter two highly desirable characteristics remain – if your specialty is architectural photography, this lens will draw straight lines pretty well perfectly no matter what position it’s in, and color fringing will be very low even in the corners of the frame.

But there is of course one optical weakness, and that is the lens’s softness towards the edge of the frame when used at extreme shift positions. Our tests show that this is just as noticeable in real life as in the studio, but as always with such issues, it needs to be placed in proper context. It’s important to appreciate that not only is it simply not necessary to shift the lens fully much of the time, but also that shooting at apertures around F8 – F16 for depth of field is par for the course with this lens anyway. Also, as we’ve shown, despite this corner softness the lens still produces better results overall when shifted than using software to correct for perspective distortion after the event. So while there’s no denying the issue exists, its real-world impact will for many users be less than the graphs might suggest – indeed most of the images we shot in anger during the course of this review turned out perfectly sharp corner-to-corner.

Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L II Tilt-Shift Lens Review by the-digital-picture.com

The Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L II Tilt-Shift Lens is, optically and physically, the highest quality 24mm Canon-mount lens I’ve reviewed to date.

I already mentioned the high optical quality of this lens. To be more specific: The Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L II Tilt-Shift Lens is impressively sharp wide open and is very sharp right into the full frame corners. Stopping down does not make a significant difference in sharpness – and it doesn’t need to. The TS-E 24 II is clearly sharper than the original TS-E 24mm L.

Vignetting is very well controlled – You might notice a little vignetting in full frame corners at f/3.5, but overall, nothing to worry about. Performance is very similar to the EF 24 L II in this regard (at the same apertures).

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is extremely well controlled – less CA than the EF 24 L II and much less than the original TS-E 24mm L. Utilizing SWC (Subwavelength Structure Coating), the TS-E 24 L II controls flare very well – performing much better than the EF 24 L II and better than the original TS-E 24mm L (review the comparison samples below). Distortion is negligible – slightly less than even the EF 24 L II and noticeably less than the original TS-E 24mm L. Contrast and colors are excellent. Bokeh (foreground and background blur quality) is good.