TS-E on the cheap? For architectural photography

AmateurArchitectural wrote:

I shoot architecture, largely exteriors, for work but not for income. Mostly photos I only use at PowerPoint resolutions and for book/article illustrations. Really large prints are an occasional treat.

I really want to move to a TS-E, firstly because I much prefer to compose and problem-solve in-camera rather than in PS, and secondly because I loved my old Nikon shift and want to play with tilt too.

My question is, is it too bad a waste of a beautiful lens (17mm TS-E) to put it on a 7-year-old EOS400D?

- Will I be able to focus through the 400D’s little view-finder?

- Is the image quality in camera too low to be worth it?

My alternative is to shell out another £1000+ to get the 6D and the 24mm TS-E instead (17mm on FF the angles are too un-natural-looking for my kind of architecture), and consign my EFS to spare.

Any advice welcome!

(If you want to see the sort of thing I shoot, there's some here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnabas_calder/)

To me a good lens is good lens, no such thing "a waste" on any camera, the unique T/S capabilities can be fully utilized for your type of work regardless what kind of camera body is mounted on, of course 6D is easier than the 400D due to all the newer technologies, but it's definitely not a "waste" on 400D, I have used my TSEs both film, old 20D and all the newer bodies like 5D2, 1DS3, all worked great.

Focusing the TSE with VF is not as difficult as you may think, I mainly use MF Zeiss and TSE primes and while it's "harder" to do that with VF than the LV LCD, but it's definitely doable if you take your time and practice more, you are not shooting fast moving objects with such combo, so don't be turned off by VF MF, you will love those TSE, once you tried, it's hard to go back to any other Canon WA lenses.