Nice combination: Sony A7R2 and Canon TS-E 17mm/Fotodiox Pro Fusion Adapter

A few months ag I was playing around with my second hand Sony A7R and a Samyang 24mm tilt/shift lens which was attached to the Sony by means of a Fotodiox Pro Fusion adapter.

I bought the Samyang second-hand for 250 Euro's - an equivalent of 280 US $. I have enjoyed the combination, and especially applying the shift function was great fun, and not to difficult.

pump-house at Stompwijk (Netherlands - near the Hague) - Samyang 24mm TS

However - there were a few points of irritation: The noisy shutter and the shutter shock of the A7R, and the Samyang produced images which were a little bit too soft in the corners - and that was a little bit irrational, as I had bought the second hand Sony with its hig-res sensor in order to perform Landscape photography. Even squeezing the diaphragm up to f/11 offered insufficient relief.
So, I sold the Samyang for the same 250,- Euro's. A few monts ago there was a tempting, temporarily price reduction for the A7R2, so.... I sold the A7R for the same price I had bought it, and purchased a brand new A7R2 with a 42 Mpixel sensor. As the Tamron 24-70 zoom was not compatible with the fotodiox adapter, I sold this lens and bought the bulky Canon 24-105 L f/4 kit lens. Combined with the Samyang/Rokinon 35mm I had a grab&go setup and a more bulky option. The image quality was very satisfactory, and I didn't miss the tilt shift Samyang - I tought.

The day before yesterday I spotted a second hand Canon TS-E 17mm tilt/shift lens, which had to be sold for 1375 Euro's, which corresponds with 1530 US $. In absolute terms I perceived it as an awful lot of money - but for a Canon tilt/shift lens....a bargain.

The guy who was selling the lens was so kind to give me an exclusive option for 24 hours or so. I read reviews, including this one: Review Canon TS-E 17mm by Bryan Carnathan , and this one: Review by Philip Reeve . Summarized: Not as tack sharp as its 24mm equivalent, but almost no distorsion (which was also not present with the TS-E 24mm), but it was the shortest focal length on the market. Furthermore: more degrees of freedom wrt rotation than the affordable TS-E 24mm Mark I. Hm. I already had a 24mm focal lenght available...so if a TS lens should be bought, it was more clever to go for a 17mm option.

Well, I bought the most-expensive-lens-I-ever-had. and I was playing around with it today. The wheather was crap: drizzle, windy and 5 degrees centigrade (41 degrees fahrenheit). Mechanical quality: superb. Nice large turning knobs for the shift and tilting mechanisms. Works like a breeze, despite my frozen fingers,  and - with my Samyang experience- almost intuitively.  And yes...the image quality is significantly better than with the Samyang, so a better match for the 42 Mpixel sensor. Using it as a straightforward 17mm wide field lens: no distortion despite the short focal distance (!!).

Focussing was easier than with the Samyang. The focus peaking function of the Sony combined with the 10-fold magnification worked great, again - better than with the Samyang. Maybe due to the higher contrast?

Steel tower at Bergse Bos, near Rotterdam (Netherlands) - Canon TS-E 17mm

Steel tower at Bergse Bos near Rotterdam (Netherlands) - Canon TS-E 17mm

It works well together with the Fotodiox adapter, which is a little bit more budget friendly than the Metabones adapter. I only spotted one problem: a power drain issue after the A7R2 was switched off and the Canon 240105 L I was attached. Workaround: just temporarily detach the lens by turning it a few degrees, and lock it again.
Finally: do I recommend the Rokinon/Samyang? Yes! It is bang for the buck, and the image quality is ok (first picture), unless you want an image with tack-sharp corners on a high-res sensor.  But a 17mm tilt/shift lens is difficult to resist due to the more spectacular affect of a short focal distance. Very difficult to resist. Especially when the manufacturer did such a good job.

Very nice photos.   Enjoy your “new” toys.

Really nice shots.

In my opinion, you have the finest architectural lens in the world.

Enjoy it in good health.

1Dx4me wrote:

very interesting shot. i have both canon TSE 17mm/24mm lenses but i haven't spent enough time to master using them! i like to use my TSE lenses in the city shooting tall buildings. i believe in order to learn usage of TSE lenses, would be to take them out in the field and learn hands on! keep up the good work good luck.

I fumbled around with mine for a long time.  Then I had an epiphany and discovered a counterintuitive method.  It became easy, or at least as easy as it's going to get, instantly.

The visualization of the shot has to be a completely separate action from positioning the camera to take the shot.   You have to visualize the shot entirely in you head, or look at the possibilities through the lens, as with a normal lens.

Then you have to level the camera and frame the horizontal axis (assuming you want to shift vertically) then frame the vertical axis using the shift knob.

On the 6D (and I think any DSLR) the shifted lens freaked out the exposure program, so I had to either meter the shot unshifted, but pointed in the final direction or shoot, chimp, then hit EC, then repeat until it was right, sometimes four stops.  Once I read that the R would meter the shot properly with the lens shifted, it clinched the deal for me.  It has cut my shooting time by as much as half and at least a third.

It's a bit of extra work, and the positioning of the lens to shoot interrupts the creative process with tedium.  On a long shoot, I often feel like swapping it for a "normal" premium UWA zoom.  Then I look at the pictures, and the feeling goes away.