Well, we got our Canon 17mm tilt/shift lens (TS-E 17mm), and so I decided to run a field of view test for my three primary lenses. We take our real estate photos with a 24mm tilt/shift lens, a 14mm lens, and now a 17mm tilt/shift lens. Because the 17 and 24 can be shifted, this gives us a total of 5 field of views. Here's the largest of the images (the 17mm shifted image), with boxes showing the approximate field of view of the various options that we have.
As you can see, the next largest image is the 14mm, followed by the 17mm non-shifted and the 24mm shifted with the 24mm non-shifted being the smallest.
We bought the 14mm lens a year ago with the explicit intention of using it on the new 5D Mark II to speed our HDR processing by avoiding the use of the shifted 24mm. Unfortunately, we didn't buy the Mark II body until last week, and since sharpness mattered more than processing, we continued to take pictures with the 24mm lens, shifting it to take 3 photos and blend the 3 together. This resulted in a 20megapixel image. With the new Mark II body, we can take a 20 megapixel image with the 14mm lens, and that makes the 24 mm lens less important. The one advantage that the 24mm lens retains is that it is super-sharp.
Canon just released its 17mm tilt-shift lens. This now allows us to take super-wide images by shifting the lens (it's probably around a 10mm lens), and these images are 40 megapixels! The other thing that we really like about these images is that they are more of an 8x10 look (actually a 6x8), and gives a great look to brochures. If we just used the 14mm, we would likely have to crop some of the image to make it less rectangular, but with the 17mm, we can shoot full-frame.
Note: We are guessing that Canon released the 17mm lens in part for people with a Rebel or 50d that are not full-frame sensors. Using this lens on one of those bodies gives nearly the same field of view as the 24mm shift lens on the 5d, and those cameras are a lot less expensive. So, if you have one of those camera bodies and want to go even wider and get more of an 8x10 look, the 17mm shift lens might be a good choice.
Anyway, I haven't tested the 17mm shift lens for sharpness yet; I hope it compares to the 24mm in this regard, though I have some concern about it because there are so many elements in the lens. We'll try to write a review and let you know what we think after taking some real photos with it.
PLEASE NOTE: The photo above was taken to show field of view. It also illustrates the point made elsewhere that super-wide shots can sometimes not be the best image. Of all of those images, I think the size framing for this room is the 8x10 look of the 24mm shift, but I would reposition the camera to the right to get the piece of furniture to the far left out of the photo as it is a distraction. Super-wide can be great when used correctly; the nice thing about a good wide angle lens is that you can always crop it tighter.
Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate
http://www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com
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