Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

by Canon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 5.5 x 5.4 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009XVDP
• Item model number: 2544A003
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With a Canon TS-E lens, you can control the angle of the plane of focus and the picture’s perspective. The effects of large-format camera movements can be obtained with TS-E lenses for EOS cameras. Although manual focusing is required, automatic aperture control enables autoexposure and autoexposure bracketing. The tilt and shift axes intersect at a 90° angle. They can be made parallel at an authorized Canon Service Facility (modified at owner’s expense).

Telephoto perspective, f/2.8 speed, and full tilt and shift movements in a compact, professional package. Impressively sharp, its ability to alter the plane of focus can provide a "look" that previously required a view camera to achieve. Pros have found it a great option for portraits, products and even fashion work. At its closest focus distance (1.6 ft/0.5m), it gives magnifications of about 1/3 life-size.

Product Description

With a Canon EOS TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Wide Angle Lens, you can control the angle of the plane of focus and the picture's perspective via its tilt-shift capabilities. The tilt and shift functions can be used independently or combined to adjust the shooting range, correct perspective distortions and control the zone of focus, enabling you to obtain special effects not possible with ordinary lenses.

This lens is a marvelous problem solver for architecture, landscapes, and many other applications calling for a wide-angle perspective. The floating optical system, with a ground and polished Aspherical front element, makes this lens sharp from infinity down to 1 foot (0.3m), and corrects distortion and other aberrations to assure high image quality. Like all TS-E series lenses, it has a fully automatic diaphragm, so there's never a risk of forgetting to stop the lens down.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic capabilities, September 7, 2008

By 

ShutterFlash (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

This lens is a macro, a short telephoto, a portrait lens, and a landscape lens that offers new creative possibilities. Because depth of field can be manipulated as in a view camera, this is proving to be my most versatile lens in my bag, in spite of the fact it is "just" a 90mm prime lens. For macro shooting, even with an extension tube, additional depth of field possibilities open up with the tilt. The lens is a fantastic straight-on prime lens for portraits. I find entirely new possibilities for landscape shooting. And hand-held shots are no problem at all, even with maximum tilt. Though it is strictly a manual focus lens (the AF does not work on this one) the image in the view finder is so bright I have no problem manually focusing. Because of the extreme depth of field capabilities, my wide angle lens gets used less now that I have this lens to play with. I love it!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing lens with lots of creative possibilities, February 7, 2010

By 

AV Rob "AV pro" (West Michigan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

I also own the newer Canon 24mm 3.5L mark II tilt shift so I wasn't sure if I'd be happy with this earlier version of a Canon tilt/shift but I wanted to add tilt/shift capabilities in a 90mm. After using it for a few weeks, I must say it is a very impressive lens. While this one does not sport the "L" designation, it is as sharp as my "L" lenses. Color and contrast is very good, and it produces a wonderful bokeh as well. I use it with a full frame Canon 5D mk II. As with my other tilt/shift, it is easier to focus these manual focus lenses using Live View as you can also better view the effects of your tilt/shift combination. The focus confirmation works, but Live View (zoomed in) gives you a more critical focus.

Unlike the 2 newer TS/E models (24mkII and 17), you can not rotate the tilt and shift axis seperately. Your tilt and shift rotate together on this model. I understand you can have Canon rebuild to a 90 degree seperation if you so desire, but it is not something you can do out in the field when using the lens. However, in most shooting situations, this limitation will not be a problem. Also, as with other tilt/shift, it is better to get your exposure readings before making tilt/shift adjustments as the angle can fool your through-the-lens exposure readings. The lens is fairly compact for a tilt/shift model. The tilt/shift adjustment knobs are a bit on the small side but still managable.

I am very favorably impressed with this lens, and while it sells for much less than its newer siblings, it can still hold its own in critical shooting situations. It has a wonderful rendering of images that is very pleasing. This focal length can be used for macro (you can use extension tubes with it), portraits, products, and architecture when shooting from a distance. Because of its outstanding optical quality it can even be used for landscape when you don't need a wide angle. It will also work with the 1.4X extender.

Overall, this is a very versatile lens that can be used in many creative ways. If you are looking for a tilt/shift and don't need wide angle, this lens has exceptional optical quality, sturdy build, and costs much less than the newer models recently introduced. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for tabletop product photo, July 4, 2010

By 

Ryuji Suzuki (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

This lens is great for shooting product photography. I use it for food, shoes, bags, jewelry, and a lot of things. Sometimes, I add two macro rings and get fairly high magnification (like 1:1 or half life size) but the image quality is still very good, with almost zero chromatic aberration thanks to the true double Gauss design. However, when doing product photography, I want to have independent axes for tilt and shift. This lens ships with cross-axis configuration, which I changed to in-axis, which is a bit more useful, but frequently, I want 30 or 45-degree between those axes.

I also use it for corrective portraiture, when shooting headshots with people with round face, double chin, or some other difficult features. Since there is no autofocus, this is not the easiest thing to do, but people who are really conscious about their facial features will usually cooperate with me with this slow working lens, when I tell this is one of the best but unknown tricks anyone can use, combined with lighting technique, etc... If the model has no such issue, I prefer to shoot 85mm with AF.

I took one star away because I can't change the axes of tilt and shift independently.

Incidentally, TS-E 45mm is terrible at anything like half life size, and it gets a lot worse with tele converter. That lens is good for bigger objects.