Going from crop to FF - lens upgrades

[frisk]

I am a soon-to-be owner of a 5D3, and right now I am looking at my lens collection and planning what I need to upgrade. One of my main interests is low-light photography, and with the 5D3 I will be able to move into the "extreme low light" area, and for that purpose my lens collection is just about perfect anyhow.

However, a secondary interest is landscape photography. On my crop camera, I have the 10-22 EF-S lens - maybe not spectacular, but good enough - however, once I get my 5D3, I need to replace that, as I will then have nothing wider than 24mm (well, apart from a couple of fisheye lenses, but...)

So, the 14mm f/2.8 might be the "obvious" choice, but I am wondering about the 17mm TS-E as well. It is wide enough for my needs, and the til-shift might be interesting to play with. There are other possibilities of course. The Samyang 14mm looks like really good value, and if price was an issue, I would probably consider it. The recently announced Zeiss 15mm is incredibly sharp wide open, but to me it looks like a solution to a problem I don't have ... for my purposes, sharpness at f/2.8 is irrelevant - what I want is top sharpness at f/8-f/11, and there I don't see the Zeiss outperform the 17mm TE-E, for example.

Now, other concerns: distortion is not a serious issue for me (landscapes, not architecture - so no straight lines anyhow), but low CA and edge sharpness would matter a lot more to me.

I have been reading various reviews and comparisons, but I just cannot make up my mind, so I am asking for advice from those with actual experience in using those lenses for this purpose.

So, which lens would you recommend for my needs?

 

[Loswr]

Tilt is great for landscapes - at f/8, you can get maximum sharpness and a deeper DoF than would otherwise be possible, which is useful if you're focusing close for foreground interest.

 

[Tijn]

If you have many fast primes already, and no experience with tilt-shift, and this is a lens of a focal length you feel you will now need... By all means get the 17mm TS-E. More new room for experimentation and creativeness. Keep in mind though that you might still feel that you lack what's in between 17 and 24, since you had that range covered with the 10-22 on crop. For that purpose, consider the 16-35L II.

 

[jm345]

The OP says, "low CA and edge sharpness would matter a lot more to me."

I have both the Canon TS-E 24L II and Zeiss 21 f/2.8 and can recommend them highly. Both are much sharper in the corners than my Canon 10-22 - which is a good lens. If you want to go wider, without miniaturizing the landscape with an ultra-WA, consider a panorama sequence and stitch the photos together in software.

 

[frisk]

If you have many fast primes already, and no experience with tilt-shift, and this is a lens of a focal length you feel you will now need... By all means get the 17mm TS-E.

Yes, that is the one I was leaning towards, so once I have gotten my new camera, I may well do that. As for "many fast primes", yes - you could say that: 24mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.0 and f/1.4, 85mm f/1.2 and f/1.8 and even the 200mm f/1.8 - as I said, I'm fine there....but then again, I have nothing longer than 200mm - my interests are just not in that area.

More new room for experimentation and creativeness. Keep in mind though that you might still feel that you lack what's in between 17 and 24, since you had that range covered with the 10-22 on crop. For that purpose, consider the 16-35L II.

Yeah, well...over the years I have become more of a "prime guy". My first Canon EOS camera back in the late '80s came with the 35-80, but the first lens I added was the 50mm f/1.8. Guess which one I used more ...

I do have a couple of zooms - 70-200 and I'm getting a 24-105 to use as a "walkaround" lens, but for anything serious I just prefer primes.

 

[Random Orbits]

17mm TS/E is manual focus only, which means that you'll be using LiveView and a tripod more. If you're OK with that, then the 17mm is a fine choice. The 14mm is nice because it is small and compact (diameter and weight) and has AF, and I think of it as more of a "competitor" to the 16-35L than the 17mm TS/E. A 14L and a 24 prime or zoom is a viable alternative to the 16-35L.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I'd go slow. Try your new camera and see what you like about your existing lenses, and what you are missing. Canon is not really good at ultra wide, and, while the 14mm is a good lens, its not fantastic, and it is expensive expensive. The TS-E 17mm is suburb. You might use your existing lenses and give the new Zeiss 15mm a look. I'm sure Lens Rentals will have it for rent after its available, so you will be able to try it out.