Comparison: Distagon 15mm vs Canon 17mm tilt-shift

Nikos · Expire: 2015-01-02

While we were in lake Como, I borrowed Orio's 15mm for a while.
I returned it quickly, so he could start breathing again Razz

Here is the same scene from the same point with both lenses.
I cannot remember how much I shifted the TS lens, but I guess 5-6 mm.

Unfortunately, it seems that I have tilted the camera downwards in the photo with the TS lens.
It needs to be level to control distortion effectively.
Even small movements have noticeable effect.

1. Contax Distagon 15mm @ f/8

2. Canon 17mm TS @ f/8

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Looks they are pretty much same to me,. but tilt shift has significant benefits on architecture shoots. To see images taken with these lenses rare opportunity even more rare to see comparatives . many thanks!

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

The Canon lens is a stunning performer for architecture. Of course distortion wise there is no competition for the poor Distagon 15, which is penalized not only for the lack of shift function but also for the two extra mm width (which in such a short focal lenght mean a lot distortion-wise).
On the other hand, it seems to me that contrast-wise, the Distagon performs much better.

rrkradio · Joined: 18 Nov 2010 Posts: 57 Location: Imperia - Italy

Zeiss color and contrast .... this is the first difference in rendition. Of course the TS permits the best adjustment of one of the two distorsions.

I agree with Orio: 2mm in this focal range are meaningful.

roby

symphonic · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 550 Location: SE Europe, Croatia

Both look very good, but Distagon image has much more contrast. Smile

Would be interesting to compare sharpness in ideal conditions.

Nikos · Expire: 2015-01-02

William · Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 489 Location: London

The Zeiss lens has more distortion but the Canon seems to have a light magenta tint, not sure if it is the WB setting. I prefer the colour rendition and contrast of the Zeiss too. The terracotta looks a lot nicer. Sharpness is very difficult to tell due to the differing focal lengths. Given the option I'd have a slightly narrower Distagon as <20mm is not for me.

Nikos · Expire: 2015-01-02

trev · Joined: 30 Jun 2010 Posts: 580 Location: North Wales - UK

For my pennyworth I would say that the Canon lens has "cleaner" colours and is just a tad more sharper in the middle distance

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

the Canon made a great job, it is not a cheap lens
at this size I cannot tell if the Canon have more resolution but contrast seems better on the Zeiss

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Nikos · Expire: 2015-01-02

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Ok, now the Distagon picture looks perfect
The Canon one looks a bit too magenta, but that's because I fine-tuned the temperature on my Distagon. If you move the "tint" slider to 0 value in the Canon picture, it should fix it.
Daylight conventional temperature is either 5200K or 5500K depending on the camera maker. But like I said, I like it slightly cooler, so here's why I set 5000.
The daylight value (5200K) is not really for sunlight - it's the mid-day value of the light source Sun. When you use 5200K, the pictures will appear warmer if there is sunlight and cooler if there is overcast - pretty much like reality, which is good. It is not rare that I set the camera to 5200K and leave it that way when I photograph from 10AM to 3PM (in the winter).
Near dawn or near sunset the quality of light changes enormously, and the camera at 5200K records those changes faithfully, but the problem is that our brains compensate for the colour changes, while the camera-computer system don't. So we need to change Kelvin setting in the camera in order for the camera-computer system to adapt to our subjective perception (or better said, to emulate our brain's adaptations).

Nikos · Expire: 2015-01-02

By the way, we CAN tell from these photos which lens is sharper.
Below the window of the house on the left, there is a white circular cap.
Compare this in the high-res images.
In the Canon version, you can easily discern the grid on the cap...

The second version of the photos, from Lightroom, are not sharpened.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

The Canon picture is surely sharper (there are more than 20 years distance between the two models), however the cap is not a good indicator, because it's small and there is a 7-8 degrees of Angle of View difference (about 30% Field of view difference) between a 17mm and a 15mm lens.

In other words, the grid is there in the Distagon image, too (if you look close, you see it), but the cap is too small in the Distagon image to properly distanciate the white lines, causing a reduced perception of sharpness.