Canon TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro Review

Canon updated its TS-E series of lenses late last year, rolling out three new tilt-shift options, all with macro focusing capability.

The TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro ($2,199) is the longest of the trio in focal length, making it an ideal choice for product photography and portraiture.

The tilt-shift design makes it possible to isolate subjects and manipulate the plane of focus in a way that a standard lens cannot, but it does eliminate autofocus capability, so be prepared for a manual focus experience.

The TS-E 135mm delivers exceptionally sharp results with 1:2 macro magnification and all the control you expect from a lens with tilt and shift adjustments.

Design: Movements Galore

The TS-E 135mm ($2,199.00 at Amazon) is a big hunk of glass.

It measures 5.5 by 3.5 inches (HD), weighs 2.4 pounds, and supports 82mm front filters.

It's finished in black, with Canon's signature red ring positioned around the barrel toward the front, marking it as part of the premium L series of lenses.

The base of the lens is squarish, with rounded edges.

It's home to all of the control knobs and switches.

There's a small tab, positioned on the right side of the lens mount, that allows you to rotate the barrel entirely.

You can move it 90 degrees in either direction, with locked detents at 30-degree increments.

This makes it possible to apply shift in a left or right direction, rather than up or down.

It also allows you to adjust the direction in which tilt is applied.

You aren't limited to swings to the left or right.

Tilt itself is adjusted with a knob, located at the top of the lens when it's set at the default orientation.

There is a corresponding tension knob on the bottom along with a switch to lock tilt adjustment in place.

Likewise, the degree of shift is adjusted using a knob on the left, with a corresponding tension adjustment and lock switch on the right of the barrel.

But why would you want to adjust tilt or shift? Let's talk about tilt first.

When you tilt the front of the lens, it changes the way in which light hits your camera's image sensor.

With a standard lens the plane of focus is always parallel to the sensor, so when you capture an image with a shallow depth of field, as you will often do with a 135mm lens, the in-focus area of a photo is also parallel.

The 135mm supports 10 degrees of tilt movement in either direction, with markings in 1-degree increments.

Tilt adjustment changes the angle at which light hits the sensor, and in doing so also changes the angle of the plane of focus.

If you're a product photographer this is a big plus, as you can set a subject at a more visually appealing angle and use tilt and f-stop adjustment to get as much of it in focus as possible, while at the same time leaving the background blurred.

The effect is known as the Scheimpflug principle.

You can see the concept in action in the photos of the Lomography La Sardina camera above and below.

The shot above was captured with no tilt movement at f/4, with the focus on the eye of the cartoon sardine at the left side of the faceplate.

You can see that the right side of the camera, as well as the Galilean thermometer at the right of the frame are blurred.

The photo below, with some tilt adjustment applied and also shot at f/4 from the same position keeps more of the camera in focus, and also brings the thermometer into clear view.

I shot at f/4 to best show the differences, but if I was shooting the same product for a catalog I'd stop the lens down to a smaller aperture to also get the La Sardina's lens in focus.

The effects of tilt aren't only useful for technical photographic applications.

Fine art photographers will appreciate its ability to deliver images with what we've come to call the miniature effect.

You can capture wider shots with a sliver of focus, mimicking the look of macro shots of dioramas captured without any tilt movement.

Shift is a different type of movement.

The front element stays parallel (although the TS-E 135mm does support simultaneous adjustment of tilt and shift), but the lens itself moves in a direction parallel to the camera.

Although a 135mm focal length won't be your first choice for architectural shots, it's a useful tool when photographing buildings from street level.

Shifting up adds some vertical extension to your tripod, so you can get the tops of buildings in frame without having to tilt your lens up and introduce keystone distortion into your image.

The lens can shift up to 12mm in either direction.

A more practical use of shift with the 135mm is using left and right movement to shoot multiple images with the intent of stitching them together into a wide, high-resolution panorama.

You can also apply shift movement when working up close with macro subjects.

There are a variety of reasons to do this, but if you're photographing insects, for example, you can shift the lens down to get a lower perspective without having to get down on your hands and knees for a shot.

In addition to movements, the TS-E 135mm is capable of focusing at macro distances.

It locks onto subjects as close as 1.6 feet (0.49-meter), magnifying subjects at up to 1:2 life-size.

Focus is adjusted manually—the lens doesn't have any sort of autofocus.

The rubberized focus ring sits toward the front of the lens and turns comfortably, with just a little resistance.

It requires 180 degrees to move from the minimum focus distance to infinity, so you won't have any trouble making minute adjustments to focus.

Image Quality: Razor Sharp, But Loses a Step With Shift

I tested the TS-E 135mm with Canon's highest resolution SLR, the 50MP full-frame EOS 5DS R.

When the lens is centered it puts up outstanding resolution, even at f/4.

We see about 4,300 lines at f/4 when analyzing our test images using Imatest software.

That's significantly better than the 2,750 lines we want to see at a minimum from a lens paired with a high-resolution image sensor.

The average is raised by impeccable performance at the center of the frame (4,500 lines), but we still see a very strong 4,000 lines at the periphery.

There's a slight uptick at f/5.6 (4,577 lines) and resolution holds steady at f/8.

We see a dip at f/11 (3,712 lines), presumably due to diffraction of incoming light caused by entering through a closed-down aperture.

The effect is more pronounced at smaller f-stops—3,283 lines at f/16, 2,598 lines at f/22, 1,746 lines at f/32, and 958 lines at the smallest f/45 setting.

Shifting the lens to its extreme does affect resolution.

You're no longer using the sharpest, central area of the image circle.

But even with a full upward shift we see good results—just not as crisp as when the 135mm is centered.

When shifted at f/4 the average resolution is 3,826 lines, a result that remains in the excellent range.

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Image quality holds steady through f/11.

At f/16 there is a modest dip to 3,236 lines.

You should avoid stopping down any further if you can—resolution scores from f/22 and onward are similar to what we saw with the lens centered on the body.

If you need more depth of field than you can manage at f/11, consider employing focus stacking techniques for your macro imaging.

The TS-E 135mm draws images that are completely free of any distortion.

There is, however, a bit of a vignette when working at f/4.

We see a -2EV drop at the corners of the frame when in-camera corrections are turned off, and about -1.2EV drop when they are turned on.

The former adds a noticeable, but slight, dimming at the corners.

The -1.2EV figure is barely apparent in most images.

If you shoot in Raw format you won't have in-camera corrections available, but it is very easy to brighten corners using image processing software, like the popular Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic.

A High-Quality, Specialized Lens

Canon made no sacrifices in image quality or versatility when designing the TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro.

It's very sharp, shows no distortion, focuses close, and offers tilt and shift adjustment.

Its focal length makes it a bit more specialized in use when compared with similar lenses with wider angles of view, like the affordable Samyang T-S 24mm F3.5 ED AS UMC or Canon's own TS-E 17mm f/4L ($2,149), both of which will enjoy of use in both interior and exterior architectural imaging.

But even though the TS-E 135mm's tight angle of view makes it more useful for more clinical macro photography, that's not its only useful purpose.

You can use it for any subject that you'd capture with a short telephoto lens, with the added ability to tilt the plane of focus.

In doing so you can snap shots that make your images stand out in a crowded photographic landscape.