Over the past 3 months, I had the opportunity to test extensively the Samyang 24mm Tilt Shift (TS) lens and would like to share my experience with you.

I kindly received the lens from Samyang for testing, for which I would like to thank very much. Of course, as in the past, I will convey only my personal impression. I did not undertake a laboratory examination. I want to tell you about my experiences from the practice.

Samyang 24mm Tilt Shift – Overview

Workmanship

The lens is processed in a very high quality. I see and feel no difference to other high-class lenses from other providers. The processing speaks for the Samyang design team, it is a professional lens.

Samyang 24mm TS (Tilt Shift)

Focus and (manual) aperture

Tilt shift lenses do not have an autofocus due to their mechanical design. I work with manual focus anyway, so there is no change for me.

Therefore, the focus ring is very important to me. The focus ring of the Samyang 24mm Tilt Shift is soft and smooth, but with a certain resistance. This makes it possible for me to quickly and precisely set the focus.

The Samyang also has a manual aperture. This means you do not set the aperture in the camera, but with a aperture ring on lens itself. It is initially a small change, but not really disturbing. With my Sony E Mount the aperture value is not transferred back to the camera. The aperture value is not written in the EXIF data.

I set the name of the lens, as well as the aperture fairly easy in Lightroom with the LensTagger plugin (I have a guide here in my blog already described).

Sharpness

I’m not a big friend of Labortests. I looked around a bit on the Internet and I can confirm the results. The lens is sharp but also not too sharp (I think back to the Sigma lens discussion that many people say that the lens is too sharp).

For architecture, the sharpness is of course very important and the Samyang 24mm TS absolutely meets my requirements! I am more than satisfied.

100% detail

Special feature of the Sony E Mount version

There is, however, a small peculiarity in my version. The lens is not 100% designed for the Sony FE. The mirror box is “simulated” by a metal extension to the “actual” lens. There is no disadvantage, the lens is only a little longer than, for example, the Canon version. But it is for me still better than to work with a lens adapter (eg Metabones) in between.

Samyang 24mm – The Tilt and Shift feature

Like all TS lenses, you can use tilt and shift independently, or combined. The “tilt” change the angle of the focal plane and “shift” change the projection angle of the image.

Both features you can use as default, or you rotate the lens 90° so that the effect is not on top/bottom but on the right/left side. Let it show you with a concrete example.

Shift

This is my main feature I use. You can use this to avoid the plunging lines in buildings. If you rotate the lens 90°, you can use the shift feature to avoid slanting lines.

Avoid the plunging lines (not roteted lens) or slanting lines (90° rotated lens)

-Westhafen Tower – I [1676]-
Copyright Timon Först, Fotograf für Architektur- und Landschaftsfotografie

Tilt (miniature effect)

Tilting makes it possible to change the angle of the focus plane. With a normal lens, the focus plane is always parallel to the camera sensor. So what is the result when we change the the angle?

The image is partly blurred. You can control the blurriness with the aperture. With the aperture of 3.5f it is of course very blurry. You can also change the effect if you set it up left, right or rotate the lens (90°) for top and down. Tilting is also known as Miniature Effect.

Set the blurriness side with the lens to the left or right. You also can rotate the lens to 90° to set the miniature effect to the top or down

-miniatur city [17005]-
Copyright Timon Först, Fotograf für Architektur- und Landschaftsfotografie

My experience

Long time exposure

One thing I have not considered is that a Tilt-Shift lens is much different to handle. By shifting the lens is “opening” itself. Due to the long exposure, it may enter light into the lens. This requires that the lens to be covered, otherwise the image quality will suffer.

Lens covered

Before

After

Before: Lens not covered
After: Lens covered

Shift

Of course I was primarily interested in the shift function. This makes a completely different photograph possible!

In this picture I used the shift in the classical sense.

-campus at home – in autumn [1671]-
Copyright Timon Först, Photographer for Architecture and Landscape Photography

Of course, in the following example, I could have set the plunging lines in the post-processing, but this is always associated with quality loss. By shifting you gain between 20-100% of the pixels!

-airport parking deck [1674]-
Copyright Timon Först, Photographer for Architecture and Landscape Photography

By shifting, the plunging lines are usually tried to fix. Her, I have consciously transformed the lines.

In addition, through the TS lens, it is possible to photograph differently. In this concrete example, the next building has already entered the picture on the top. By shifting the lens I could remove the building from the border of the picture. But also the lines of the building look more natural as if it were included without the shift function. Just compare it yourself.

-Skyper – I [1681]-
Copyright Timon Först, Photographer for Architecture and Landscape Photography

Before

After

Before: Without Shifting
After: With Shifting

Resumé

The lens is made of high quality. The picture quality is as I imagined very well. The function always surprises me anew. I can really recommend the lens to anyone who is just planned to buy a Tilt / Shift lens. The price is undefeated good and for Sony FE there is no native alternative.

Samyang has done quite a good job and deserves more trust than you might suspect. Third-party lenses are actually already a significant competitor to the lenses from the camera manufacturers!

Do you have questions?

Do you want to know more? Perhaps a certain detail?

Just write your question in the comments or simply by e-mail via my contact form. I am also very happy about your opinion to this post / lens.

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Timon

Fine Art Photographer at Timon Photography

Loves Architecture, Loves Minimalism
Located near Bayreuth (BY), Germany

Latest posts by Timon (see all)

• Test: Photos on aluminium – Aluminium/dibond from ZOR.com - 25. November 2017
• Westhafen Tower Frankfurt – I - 23. April 2017
• Review: Samyang 24mm Tilt Shift (E-Mount) - 29. January 2017