The Canon TS-E 17mm f/4 L is an amazing lens although beginners will struggle to master its possibilities at once. When using the lens based on conventional settings it behaves pretty much like a normal ultra-wide prime lens.

This lens takes some work to understand, but there's no other piece of equipment at any price that makes the near-perfect pictures this lens takes. Panoramic vistas, distortion-free architectural shots, expanded or shortened DOF shots - all from one lens.

I love this lens and bought it for Real Estate photography. I debated between this and the TSE-24. If I had it to do again I would buy the TSE-24 and use my Tokina 16-28 when I needed to go wider. From what I have seen and read the TSE-24 is simply amazing.

This is Canon's widest tilt-shift lens, and therefore a great choice for architectural photography. You can use it to keep parallel lines parallel. You can also do the opposite: exaggerate the apparent convergence, to emphasize the height of a tall building, say.

does things ordinary lenses can't

not for beginners

Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Rugged; Superior Build Quality; Superior image quality; Unique Tool at 17mm

Expensive; Exposed Front Element; Heavy vs Other Primes

I was using the 16-35mm for landscapes but the distortion and soft corners were starting to grate on me, yes I could correct distortion in post processing but not without detriment to the resolution and sharpness.

Consistent Output; Durable; Rugged; Strong Construction

Being a dedicated architectural photographer this lens is a wonderful tool for architectural applications. It has a super large image circle for large shifts, superb sharpness and resolution.

Superior build quality; Super-sharp images

I have been using this lens for almost a decade now and it always "enhanced" every situation I had to capture, obviously architecture and landscape. But now mounted on a Sony A7RII it's just ridiculous the improvement in image quality over my last Canon body (5D MKIII..

Amazing lens, crispy sharp and a drem for architectural photographers. Only down size is the lack of threading...

Consistent Output; Durable; Nice Bokeh; Strong Construction

Heavy; No Threading; Slow Focus

changes the way you shoot architecture - totally indispensable & can't imagine shooting without it now that i'm used to it - alittle tricky to master though