The Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens is, at review time, the widest tilt-shift SLR lens made . It is also one of the highest quality (both optically and physically) 17mm lenses made.

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

Still on discovering phase (Three month use). The full manual operation is part of the "personality" you have to deal with. Shift option makes easy panoramas. The quality of the picture is the reward of time spent for composition and setup.

The best wide angle lens ever

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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

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.

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..