Anyone using the Ronkinon Tilt Shift 24mm instead of the Canon TS-E 24?

photoguy6405 wrote in post #18416554
That is a great price, but my Spidey Sense tells me this might be a "you get what you pay for" scenario.

To sum this up, I'd put it this way: If you're serious about purchasing a tilt shift that will last forever, be perfect in every way, and completely justify the purchase price, keep saving for a Canon or Nikon 24mm (in Canon's case, the new version II is the one you want, the old one is garbage). I would be happy to use the Rokinon as a backup to my Canon if it ever went down, but I know that the quirks I've mentioned above would probably drive me crazy after owning Canon's perfect tilt-shifts. If you're in desperate need of a tilt-shift or you're okay with living with these shortcomings, you'll be very happy with the Rokinon. At screen resolution and in print, when stopped down, it's going to be virtually indistinguishable from the Canon or Nikon versions.

I have to say that using the Canon versions has spoiled me a bit. They are seriously as perfect as lenses will get, and while Rokinon is offering a solid product at a good price, I would have been much happier with it had they made the body out of metal and beefed up the tilt and shift mechanisms and knobs. The slight barrel distortion is totally forgivable at this price point, but spending an extra $50 to make these out of all metal would have made this a great buy. Hell, I don't really know how much more it would have been to make the body entirely metal like the Canon or Nikon versions, but I'm sure the difference would not be very scary at all. For $1100 and a full metal body, this would have been a great, great buy.

All of this being said, I'd still rather have the Rokinon tilt shift than ANY conventional zoom lens (e.g. Canon 17-40, 16-35, Nikon 12-24, 17-35) for shooting architecture. Tilt and shift movements are just that valuable when it comes to this type of shooting, and I'd happily deal with the shortcomings in exchange for being able to adjust perspective. Paired with a telephoto extender, you'd be pretty set with just one 24mm tilt shift.

What I liked:

Relatively sharp given the price and features
Great contrast and color
Cheaper than the competitors
Tilt and shift movements - invaluable for architecture

What could use improvement:

Plastic construction
Weird 'lens sag' leads to a flaccid lens when knobs are unlocked, exacerbated by the tiny, hard-to-use knobs
Marginal barrel distortion
Lack of hood (seriously, it's 2013, there is no excuse for this from any company)

You can purchase this lens, along with the Canon and Nikon equivalents, at B&H Photo Video for $999 ($989 for Canon), $2199, and $2029, respectively.

WORTH NOTING: The image supplied to us show the lens with much thicker adjustment knobs. See the featured image at the top of the article compared to the images that I took of the lens in my possession. Those thicker knobs would be great to have. I've reached out to Rokinon for comment and will update the article accordingly, as this was one of my major gripes with the lens.