Simulator
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The three movements
A tilt-shift lens can lean, slide and turn in front of the sensor. Here is what each movement does to focus and framing.
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Tilt
Angles the lens against the sensor, so the plane of sharp focus is no longer parallel to it. Tilt with the scene to keep near and far sharp; tilt against it to squeeze sharpness into a thin band, the classic miniature look.
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Shift
Slides the lens parallel to the sensor, across an image circle much larger than the frame. The view moves without the camera turning, so vertical lines stay straight. Push it to the edge of the circle and the corners darken.
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Rotate
Turns the whole tilt and shift mechanism around the lens axis, so both movements can work up and down, side to side or along any diagonal. At 0° they act vertically, at 90° horizontally. Not every lens does this: many tilt-shift lenses and most adapters only tilt and shift, with the axes fixed, and rotating those means taking the lens off and remounting it.
Canon's TS-E lenses: coverage and movement
Canon has made eight tilt-shift lenses for its EF mount, from 17 to 135 mm. Each projects an image circle much larger than the 43.3 mm a full frame sensor needs, and that spare circle is what the movements spend. Choose a lens and a sensor, then move the frame with the shift arrows (or drag it) and the circle with the tilt arrows. Where a corner of the frame leaves the circle, it turns dark.
Seen from behind the camera, with the picture the right way up and drawn to scale in millimetres. The rust disc is the image circle, the blue box the sensor, and the grid a flat chart facing the camera, focused where the lens axis meets it. The grid washes out where the picture would be blurred: away from the sharp band a tilt makes, and toward the edge of the circle, where any lens is softer and darker. With both shift and tilt, the two add together. The cross marks the lens axis with no movement, and the dashed ring around it is as far as the lens slides the frame. The tinted shape inside the circle is where the centre of the frame can go with every corner still lit. The grey dashed circle is what an ordinary full frame lens covers.
The eight lenses
| Lens | Year | Image circle | Shift | Tilt | Tilt turns against shift | Closest focus | Largest magnification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TS-E 17mm f/4L | 2009 | 67.2 mm | ±12 mm | ±6.5° | yes, ±90° | 0.25 m | 0.14× |
| TS-E 24mm f/3.5L | 1991 | 58.6 mm | ±11 mm | ±8° | no, fixed | 0.3 m | 0.14× |
| TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II | 2009 | 67.2 mm | ±12 mm | ±8.5° | yes, ±90° | 0.21 m | 0.34× |
| TS-E 45mm f/2.8 | 1991 | 58.6 mm | ±11 mm | ±8° | no, fixed | 0.4 m | 0.16× |
| TS-E 50mm f/2.8L Macro | 2017 | about 67.2 mm | ±12 mm | ±8.5° | yes, ±90° | 0.27 m | 0.5× |
| TS-E 90mm f/2.8 | 1991 | 58.6 mm | ±11 mm | ±8° | no, fixed | 0.5 m | 0.29× |
| TS-E 90mm f/2.8L Macro | 2017 | about 67.2 mm | ±12 mm | ±10° | yes, ±90° | 0.39 m | 0.5× |
| TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro | 2017 | about 67.2 mm | ±12 mm | ±10° | yes, ±90° | 0.49 m | 0.5× |
Figures are Canon's. Canon does not print an image circle for the three macros of 2017; they shift as far as the 17 mm and the 24 mm II, and are taken here to have the same 67.2 mm circle. All eight are EF lenses that focus by hand, and they fit Canon's mirrorless bodies through the EF-EOS R adapter.
What the drawing shows
Why the circle is so large
An ordinary full frame lens needs a circle of 43.3 mm, the diagonal of the 36 by 24 mm sensor. Shift the frame 12 mm straight up and its top corners sit 18 mm across and 24 mm up from the axis, 30 mm away, so the circle has to be at least 60 mm wide. Shift it 12 mm along the diagonal and the far corner is 33.5 mm out.
Canon's 67.2 mm circle has a radius of 33.6 mm, just more than that, which is why the 17 mm and the 24 mm II can use their full 12 mm in any direction on full frame. The three lenses of 1991 have 58.6 mm: enough for their 11 mm of rise in landscape, but not for 11 mm sideways, where the far corners go dark.
Tilt moves the circle as well
Tilting turns the lens about a pivot in front of the mount, and the back of the lens, where the picture forms, swings the other way. The circle slides across the sensor by roughly the pivot's distance from the sensor times the sine of the tilt. Canon does not publish where the pivot is; this page assumes 60 mm, which gives about 9 mm at 8.5°. Treat that figure as an estimate. On the tilted sensor the circle also stretches slightly into an oval, which the drawing leaves out.
So full shift and full tilt together can darken corners. Tilting the front of the lens the same way as the shift partly cancels the two. Rise with a forward tilt, a common pair for buildings and landscapes, adds them.
How much tilt a scene needs
The plane of focus swings about a line at a distance J = f ÷ sin(tilt) from the lens, below it for a forward tilt. To lay the plane along the ground from a tripod 1.5 m high, the tilt is the angle whose sine is f ÷ 1.5 m: about 0.7° on the 17 mm, 0.9° on the 24 mm, 1.7° on the 45 mm, 3.4° on the 90 mm and 5.2° on the 135 mm.
A wide lens needs very little tilt for a landscape, and a small error in it moves the plane a long way. Close up, the plane has to turn more sharply, and the three macros tilt furthest, 8.5 to 10°.
Shift for straight verticals
Pointing the camera up at a building makes its sides lean in. Keeping the camera level and shifting the lens up instead raises the view while the sensor stays parallel to the walls, so they stay parallel in the picture. With 12 mm of rise on the 24 mm, the top edge of a landscape frame looks 45° above the horizon instead of 27°.
Shift for stitched panoramas
Shift the lens 12 mm left for one exposure and 12 mm right for another, without moving the camera, and the two frames join into one of 60 by 24 mm, a 2.5:1 picture. On the 24 mm that is a horizontal view of about 103°, against 74° for one frame. Only the lens moves between the exposures, by 24 mm, so distant subjects line up exactly and only very near ones show parallax.
Turning the movements
Every TS-E turns on its mount by up to 90° each way, so the movements can work up and down, side to side or at an angle. The 17 mm, the 24 mm II and the three macros can also turn the tilt against the shift, so the two can act in different directions, for example rise with a sideways tilt. On the three lenses of 1991 the angle between tilt and shift is fixed, and changing it needs a Canon service centre. The drawing lets you combine them freely on every lens.