... Any recommendation on medium format lenses and TS Adapters for 35mm format cameras (Canon 5D Mark II in this case)?
I'm an old Rollei SL66 shooter as well as Canon, and I love the tilt options for landscape shooting. As much as I love to save a buck, I spent the money to get the 90 TS and 45 TS. The 24 is too soft for my uses -- OK for magazine-size images, but not B&W 16x20 display. I owned one and sent it back. I also adapted my SL66 lenses to an older Canon and thought it was not worth the effort. It was a clumsy outfit. The mechanics of the new Canon TS lenses are part of their appeal. The Canon TS mounts are really good. Even the old 35 TS for the FD (optically better than the new 24 TS L) was just plain sloppy.
At any rate, as a backpacker, my light hiking outfit for this summer is a 5D2, 90 TS (outstanding lens, virtually no color fringing), and 28mm f2.8 Zeiss (CY mount adapter -- beats all the Canons, most Leicas, and is cheap & light). As much as I'd love a very sharp 24mm TS, it's not going to happen on an SLR. No affordable retrofocus of that magnitude can come close to the quality we can get from our 5d2 sensors. Remember that the TS mount makes the rear element to film/sensor distance much greater than a non-TS lens. Even the 45 TS is a major retrofocus design and shows those defects. Fortunately, the depth of field of wide angles is enough that 2 frames can capture all you need to then combine in Photoshop. So, I routinely take 2 shots and get everything in focus. The weight difference is major also -- the big retrofocus TS lenses are heavy. The 90 TS is the lightest and best TS by a large margin.
Paul
www.PaulRoark.com