Whilst I won't be doing 'proper' lens testing (I don't have the kit or the patience ;-) ) I've done several comparisons (it'll be a week or two until I get things written up).
Most obvious is the performance wide open. f/2.8 is more usable where you want to make use of the thin DOF. Even fully tilted (a bit more than the old one) the plane of focus is nicely sharp.
The vignetting is slightly less on the new lens, but the real feeling you get is just how much better the performance is right from the go. Virtually no CA and better contrast. Pretty good for flare as well
My only complaint, and it's a complaint about all three new TS-E lenses is that the lens focus rotation throw is inadequate. My pet irritation is the compressed range of rotation in focussing from say 3m to infinity. Makes for tricky manual focus without a lot of magnification on live view at wider apertures.
Thanks Keith.
My luck in getting good copies of Canon lenses has been hit and miss – perhaps an 85% success rate... maybe a bit more. That having been said I do think I got a very good copy of the old 90TSE. If the IQ of the new one is better then it is certainly exceptional, as I find my old 90 to be extremely good. (I admit that I almost never shoot it wide open though.)
I agree with you about the short focus throw of the new lenses (if the new 50 is representative of the lot). The focus tension/friction is very nice, though, so I don't seem to have much issue with manual focusing.(At least with the 50.) Also, I'm using them on cameras with EFVs, so perhaps that makes a bit of a difference.
I recently sold my last Canon body so I'm now using all of my EF lenses on Fuji and Sony bodies. So although the 17TSE is
much too wide for my taste, the 24 is still somewhat useful and the 50TSE plays like a comfortable 40mm or so on the GFX's 33x44mm sensor.
Thanks again Keith. Very helpful.
Cheers,
Phil