October 20, 2013
Bigtooth Maple, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA, and the Lee Filters Lens Adapter Ring Canon 17mm TS-E

I'm over the bug but not the broken toe, so instead of hiking into the many waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, I'm doing Plan B: photographing the fall color from the roadside. I like the dark, moss- and fern-covered trunk of this bigleaf maple or Oregon maple surrounded by the leaves starting to change color.

Lee Filters Lens Adapter Ring Canon 17mm TS-E

Yesterday I picked up the new Lee Filters Lens Adapter Ring Canon 17mm TS-E which is used to mount their regular Foundation Kit, which holds 4" or 100mm filters, onto the Canon TS-E 17mm tilt/shift lens. The first thing I did was to test out the range of motions that could be used without vignetting because the opening through the adaptor is rather small and they warn you about limited movements on their website: I was disappointed, but not too surprised, by my results. When the camera (Canon EOS 1D X with a full-frame sensor) is mounted in landscape orientation, the lens can be shifted 5mm up or down without vignetting. That's less than half the possible 12mm of shift, but about the maximum I usually use because the corners get really soft at 10mm of shift. The full 6.5° of tilt up or down can be used with zero shift. Then I added a Singh-Ray Cokin Z-Pro Sprocket Mount LB Warming Polarizer in the first slot of the Foundation Kit. There is no vignetting other than what was caused by just the Lee Adaptor, but the filter has to be adjusted up and down in the holder if shift is used. Putting the polarizer in the second slot causes vignetting no matter what shift is used. When the camera is mounted in portrait orientation, only 2mm of shift up and down or 1.5° of tilt up and down can be used without vignetting which is a severe limitation when making a 2x3 aspect-ratio image.

We'll see how the adaptor works in practice. I'll be able to use my full complement of 4", or 100mm, filters, but either the available motions will be severely limited or I'll be restricted to making 4x5 aspect-ratio images. As a result, I'm not ready to give up my DIY SW150 filter holder and limited set of 6", or 150mm, filters.