10.5mm vs. 14mm vs 16mm all 2.8 Nikon for Pano's

[cvansickler]

Which lens would you recommend for shooting pano's. I have heard quite a bit about the new 10.5 lens, but I worry about the distortion. Any feedback would be appreciated. Which of the 3 would be the better all around lens that could be used in everyday situations as well as pano's. I do a bit of adventure photography, i.e. climbing, etc... thanks for the help. C.

[PeteQ]

If you have a good pano set-up then I would stick with the 14 or 16. The 10.5 does distort, hey it's a fisheye after all, and even with the de-fish in Capture you still see it. I would probably recommend the 16 and then stitch the images together to give you the "wide" that you want. You can even shoot vertically if needed.

I had a chance to try one of these recently RRS Pano. Pretty darn cool but I couldn't justify the cost for myself. I just use the panning action on the RRS ballhead and for scenics is is fine. I use a 17-35 zoom and typically frame towards the 35mm end. Now if you are looking at architecture you need something that will allow for nodal point adjustment as it becomes critical the closer the subject is to your camera.

I've only ever really play around with pano's so I'm sure some of the more serious nature folks will chime in, but that's been my findings.

[jeffkohn]

The 10.5 is a fisheye, the only way I would recommend it for panos is if you were planning to shoot 360 degree spherical panos to be displayed with something like Quicktime VR. In that case it's supposed to be very good. Otherwise, I think it would be a very poor choice for panos (it is a fun lens though).

To be honest I rarely use anything nearly as wide as 14mm or 16mm for panos. I might occasionally use the long end of my 12-24, but more often than not it's the 28-70 or even the 70-200. After all, you don't have to fit the whole scene in a single shot, so you usually don't need a lens with a really wide field of view (and using one would often mean an big empty foreground).

[HFMarshburnJR]

Colby -

I have the 14 and use it often for landscape work, but not so much for panos. The real limitation with that lens is the proclivity towards distortion and the fact that you cannot attach a CP to it. Other than that, I love the lens.

P.S. It is also very prone to lens flare due to the design of the lens. You have to be very cognizant of relationship to even secondary light sources.

HFM

[CaptainTom]

This is the answer !

[PeteQ]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

This is the answer !

Uhh Tom...
A. It's not a Nikon lens
B. For about half of that you could get the RRS bracket that would easily allow for multiple rows in your pano.

Ha, nice try though!

[merock]

From my research, the 10.5 is the way to go for shooting panos to be viewed on quicktime. It can be done in 6 shots. I used the 12-24 to get these, and the workflow takes some time:

http://www.merrickales.com/interior/pano.html

http://www.merrickales.com/guadalupe-pano/pano.html

http://www.merrickales.com/mck-360/pano.html

[CaptainTom]

Uhh Tom...
A. It's not a Nikon lens

Well Duh ! Nikon lenses won't fit on my camera, I've tried a million times.

I was trying a little NY humor, but seems I've lost my touch...

[PeteQ]

Nah, you still have it. As a matter of fact I have heard some say you are full of it!

Must be your Friday off today, huh? Hope all is well in the Fort my friend!

[billbunton]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

Well Duh ! Nikon lenses won't fit on my camera, I've tried a million times.

Strange, I've heard an awful lot of Canon shooters use Nikon lenses because they're so much better

[jeffkohn]

Yeah you can buy adapters to put Nikkor glass on a Canon body, just not the other way around (not easily, anyway)

[jerrykr]

If I were trying for a pano, I think I'd use my little 50 mm prime cheap-o kit.

For panos. it's not the Wide you use, but the un-changing, overlapping shots that you take when you take those shots across the scene.

Tripod, level as possible, overlap the shots by about 25%, just an estimate, more or less. Protrait orientation, is WAY better than Landscape. Remember you are overlapping multiple images, not trying to get the pano in as few shots as possible, quite the opposite, the more images in the sweep across the scene the better.

Your pano stitching software is the key to getting the final result.