Wide angle lens question

Snowgirl

I need to take some interior shots of my house - small rooms - not a lot of space to set up - in order to sell it ASAP. I tried with the 50mm - no go.

What do I need in order to accomplish this? And, can I get it without breaking the bank and having to double the price of the house?:wink

Thanks.

Wil Davis

Back in the days when I shot 35mm film, my lens of choice for interiors was a 17mm f4 (Rokkor). The results were quite stunning, as (at that time) the 17mm was the shortest focal length lens from Minolta (Rokkor) which was rectilinear (that is to say straight lines were still rendered as straight lines, i.e. it wasn't a fish-eye).

Fast forward to today: if you're not using a full-frame camera, you will need something with a focal length of around 10mm. If it were me, I'd just rent a suitable lens for the couple of days it will take you to get the pictures you need - that way you'll get good quality, without investing in an expensive lens you might only use occasionally.

HTH -
- Wil

PS: There's software available which will "de-fisheye" photos taken with a fish-eye lens, to make them look like they've been taken with a rectilinear lens, but that sounds like it might be more complicated than necessary for your project.

CyberSteak

what are you shooting with? I picked up a used 10-22mm for my Canon off ebay and from the states. I think it was about $500 (WAY more expensive picking it up new north of the boarder). It's a great lens if you want to get into creative photography. Seems to hold it's value well too, so re-selling it afterwards is an option should you decide you no longer want/need it.

Art Scott

rent a lens from borrowlenses.com that is in the 10-20 or 12-24 range for your camera.....it would be of great help to keep your camera listed in your siggy or in your profile for these types of questions so we can help better and more quickly....as a WA lens on a crop sensor is different than on a FF sensor....if your shooting FF a 24mm would do while you would need a min 17mm to match a 28 on a FF......
I wish everyone had to list in profile their cam body at least, it would help us ansser so many ?'s with out always having to ask what people shoot with:D:D

Good luck on the house sale!!!!thumb

CyberSteak

*runs to his profile to list his toys*

Snowgirl

Art Scott wrote:

rent a lens from borrowlenses.com that is in the 10-20 or 12-24 range for your camera.....it would be of great help to keep your camera listed in your siggy or in your profile for these types of questions so we can help better and more quickly....as a WA lens on a crop sensor is different than on a FF sensor....if your shooting FF a 24mm would do while you would need a min 17mm to match a 28 on a FF......
I wish everyone had to list in profile their cam body at least, it would help us ansser so many ?'s with out always having to ask what people shoot with:D:D

Good luck on the house sale!!!!thumb

Thanks all. I am shooting with a Canon 40D. And, since I'm in Canada - I'll look around and see if I can rent a lens locally. At least now I know what I'm looking for. I wasn't sure before.

I used to list my camera and lenses in my siggy - and was warned that it was a bad idea because 'some' people aren't nice and might be interested in stealing equipment if they could figure out how to find you. I suppose I was being paranoid and took it down.

craig_d

Snowgirl wrote:

Thanks all. I am shooting with a Canon 40D.

Then any of the following wide-angle zooms would work for you. I've listed them in my own descending order of preference, that is, the first one is what I would favor.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Tokina 12-24mm f/4
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6

Snowgirl wrote:

I used to list my camera and lenses in my siggy - and was warned that it was a bad idea because 'some' people aren't nice and might be interested in stealing equipment if they could figure out how to find you. I suppose I was being paranoid and took it down.

That sounds like my wife's argument that if I post pictures of our kids, some pedophile will see them and come over to kidnap them. I see pictures of people's kids on dgrin and elsewhere all the time. I wonder how many of those kids have ever been kidnapped because of pictures posted online? Let me guess... zero?

catspaw

A 10-20 does wonderfully indoors with small spaces

You can see my current townhouse (before I moved in) which makes small spaces look much bigger

http://www.catspawphotos.com/RealEstate/14153-Townhouse/5870308_nCz5y#288789630_Twp4t

CyberSteak

Snowgirl wrote:

Thanks all. I am shooting with a Canon 40D. And, since I'm in Canada - I'll look around and see if I can rent a lens locally. At least now I know what I'm looking for. I wasn't sure before.

I used to list my camera and lenses in my siggy - and was warned that it was a bad idea because 'some' people aren't nice and might be interested in stealing equipment if they could figure out how to find you. I suppose I was being paranoid and took it down.

I have the same camera (see...fixed my sig!) Here's some comparison shots for you. Both were taken from roughly the same spot but if I recall correctly I had to move in quite a bit closer with the 10-22mm. The first shot is done with the kit lens 28-135 at 28mm.

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=8778115

Second shot was taken with the wide angle at 10mm.

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=8958653

Snowgirl

catspaw wrote:

A 10-20 does wonderfully indoors with small spaces

You can see my current townhouse (before I moved in) which makes small spaces look much bigger

http://www.catspawphotos.com/RealEstate/14153-Townhouse/5870308_nCz5y#288789630_Twp4t

Thanks for the examples. Looks GOOD!

Snowgirl

CyberSteak wrote:

I have the same camera (see...fixed my sig!) Here's some comparison shots for you. Both were taken from roughly the same spot but if I recall correctly I had to move in quite a bit closer with the 10-22mm. The first shot is done with the kit lens 28-135 at 28mm.

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=8778115

Second shot was taken with the wide angle at 10mm.

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=8958653

Amazing the difference between the two. The 28mm shot is ok, but the 10mm shot has an entirely different perspective.

Thanks!

Snowgirl

craig_d wrote:

Then any of the following wide-angle zooms would work for you. I've listed them in my own descending order of preference, that is, the first one is what I would favor.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Tokina 12-24mm f/4
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6



That sounds like my wife's argument that if I post pictures of our kids, some pedophile will see them and come over to kidnap them. I see pictures of people's kids on dgrin and elsewhere all the time. I wonder how many of those kids have ever been kidnapped because of pictures posted online? Let me guess... zero?

Thanks for the lens recommendations. It's a big help. And yes, you're probably right and I was being paranoid. Someone would REALLY have to want my camera and lens to track me down in Picadilly, New Brunswick!