Panorama Lens Recommendation

[villaverde, justin]

<p>I’m interested in a possible replacement of my Tokina 28-

70mm f2.8 that I normally use when I shoot panos. However, I tend to

always be at or with 5mm to 50mm. So I’m considering the Nikon

50mm f1.8 or the Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro. I love the sharpness of my

Sigma 105mm macro and it would be great to that that quality in a

50mm.<br />

</p>

<p>Most of my panos are landscapes or cityscape,s so the macro

capability isn’t really a big deal, neither is speed as I shoot

most of my panos at f8 or smaller. But sharpness, lack of distortion

and contrast are.<br />

</p>

<p>Does anyone use these lenses for landscapes and would have a

suggestion as which one I should pick up or if I should stick with my

28-70mm?<br />

</p>

<p> Here’s an example of what I tend to shoot:</p>

<p><a

href="http://www.jvphotography.net/panoramas/PortlandNightPanoHoriB.jp

g"

target="_blank">http://www.jvphotography.net/panoramas/PortlandNightPa

noHoriB.jpg</a><br />

</p>

<p>Thanks in advance,<br />

Justin</p>

[villaverde, justin]

I should also note that I use a D70 or F100. Sorry I forgot that.

 

Justin

[greglyon]

I use the Nikon AF 50mm f1.4 with both a D70 and film cameras, and love it. Many have suggested that the much cheaper 50 f1.8 is sharper than the 1.4...I don't see how you could go wrong with that lens. Even if you don't use it now, you will probably come across circumstances where the fast aperture is quite helpful!

 

I would be less inclined to the 50mm macro lens. Most uses for a macro lens will be well served by your 105. Go for the extra speed of the Nikon 50...I think you'll be pleased, and it's a much less expensive lens too.

[chris_leck]

Are you fighting shortcomings in your Tokina? If not, I'd say keep what you have. The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 is smaller, faster, very inexpensive, sharp, contrast, and great for low light and portraits -- overall a great lens to have. A ~50mm macro is too short for many macro uses and may not have such great bokeh either.

 

I like your panoramic treatment of the downtown Portland waterfront. While the moon adds an atmospheric touch, it's in an impossible location.

[walterh]

justin - panoramas can be taken many ways but obviously you talk about stitching single images into a panorama. one of the most irritating problems in stitching are not sharpness of the lens or ?bokeh? or anything else of the sort - its how "flat" a lens is and how pronounced the light-fall off or vignetting is. If you need a lens just for this purpose you may look into getting a special lens for reproduction work. Since you will be shooting most likely all images with unchanged f-stop a lens without chip seems quite acceptable. I would look for a good repro-lens and try to mount it in a lens adapter with nikon mount.

 

another way might be to compensate for vignetting and deficiency in flatness by panotool plugins for PS. This way a not so perfect (in respect to flatness) lens that offers a lot in terms of sharpness resolution etc. would come in handy. the 50mmAF F1.8 Nikkor is hard to beat in price/performance as said above. Setting up the corrections would be quick since you need to get the factors for one lens only.

[craig_bridge]

The 50 f/1.8 AFD on your F100 makes sense if you need something a little faster than your 28-70 f/2.8. I suspect you will probably find 28-35mm to be your preferred focal length on your D70. Stick with your Tokina zoom until you figure out if a 35 f/2 or 28 f/2.8 prime is a better choice.

[brian_caldwell]

I use a 55mm f/2.8 micro-Nikkor and a 105/2.5 for 90% of my stitched mosaics. For the rest I use a 200/4, 17-35/2.8, 16/3.5, and 300/4.5. I like the 55/2.8 best since it is essentially perfect and no post processing is necessary to correct distortion or color fringing.

[lex_jenkins]

Judging from Robert Lai's evaluation the 45mm f/2.8 AI-P is a good option. His tests show it to be virtually free of edge distortion and field curvature. It shows some light falloff at the corners which is, as usual, corrected by stopping down a bit.

 

"Normal Lens Comparisons 45 to 60mm (NOT dialup friendly"

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00C6J0

 

I'm experimenting with my 28/3.5 PC-Nikkor for sorta panoramics. Setting it for a horizontal shift avoids the usual problems associated with anchoring the tripod and rotating the head/camera. Depending on how these experiments turn out I may try adding upper and lower rows for a total of three rows of two columns each of shots to be stitched together.

 

While the 28/3.5 PC-Nikkor does show a little bit of barrel distortion and corner falloff, it's essentially a non-issue with the D2H because the smaller-than-film sensor crops off the flawed areas.

 

So the crop factor ain't all bad. It can aid in composition with less than perfect lenses.