Wide Angle Question

[seb v.]

Hi everyone,

 

I run outdoor markets for a living and I am putting together a

brochure. My best (most photogeneic) market is on a narrow street so I

do not have much room to get entire stalls in teh frame. what is the

best lens/camera setup I can rent to do this job? What about an Xpan?

Will a 15mm view 35mm lens give me wider? Any suggestions? One of the

stalls is 20 meters long but I can only go back about 3 meters. I

wanted to use this whole stall as a pull-out for the brochure and I

want to photograph it in segments then put the image back together.

Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

 

Seb

[Fotohuis RoVo]

If you want a 110 degrees view angle you can try the Cosina Voigtlaender Super wide Heliar 4,5/15mm on your Leica M. It's preformance is really good, certainly for this bargain price. Alternative, the new Zeiss Distagon 2,8/15mm. 10X the price of the C.V. lens.

 

Some references: http://www.imx.nl/photosite/japan/voigtl01.html

 

best regards,

 

Robert

[lutz]

Seb, your idea of stitching parallel shots may be compromised by too much depth of the subject photographed. While the technique may work for comparatively flat house fronts in a street, it might not work with what you want to picture. That leaves you with the pano option with multiple shots taken from one standpoint. A very interesting alternative to the costly wideangle lens approach is getting a decent (Canon Elph...?!) digital camera that comes complete with stitching software. You'll sure find one in the $3-400 ballpark that will deliver very good results with far better resolution than any single 35 frame scan can offer. Check out the pano folder in my portfolio for some samples taken with that technique. Make sure, though, that when taking multiple frame panos you use a tripod and a head that will allow for perfect centering of the nodal point (beneath the lens and NOT where the tripod thread sits!). This is especially important with close foregrounds. Cheers.

[tony_senzaorbi]

Does anybody rent Wideluxes or Roundshots anymore, or are panos all being done digitally now?

[stuart_richardson]

Since you plan on renting, you might as well go with a true panarama camera. The Xpan is a

good choice. The 45mm lens is approximately equivalent to a 25mm lens, and the 30mm is

like a 17mm. So yes, the 15mm voigtlander will be wider, but it will have more distortion and

less quality than you would get with the Xpan. Whether that matters or not is up to you. If

you really want to go for quality, you can rent one of the Fuji 6x17 cameras. The rotating

cameras are another story, one which I don't know anything about, so I will recuse myself.

[seb v.]

Looks like I need to rent a widelux, look at this:

 

http://www.pgallery.net/rogerama/folder-5242.html

[seb v.]

Lutz

 

your widelux shots of the desert are simply fantastic BTW

[Rob F.]

The 30mm lens on an XPAN covers the same as a 17mm on the 35mm standard format. A Widelux, Noblex, or Horizon will cover a wider view than that. These three must be kept level to avoid a bizzare result.

 

In addition to the Cosina 15mm lens, there is also a 12mm Cosina.

 

Another idea: Trying to stand head-on in front of the stand and get the whole thing in from left to right may be the hardest way. Would it be possible to shoot from closer to one end, in a diagonal composition? Doing this with a wide-angle lens will put great emphasis on the items on the table in the foreground; so they should be among your most interesting and appealing ones.

[seb v.]

Here's an idea. They have a Noblex panoramic camera on ebay finishing in 4 hrs. I could probably snag it for 600 dollars plus 50 shipping, use it and then sell it on here in UK for more or less what I paid for it. Is that crazy??

[fototheque]

Seb, I took these photos and made this comparison of the Xpan 45mm lens and the Voigtlander 15mm late last year. The difference in exposure is from shooting colour neg in the Xpan and cross processed slide film in the Voigtlander. <p>

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/32/52562672_01080a5441.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Xpan 45/4 vs. Voigtlander 15/4.5" /></a><p>

 

I had a Horizon, the cheap version of a Noblex and it was utter rubbish, don't waste your money on one of those swing lens cameras. I now have the 30mm Xpan lens and it is superb!

 

Cheers,

 

Matthew

[nasmformyzombie]

$600 for the fleabay Noblex? Not a chance. In many cases, most of the bidding takes place in the last hour.

[Fotohuis RoVo]

In Europe a Noblex second hand will be available up from Eur. 500,00 - Eur. 600,00. A Zenit Horizon 202 for Eur. 150,00 but indeed this quality is less (I also own one).

 

I bought my C.V. Super wide Heliar 4,5/15mm and M adapter (viewfinder included) for Eur. 290,00 (new!) for my M7, just another price comparing to a Xpan and it's 30mm W.A. lens. The Zeiss 2,8/15mm will be over Eur. 3000,00 together with the viewfinder.

 

Just a matter of choice and comparing price/quality.

 

Best regards,

 

Robert

[len_smith]

Hi Seb,

 

I don't think the X-Pan is the answer to your problem. Yes, it will give you a wide angle of view, but only horizontally. Taking shots of entire stalls from only 3 meters away needs a lens that gives a wide angle of view vertically too.

 

I agree with others who have recommended the Cosina/Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5. For an inexpensive lens, it is surprisingly sharp and distortion is very well controlled. It is capable of producing excellent results if stopped down to f/8, and mine gets a lot of use.

 

However, a word of warning. With a 15mm lens, you must shoot with the lens axis *exactly* horizontal or you will get strongly converging (or diverging) verticals.

 

Unfortunately, the Cosina/Voigtlander 15mm viewfinder shows strong barrel distortion, which the lens itself does not. The strong distortion in the viewfinder makes it difficult to judge whether the lens axis is exactly horizontal, so a 2-axis spirit level is recommended, used with a tripod. These spirit levels are found at good camera stores or on eBay.

 

You will also need an accessory bracket because the spirit level cannot share the same accessory shoe as the viewfinder. The bracket fits into the camera's accessory shoe and has fittings for the viewfinder and the spirit level to be used side by side. It is available from Cosina/Voigtlander dealers or sometimes on eBay.

 

With the 15mm lens you should be able to get a shot of the whole stall. Not needing to stitch together multiple shots is a major plus.

 

If the Cosina/Voigtlander 15mm lens is not quite wide enough, the same manufacturer also offers a 12mm f/5.6. I have one of these also. Optically it is not nearly as good as the 15mm, so I don't use it often. However, it is useful on those rare occasions where the 15mm isn't quite wide enough.

 

Obviously you will need a rangefinder camera body to use theselenses. There is a very inexpensive Cosina/Voigtlander "Bessa L" body which costs about $100. It has no viewfinder but has a good built-in TTL light meter. You simply use the viewfinder that comes with the lens.

 

An alternative that you might wish to consider is the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG. This lens is suitable for 35mm film or digital SLRs, and is a surprisingly good performer. Obviously, on digital SLRs with an APS size sensor you would only get the equivalent field of view of an 18mm or 20mm lens on 35mm film, but used on a 35mm film SLR it offers a unique perspective.

 

 

Tony

[ant_nio_ferreira]

Probably your best bet is to get a small digital camera and stitch the photos together with a panorama software. Canons come with such software, sometimes within the camera itself.

[steve_george3]

Have you thought about a Horizont? Gives you a 120 degree angle of view (negative 24x58mm) and they're cheap enough. Mine cost me about ﾣ120 on EBay.

[steve_george3]

Sorry for typo. one hundred and twenty British pounds (200 dollars-ish)