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What lens should I use for interior shots


jul

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Hi there, I have a 300D with a Canon EFS 18-55mm and Sigma 70-200mm

I have to make some shots of interiors and I need an advise on the lens I

should have. I am thinking of Canon EF 24 mm 1.4L USM..... but it's not

cheap :) so I got to be sure hat this is what I need ...

 

Could you pls advise me?

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For interior shots using your 300D I would suggest the Canon 10-22 EF-S. It is a fine sharp zoom that will give you the ultra-wide angles you will need for many interiors. It is also a bit less procey than the 24mm f1.4 L. Third party versions are available from Tamron and Sigma but personally I would stick with Canon.
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i don't know much about canon lenses, but i've heard some good things about the sigma 10-20. mixed, but some good. don't know either how it will price compare with the canon brand, but if you live near a photo store, i'm sure they'll let you mount both (or more), shoot some, and take home the files to look into. if you're picky, barrel distortion (which is there in all of the super wides) is going to drive you nuts, but there is software that corrects for it.. best of luck
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For interior shots you may well find that there is not enough light for the 18-55mm and even

the 10-22mm. If you need to go wider than 24mm, then you may well need to gain

experience with flash and/or get a good tripod and use it in these situations. Sigma does

have a 20mm f/1.8, but the reviews suggest that it is soft unless it is stopped down quite a

bit, so I doubt it will help you much. If a normal lens would work for your interior shots I

think the 28mm f/1.8 can be a nice lens (it will have a normal perspective on your 300D).

Optically it is about as good as the 50mm f/1.8 (with a bit more CA) but has a lot better build

quality. I hope this helps.

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If you are doing interior shots (ie of a room) then I assume you will be using a tripod and be able to stop right down. Also you will probably want ultra wide angle view - I would suggest the EF-S 10-22 and stopdown to f11 or f16 at most to get the depth of field.

 

IF you are doing interior shots of people then you will be looking for a low light lens of about normal length or short tele depending if you are looking for full length or head shots. So for normal view 24/1.4L, 28/1.8 or 35/1.4L, short tele 50/1.2L or 50/1.4. Of these these the 28/1.8 is probably least sharp in the corners but resonanbly prices and is light. compact and has excelent AF, also very sharp in the center and edge. Both the 50mm will be sharp. The L lenses are heavy and expensive.

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I will shoot interiors without people such as empty offices, halls etc.. The purpose of the photos will be to give a clear impression how the office looks like .. I have a tripod already, stil have to test it. I suppose external light will be needed anyway ..since every shot will be taken inside.

 

thank you for your help :)

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<p>Disclaimer: I don't do this type of photography. Take what I write with a grain of salt (as you should with any advice you get in response to a post on the Internet).</p>

 

<p>The focal length you need will depend on the size of the room you're shooting. So even if you had a full-frame camera so that the 24/1.4 would be a true wide-angle lens, as opposed to the only-barely-wide it is on your 300D, it's probably not the right lens for the job; well, occasionally it would be an excellent lens for the job, but a lot of the time it simply would be the wrong focal length.</p>

 

<p>You should probably add a lens like Canon's 10-22 (it has a very good reputation; I don't know how the third-party lenses of similar range stack up against it). Your 18-55 will be wide enough sometimes, but not all of the time.</p>

 

<p>Use your tripod, and stop down to get the required depth of field (but don't stop down too far or you'll lose sharpness to diffraction; for instance, if f/8 is enough for a particular shot, it will be sharper than the same shot at f/16).</p>

 

<p>Take care to keep the camera level to avoid perspective distortion. For an example, there are two (exterior) shots of the same tower in the first couple of rows on <a href="http://www.estockpics.com/popular_photos.php" target="_blank">this page</a>. One tower looks like it's falling over backwards because it was photographed with the camera pointing up. The other doesn't have that look; actually, it was also shot with the camera pointing up (albeit from a slightly higher position and farther back, so the original of this one had less of the falling-over-backwards look than does the other picture), and I had to fix it in software. So yes, you can fix this in software, but you have extra work to do that way and you lose some resolution, so it's generally best to get it straight (or at least reasonably close) when shooting.</p>

 

<p>You probably don't want to use flash most of the time, for two reasons. One is unevenness. The intensity of flash falls as the square of distance, so unless the entire room is the same distance from the camera (which it won't be), then you'll get the effect of <a href="http://www.estockpics.com/details.php?gid=&sgid=&pid=3330" target="_blank">peering into a cave</a>: the areas near to you will be much lighter than the areas far from you. The other is white balance; if there are any other light sources illuminating the room (light coming through a window, incandescent lights, fluorescent lights), they'll be of a different colour than your flash, and different parts of the room will end up with different colour casts. Fixing white balance is easy when the entire scene has the same wrong colour cast, but it's much more difficult if the colour cast varies throughout the scene.</p>

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echo above comments regarding remote (or use the self timer), and leveling the camera (carefully - hot shoe levels are worth every penny). with super wide angles the slightest misalignments become noticeable, and though it can be corrected for afterwards, it's best imo to get it as right as possible at the shoot. regarding the angle of view, that's something one has to figure out for him/herself, personally i like to have 90degrees horizontally, sometimes i wish i had a little more, sometimes it feels too wide.
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Another vote for using the kit lens [EF-S 18-55]; a tripod; mirror lock up; remote release; [not sure about functions on 300D but if possible: shoot RAW + JPEG (preferred) and also use custom white balance to suit the office lighting for the JPEG].

 

I have 20D and the kit lens performs adequately at F8 for the purposes you outline, you should need not expend money on another lens for this shoot, if you can get it all in using 18mm.

 

Regards

 

WW

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You have the 18-55mm (29-88mm equiv.), but I don't think it will be wide enough most of the time for what you want. As others have said, I would suggest 10-22mm (16-35mm equiv.) or something very close... With the lenses you have that would pretty much cover you from 16-320mm (equiv.).

JoeR

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<p><i>What about the Canon 50 f/1.8 for about $70 or if you can affort $350, the 50 f/1.4.</i></p>A fast lens won't be a help, in his application, because he'll need a large depth of field (and consequently a tripod, since he won't have sufficient light for the necessary aperture).
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You might also want to look at getting a panoramic tripod head and taking multiple pictures then stiching. I got one for christmas and it is great for interiors (as well as landscapes). Once you get used to this set up, you can use any of your lenses to get "any" effective field of view (as long as you have the time!). A big plus is the much better resolution as well. See max lyon's site, his DC gallery has a few interiors. http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/index.html
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