Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
Main Photography Discussion
Wide angle lens help
Page 1 of 4 next> last>>
Jul 25, 2017 15:05:33   #
soxfan941 Loc: Lakewood Ranch, FL
 
Planning a trip out west, and would like to shoot some landscapes. For example: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon. I'm thinking my Nikon
24-120mm will not get what I'm looking for. I've been reading about the Nikon 18-35mm G series lens, also have an interest in the Sigma
18-35mm F4, maybe the Sigma 8-16mm. What do you guys think? What recommendations would you offer?

I do have both a APS-C and full frame cameras.

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 15:10:15   #
Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.
 
soxfan941 wrote:
Planning a trip out west, and would like to shoot some landscapes. For example: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon. I'm thinking my Nikon
24-120mm will not get what I'm looking for. I've been reading about the Nikon 18-35mm G series lens, also have an interest in the Sigma
18-35mm F4, maybe the Sigma 8-16mm. What do you guys think? What recommendations would you offer?

I do have both a APS-C and full frame cameras.


I'd say take the 24-120mm. What's the 18-35mm going to get you on an FX camera that the 24-120mm won't?

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 15:19:01   #
Johanna Loc: Albuquerque, NM
 
I do photos of shows & belly Dances where I am "right up front"! I use a Tamron 15-30 mm, F2.8 on my Nikons. GREAT LENS. I would NEVER use it for panoramas.
A wide angle lens for panoramas would be a waste IMHO. Yes, you would have the entire view in one exposure. But where is the detail? Why not put your camera on a tripod or even hand hold and take multiple exposures, then stich them into one higher detail picture?

Reply
 
 
Jul 25, 2017 15:25:23   #
67skylark27 Loc: Fort Atkinson, WI
 
I have the Tokina 11-16 dx II f2.8. Works great on my DX - d5300. It finally gives me the wide angle I need
for landscapes on the crop sensor. My 18-140 is great but getting down to 11 made a big difference. My
buddy is borrowing it for his Montana trip in a month. It is built like a tank, very heavy lens. Zoom seems
to matter very little. The Sigma 8-16 gives a better range that you may like better. 18mm on full frame
is probably excellent, but on crop sensor you need to get down to 10 ish.

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 15:41:57   #
Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida
 
Nikon 16-35mm 1:4 G

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 15:43:06   #
Gobuster Loc: South Florida
 
soxfan941 wrote:
Planning a trip out west, and would like to shoot some landscapes. For example: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon. I'm thinking my Nikon
24-120mm will not get what I'm looking for. I've been reading about the Nikon 18-35mm G series lens, also have an interest in the Sigma
18-35mm F4, maybe the Sigma 8-16mm. What do you guys think? What recommendations would you offer?

I do have both a APS-C and full frame cameras.


Firstly, which version of the 24-120 do you have? The new 24-120 F4 VR is a wonderful lens, the older 24-120 F3.5-5.6 is one of Nikon's worst lenses! The older version is lousy for landscapes, just not sharp enough for my liking. If you have the newer version, I think it will be fine for landscapes, if not wide enough, just shoot a pano set and stitch. If you really want wide for special effects, I'd recommend the Nikon 16-35 F4 VR, I have one and it is excellent. The attached photo is a pano made from 3 frames, hand held and shot at 28mm on a full frame Pentax K1 using a 28-105mm lens (download for best view). To eliminate excessive foreground, I'll shoot at 50-70mm and stitch, probably what I should have done for my example!


(Download)

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 15:48:48   #
soxfan941 Loc: Lakewood Ranch, FL
 
Gobuster, It's the newer F4 VR. I'll look into the 16-35mm F4. Thank you for the pano.

Reply
 
 
Jul 25, 2017 15:58:21   #
Gobuster Loc: South Florida
 
soxfan941 wrote:
Gobuster, It's the newer F4 VR. I'll look into the 16-35mm F4. Thank you for the pano.


You have a fine lens, wish I had one! I've been using the 24-85 VR which also works well, but would love the extra reach of the 24-120. BTW I realized I did shoot the similar pano at 73 mm and stitched 3 frames with the following result.


(Download)

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 16:10:36   #
Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
 
soxfan941 wrote:
Planning a trip out west, and would like to shoot some landscapes. For example: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon. I'm thinking my Nikon
24-120mm will not get what I'm looking for. I've been reading about the Nikon 18-35mm G series lens, also have an interest in the Sigma
18-35mm F4, maybe the Sigma 8-16mm. What do you guys think? What recommendations would you offer?

I do have both a APS-C and full frame cameras.


You have all that you need.

https://photographylife.com/panoramic-photography-howto

Here are some panos I shot with focal lengths ranging from 45mm to 150mm - all on a full frame camera.

Ultra wide lenses will get it all in width-wise, but at a price - everything will be far away, and things near the camera will be huge. That wide-angle look loses it's novelty after a while. With pano stitching, any lens in your bag can be a wide angle landscape lens. Very easy to do. You can use a tripod, but some of the panos below were taken hand-held. Photoshop, Lightroom or PT/GUI will make short work of stitching the images for you. I prefer PS/LR because you end up with a stitched raw file (dng), that you can adjust exactly the way you might a single shot raw.

I have lenses that cover from 14mm to 600mm. For landscape I rarely ever use m 14-24. I will use it if I am in close quarters, though. Ultra-wide lenses have extension distortion - things in the distance are tiny, things up close are huge and they dominate the composition, and there is usually too much sky and foreground to crop. If you tilt the camera up, then you have to crop even more as you correct for keystoning (converging verticals).

the novelty of an ultra-wide lens wears off pretty soon after you get it. So my recommendation is to explore the ways in which you can use your perfectly good lenses to get what you want.

45mm 10,085x10,588 px
45mm 10,085x10,588 px...
(Download)

150mm, 19,476x7,165 px
150mm, 19,476x7,165 px...
(Download)

58mm, 15,661x6,953 px
58mm, 15,661x6,953 px...
(Download)

45mm, 9,864x7,106 px
45mm, 9,864x7,106 px...
(Download)

85mm, 12,494x6,580
85mm, 12,494x6,580...
(Download)

85mm, 13,689x7,525 px
85mm, 13,689x7,525 px...
(Download)

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 17:45:34   #
gordons1
 
Go for the widest lens you cn get...I did it with a 12mm...in the slot canyons - antelope canyon in Page AZ...it gets very dramatic with the strong depth of field....shoot RAW do it for HDR

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 18:23:14   #
Winslowe
 
Gene51 wrote:
https://photographylife.com/panoramic-photography-howto

What software will stitch either RAW (NEF) or 16-bit TIFF files?

Reply
 
 
Jul 25, 2017 18:30:33   #
rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA
 
If you have a Dx crop sensor camera, the Sigma 18-35 ART cannot be beat for landscapes.

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 21:11:19   #
Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
 
Winslowe wrote:
What software will stitch either RAW (NEF) or 16-bit TIFF files?


Photoshop and Lightroom - merge to panorama. Either will result in a dng file if you start with raw, or tiff/psd/jpeg if you start with bitmapped files. PT/GUI will always result in a bit mapped file, but you have your choice of 8 or 16 bit.

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 21:30:30   #
LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field
 
Gene51 wrote:
You have all that you need.

https://photographylife.com/panoramic-photography-howto

Here are some panos I shot with focal lengths ranging from 45mm to 150mm - all on a full frame camera.

Ultra wide lenses will get it all in width-wise, but at a price - everything will be far away, and things near the camera will be huge. That wide-angle look loses it's novelty after a while. With pano stitching, any lens in your bag can be a wide angle landscape lens. Very easy to do. You can use a tripod, but some of the panos below were taken hand-held. Photoshop, Lightroom or PT/GUI will make short work of stitching the images for you. I prefer PS/LR because you end up with a stitched raw file (dng), that you can adjust exactly the way you might a single shot raw.

I have lenses that cover from 14mm to 600mm. For landscape I rarely ever use m 14-24. I will use it if I am in close quarters, though. Ultra-wide lenses have extension distortion - things in the distance are tiny, things up close are huge and they dominate the composition, and there is usually too much sky and foreground to crop. If you tilt the camera up, then you have to crop even more as you correct for keystoning (converging verticals).

the novelty of an ultra-wide lens wears off pretty soon after you get it. So my recommendation is to explore the ways in which you can use your perfectly good lenses to get what you want.
You have all that you need. br br https://photog... (show quote)



Wonderful images.

Reply
Jul 25, 2017 21:51:10   #
rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA
 
Mac wrote:
I'd say take the 24-120mm. What's the 18-35mm going to get you on an FX camera that the 24-120mm won't?
It takes you wider, in one step you can see at the time. In our recent vacation to West Virgina, I often found myself taking my 18-135mm off my Pentax APS-C K-30 so I could use my 10-20mm - not at the full 10mm, but because something like 13mm would give me the image I was seeing ... and going from 24mm to 18mm might be exactly what the OP needs here.

Gobuster wrote:
BTW I realized I did shoot the similar pano at 73 mm and stitched 3 frames with the following result.
Pano is a completely different question. It is a big step resulting in an image that may be awkward to deal with {not many standard picture frames, for example}. An UWA lens is a different solution to deal with a different situation - a small step to provide slightly more width, creating an image of standard proportions but providing more comfortable framing.

added: when I switched from Canon to Pentax, my Sigma 10-20mm lens was the one I really missed, so I was happy to discover that it comes in K-mount also. I don't use it very often, but when I do use it, I'm always happy to have it in my bag so I can take another step or two into a scene {or avoid having to take several steps out of it}

Reply
Page 1 of 4 next> last>>
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
Main Photography Discussion
UglyHedgehog.com - Forum
Copyright 2011-2024 Ugly Hedgehog, Inc.