Batis has 9 rounded aperture blades while Loxia has 10 straight aperture blades, which never fully opens, even at 2,8, that's why Loxia has well defined sunstars even at max aperture.
What would be your choice of focal length/lens for cathedral interiors? Right now my Loxia 21 is the widest lens I own. I'm heading to England soon and will be visiting a lot of cathedrals and churches.
. What would be your choice of focal length/lens for cathedral interiors? Right now my Loxia 21 is the widest lens I own. I'm heading to England soon and will be visiting a lot of cathedrals and churches.
Suspect 21 will be fine. I use 16-35 mostly and 35 prime if I think stitching might be better. If I used a prime (and could justify cost) it would be either of those - 18 or 21mm - would go for the one likely to be best double for landscape - if one of them does.
John
ecarlino wrote:
i use "lock on AF" and keep the focus point in center, then focus on my subject and re-compose while keeping the focus locked - no need to move the focus point with the touch pad.
Thanks for the idea. This a better way than doing focus and recompose. Will give it a try.
partitura wrote:
What would be your choice of focal length/lens for cathedral interiors? Right now my Loxia 21 is the widest lens I own. I'm heading to England soon and will be visiting a lot of cathedrals and churches.
I think wider than 18; when i look at my archives its the old 14II canon i used to have which seems to have the best perspective for this kind of work.
so for us Sony people that means either a ticket in the Samyang lottery (which if you win gives you a great lens for not much money. I won it once but stupidly changed mounts and have never won it since) or maybe the CV 15, but that's also a lottery. I think likely the zeiss dslr 15 is likely the gold standard, but it's super expensive and very big. Might be worth waiting for reports on the AF Samyang 14 and the Irix 15 2.4...
partitura wrote:
What would be your choice of focal length/lens for cathedral interiors? Right now my Loxia 21 is the widest lens I own. I'm heading to England soon and will be visiting a lot of cathedrals and churches.
You can get a lot of milage out of a quick two-shot pano with the 21 so long as you rotate roughly on the non-parallax point, which is roughly one third of the way to the front from the camera mount. If you can get it close, software will take care of the rest. When shooting handheld, as I assume you're going to have to do, I find it easier to to use the rear LCD to compose and shoot as it makes it easier to just rotate on the non-parallax point. If I hold the camera to my eye, then I just end up turning my body instead of moving around that point, and on a 21, that's not going to make for a good pano.
It may sound like a pain but it's easy in practice once you've figure out how to accomplish it comfortably. And it may be less painful than trying to find a wider UWA that's well made and worth dragging around with you.
freaklikeme wrote:
You can get a lot of milage out of a quick two-shot pano with the 21 so long as you rotate roughly on the non-parallax point, which is roughly one third of the way to the front from the camera mount. If you can get it close, software will take care of the rest. When shooting handheld, as I assume you're going to have to do, I find it easier to to use the rear LCD to compose and shoot as it makes it easier to just rotate on the non-parallax point. If I hold the camera to my eye, then I just end up turning my body instead of moving around that point, and on a 21, that's not going to make for a good pano.
It may sound like a pain but it's easy in practice once you've figure out how to accomplish it comfortably. And it may be less painful than trying to find a wider UWA that's well made and worth dragging around with you....Show more →
I have the Batis 25 and also use it occasionally to stitch a pano together where 25mm FoV is not enough.
When you say "one third of the way to the front from the camera mount" does that mean... the pivot point should be one third of the way to the front of the lens from the lens mount? Can you be more specific? Sorry.
freaklikeme wrote:
You can get a lot of milage out of a quick two-shot pano with the 21 so long as you rotate roughly on the non-parallax point, which is roughly one third of the way to the front from the camera mount. If you can get it close, software will take care of the rest. When shooting handheld, as I assume you're going to have to do, I find it easier to to use the rear LCD to compose and shoot as it makes it easier to just rotate on the non-parallax point. If I hold the camera to my eye, then I just end up turning my body instead of moving around that point, and on a 21, that's not going to make for a good pano.
It may sound like a pain but it's easy in practice once you've figure out how to accomplish it comfortably. And it may be less painful than trying to find a wider UWA that's well made and worth dragging around with you....Show more →
Wouldn't the pano process be less sensitive to parallax errors if you used a longer focal length (and maybe stitched more)?
Thx
virtualrain wrote:
I have the Batis 25 and also use it occasionally to stitch a pano together where 25mm FoV is not enough.
When you say "one third of the way to the front from the camera mount" does that mean... the pivot point should be one third of the way to the front of the lens from the lens mount? Can you be more specific? Sorry.
I knew that was going to be confusing. I just couldn't think of a better way to put it. Let's try this. If the lens were sitting in front of you on it's mount with the front of the lens pointed up, the no-parallax point would be about a centimeter above the top of the printed distances on the distance scale.
freaklikeme wrote:
I knew that was going to be confusing. I just couldn't think of a better way to put it. Let's try this. If the lens were sitting in front of you on it's mount with the front of the lens pointed up, the no-parallax point would be about a centimeter above the top of the printed distances on the distance scale.
Parariss wrote:
Wouldn't the pano process be less sensitive to parallax errors if you used a longer focal length (and maybe stitched more)?
Thx
You are correct, and, if you have the time and patience, you'll end up with a much higher res file. But it does make it harder to isolate any moving objects to a single frame.
DavidBM wrote:
I think wider than 18; when i look at my archives its the old 14II canon i used to have which seems to have the best perspective for this kind of work.
so for us Sony people that means either a ticket in the Samyang lottery (which if you win gives you a great lens for not much money. I won it once but stupidly changed mounts and have never won it since) or maybe the CV 15, but that's also a lottery. I think likely the zeiss dslr 15 is likely the gold standard, but it's super expensive and very big. Might be worth waiting for reports on the AF Samyang 14 and the Irix 15 2.4...
Seems like it might also depend on what kind of photos someone wants to take. To me, a 15mm (and to a somewhat lesser extent, an 18mm) creates more perspective distortion which is really fun to utilize in creating unique derivative photographic art, but the results are often not as natural looking (especially indoors) as slightly longer focal lengths. So, if the objective is to document more authentically what it was like to be in a space (and maintain the original proportionality of the resident artwork), the 21mm might actually be easier to work with. No wrong answers; only preferences.
In any event, it seems clear that while the Loxia has the added benefit of being already paid for, it's also indisputable that this trip offers the perfect excuse to go get a new lens!!
