Photography Thailand Forum

[bjorn slis]

I need a decent lens for property photography, 17-70 18-70, or something like that, don't have a big amount of money, sharp is the keyword, reccomendations anyone ?

for nikon of course :-)

[epixx]

I don't know the 17-70 (Sigma?), but the Nikkor 18-70 distort too much at the wide end.

I would go for a 2-lens combo. Find a second-hand Nikkor 35-70 f/2.8 (should be around THB 6,000) and have it cleaned if necessary (it's a on-ring zoom and it sucks dust) and buy a Tokina 12-24 f/4 (around 16,000). The new Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 is even sharper, but not available in Thailand yet.

Another alternative is the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, but I don't know how much it distorts at the wide end.

[Adzz]

Sorry but unless you have nikon with a full frame sensor. Nikon DX format is not so good for wide work.
I personally would go for a fixed wide lens, not a zoom.
Shoot in HDR or do some good layer blending in photoshop.
You might look at DXO Pro which can do some good lens correction and aberrations sorting out etc  http://www.dxo.com/jp/photo

Cheers Adzz

[bjorn slis]

yeah yeah unless you have a million baht set you can't make a decent photograph

[Marc Schultz]

I am afraid to a certain degree what you say is correct. High quality glass that will give you a sharp, wide angle picture will not be inexpensive I am afraid. Maybe try looking for something second hand.

[bjorn slis]

well I'm not getting into that whole discussion again, I asked for a rec. on affordable stuff, not for a hasselblad with a digital back, I can come up with that answer all by myself, having said that, if somebody has some money lying around that they are not using, send me a pm i'll give you my bank account.

[Marc Schultz]

Understood. My recommendation would be a 24mm or 28mm shift lens, but as I said, those are not inexpensive. Otherwise you should look for a prime lens that offers at least a focal length of 24mm wide. Without any shift though, you are most likely to have some barrel distortion. Hope that helps :)

[bjorn slis]

thanks marc

although i hoped for a pm asking for my bankaccount  :P

[Adzz]

I would agree with Mark on the 24mm , maybe not the shift , they can still be expensive second hand (but nice). An older manual lens maybe , some  old fixed lenses are OK on resolution and very cheap!
Adzz

[Adzz]

Forgot to mention: The Barrel distortion you can sort in photoshop thru filter --distort--lens correction-- blabla , make an action for your lens. Not perfect but OK.

Try find an old nikon manual 20mm and give it a test run. Chances are you will get good results for the money, with a bit of photoshop jigery-pockery.

Good luck Adzz

[epixx]

Wide-angle quality has nothing whatsoever to do with sensor size, but with the lens. A good wide-angle lens made for the smaller format will give at least as good results as a good wide-angle lens for full frame. Typically, one of the best WA zooms ever made, is the Zuiko 7-14mm f/4 for the 4/3-format, which is even smaller than DX. Because that lens is tele-centric or near tele-centric, there's less vignetting and much sharper corners than with most WA zooms used on FF digital.

The exception seems to be the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8, but that is a very costly lens, and it requires a D3 (or a 5D with a special adapter that supports the G-series Nikkors with no aperture ring) to stay wide. I agree that the ideal solution is a tilt/shift lens, but now it's getting really expensive, since you would need an FF/FX camera not to lose the WA perspective. The new Nikkor 24 is apparently excellent.

I still maintain that the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 would be the best solution. All tests show it to be sharper than any alternative for the DX format. Unfortunately, it seems to be available in all countries except Thailand at the moment. Maybe sending hate-mails to Fotosystems would help 

I'm skeptical to the Nikkor 20mm AIS.It was  a good lens on film, but unfortunately, it doesn't perform nearly as good on DX. I haven't tried it myself though. I have tried the 20mm f/2.8 AF D, and I wouldn't recommend it for architecture.

There's no 24mm shift available for Nikon except the new model. The widest of the old ones, was the 28mm AIS (f/3.5 I believe).

[Adzz]

Sorry  but my opinion and my earlier point is that the relationship between all lenses and sensor size, and more specifically pixel pitch, is very relevant.
Have a look at this for further info. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/full-frame-advantage.htm
Also interesting: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/lens-sharpness.htm

I agree that the  20mm would not be perfect, but he's on a budget. I have a very old Nikon manual 35mm that I have tried, its not good,but its not bad. With a bit of processing,it can give a half decent image.

With all these things, your final output requirements can be the deciding factor in what you can get away with, when your on a budget.

Regards Adzz

[epixx]

Ken Rockwell has some valid points, but he has later shown that the Tokina 11-16mm outresolves all other WA zooms for DX with a good margin. The early WA zooms for DX where simply not good enough. His mentioning of the Zuiko 7-14mm is typical KR. He says it's bad because it's for a small format, but hasn't actually tried the lens.

Even most Canon users will agree that vignetting and unsharp corners have been a problem with large aperture WA lenses on digital. Try the Canon 24mm f/1.4, and you're in for some interesting experiences. The reason is very simple: the light from the lens doesn't reach the corners undistorted, since the sensor cells sit too deep in their wells. Sony is btw. working on a sensor that do not hide the cells deep in the sensor, but on the top, just like with film. This will probably improve performance of WA lenses on full frame dramatically, and make it possible to make smaller, cheaper lenses.

Few photographers disagree that larger sensors are better than smaller ones, but there are still challenges. Making good WA-lenses that are big, heavy and terribly expensive is one of them.

[theoutdoorzone]

I have a  Nikkor 35-70 f/2.8 and it work wonders for me

[bjorn slis]

Bought a Tokina 12-24 F/4 and it's a solid lens for the price.
Used it for a couple of months now and it does the trick.
There is little CA and unf. that is enhanced by shooting in HDR which for me is the way to go because usually I have about an hour or so to do a house or appartment so no time to set up lights, although I do use a coupe of off camera flashes (nikon SB) every now and then.
Some results in the gallery, any comments highly appreciated, especially the ones that help me improve. :-)