Looking for an EOS lens recommendation for panoramas

Hi All,

I'm considering offering panoramas as a regular service for my clients
and I'm looking for some recommendations on lenses for my 20D.

Currently I have a 24-85 USM, and I'm finding the FOV to be
frustratingly narrow. On my film camera 24mm if plenty wide enough, but
on the 20D it's certainly nothing special, equivalent to about 38mm.

A couple of lenses that I've considered are the 15mm f2.8 fisheye, or
the EF-S 10-22. Has anyone tried using either of these for panoramas?

They're both around the same price, so it'd really just come down to
which does a better job. I'm a bit hesitant to get an EF-S lens, as it
could then only be used on my 20D (not my EOS 30), but if it's clearly a
better lens for the job though, I would get it.

The zoom thing is not really an issue, since for panoramas I'd pretty
well always be using it at the 10mm end.

How would the FOV compare for the 2 lenses? Logic would tell me that
10mm should be wider than 15mm. Does this hold true though when one is a
fisheye?

The software I generally use is autopano-SIFT (for the control point
matching) and then Hugin + panorama tools for the optimization and
actual stitching. Does anyone know if these tools would handle a fisheye
lens correctly? I heard somewhere that for ultra wide, fisheye is
sometimes better because it has less chromatic aberration, and the
software can (apparently) correct the distortion relatively easily.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eugene

In article , Eugene
wrote:

I'm considering offering panoramas as a regular service for my clients
and I'm looking for some recommendations on lenses for my 20D.

When I do panoramas, I use my 20-35 set at 35mm. If you use a
wide-angle lens, you can get some goofy perspectives after stitching
them together. Also, I shoot the segments vertically so that I don't
end up with a thin strip.

On 9/15/05 10:34 PM, in article , "Eugene"
wrote:

Hi All,

I'm considering offering panoramas as a regular service for my clients
and I'm looking for some recommendations on lenses for my 20D.

Currently I have a 24-85 USM, and I'm finding the FOV to be
frustratingly narrow. On my film camera 24mm if plenty wide enough, but
on the 20D it's certainly nothing special, equivalent to about 38mm.

A couple of lenses that I've considered are the 15mm f2.8 fisheye, or
the EF-S 10-22. Has anyone tried using either of these for panoramas?

They're both around the same price, so it'd really just come down to
which does a better job. I'm a bit hesitant to get an EF-S lens, as it
could then only be used on my 20D (not my EOS 30), but if it's clearly a
better lens for the job though, I would get it.

The zoom thing is not really an issue, since for panoramas I'd pretty
well always be using it at the 10mm end.

How would the FOV compare for the 2 lenses? Logic would tell me that
10mm should be wider than 15mm. Does this hold true though when one is a
fisheye?

The software I generally use is autopano-SIFT (for the control point
matching) and then Hugin + panorama tools for the optimization and
actual stitching. Does anyone know if these tools would handle a fisheye
lens correctly? I heard somewhere that for ultra wide, fisheye is
sometimes better because it has less chromatic aberration, and the
software can (apparently) correct the distortion relatively easily.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eugene

If your are really talking about true panoramas (where several shots are
stitched together) rather than simply extreme wide-angle shots you are
leaning the wrong way in lens selection. If you use wide-angle lenses to
shoot panoramas the perspective (distortion) of each shot, edge to edge,
will make it very difficult to match the images. It is better to take more
images with medium to long lenses.
Chuck

On 15/09/2005 11:34 PM, Eugene wrote:

I'm considering offering panoramas as a regular service for my clients
and I'm looking for some recommendations on lenses for my 20D.

Does Canon offer a wide-angle tilt-shift lens? It's another way to do
panos. (I'm a Nikon guy, unfamiliar with Canon).

In article , Doug Payne
writes
On 15/09/2005 11:34 PM, Eugene wrote:

I'm considering offering panoramas as a regular service for my
clients and I'm looking for some recommendations on lenses for my 20D.

Does Canon offer a wide-angle tilt-shift lens? It's another way to do
panos. (I'm a Nikon guy, unfamiliar with Canon).

Yes, the 24mm f/3.5L TS-E. It will give you a mildly panoramic picture,
but not as much as I think you are seeking. Shift will give you a wider
FoV with no shape distortion mismatch in the corners; tilt will cause
some problems in matching the drawing of regular shapes. Also, on a DSLR
with a smaller sensor the 24mm is not particularly wide. I am looking
forward to using mine on a larger sensor, then I will have it back to
full usefulness.

David
--
David Littlewood

C Wright wrote:
On 9/15/05 10:34 PM, in article ,
"Eugene" wrote:

Hi All,

I'm considering offering panoramas as a regular service for my
clients and I'm looking for some recommendations on lenses for my
20D.

Currently I have a 24-85 USM, and I'm finding the FOV to be
frustratingly narrow. On my film camera 24mm if plenty wide enough,
but on the 20D it's certainly nothing special, equivalent to about
38mm.

A couple of lenses that I've considered are the 15mm f2.8 fisheye,
or
the EF-S 10-22. Has anyone tried using either of these for
panoramas?

They're both around the same price, so it'd really just come down
to
which does a better job. I'm a bit hesitant to get an EF-S lens, as
it could then only be used on my 20D (not my EOS 30), but if it's
clearly a better lens for the job though, I would get it.

The zoom thing is not really an issue, since for panoramas I'd
pretty
well always be using it at the 10mm end.

How would the FOV compare for the 2 lenses? Logic would tell me
that
10mm should be wider than 15mm. Does this hold true though when one
is a fisheye?

The software I generally use is autopano-SIFT (for the control
point
matching) and then Hugin + panorama tools for the optimization and
actual stitching. Does anyone know if these tools would handle a
fisheye lens correctly? I heard somewhere that for ultra wide,
fisheye is sometimes better because it has less chromatic
aberration, and the software can (apparently) correct the
distortion
relatively easily.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eugene

If your are really talking about true panoramas (where several shots
are stitched together) rather than simply extreme wide-angle shots
you are leaning the wrong way in lens selection. If you use
wide-angle lenses to shoot panoramas the perspective (distortion) of
each shot, edge to edge, will make it very difficult to match the
images. It is better to take more images with medium to long
lenses.
Chuck

As an example, this rough one was made with a 20D Canon, 24-70 2.8L
lens, 24mm, 1/250 @ f/7.1 or thereabouts, ISO 100, four frames from
end to end, something like 15% overlap, handheld
twist-at-the-waist-platform, selecteded into the PSCS2 make-a-pano
facility, processed and cropped top and bottom:
http://www.fototime.com/36449B870CF212E/orig.jpg

--
Frank ess

Frank ess wrote:


As an example, this rough one was made with a 20D Canon, 24-70 2.8L
lens, 24mm, 1/250 @ f/7.1 or thereabouts, ISO 100, four frames from
end to end, something like 15% overlap, handheld
twist-at-the-waist-platform, selecteded into the PSCS2 make-a-pano
facility, processed and cropped top and bottom:
http://www.fototime.com/36449B870CF212E/orig.jpg

For "fun", here it is upsampled to 300ppi per the publisher's request;
9MB file:
http://www.fototime.com/6F3E705331B4817/orig.jpg

--
Frank ess

I would not use a wide angle Lens.

Almost any lens will work, as long as it is commensurate to the subject
shot, i.e., you could/would use a different lens for a panorama inside a
room vs a panorama on a mountain top vs a late evening back yard shot.

The critical factor, IMHO, is the tripod. Assuming you stabalize the camera
settings so that the overall picture set shares a common exposure and
balance level, The tripod makes a critical difference. Tall vertical shots,
the more the better. I like to shoot 24 to 36 pictures per Pano.

I made a pano holder for my Rebel, took about $40 and a saturday, and a
drilled hole in my hand. It isn't critically accurate, but it works plenty
well enough for the pano software to work with. Much better than hand held
pano shots.

http://hoofr.com/gallery-e6.htm this was shot with a Tamron 18-75 by
hand (no tripod), JPG compressed for the web. touched up with Adobe CS a
bit.

If you got the bucks, consider the 360 one shot. Seems like thats the
premium way to go, and you can do full 360x360 pano's too.

David A.

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 13:34:04 +1000, Eugene
wrote:

A couple of lenses that I've considered are the 15mm f2.8 fisheye, or
the EF-S 10-22. Has anyone tried using either of these for panoramas?

I've experimented with my 10-22, and as noted elsewhere found the
extreme perspective at the low end made stitching a nightmare.
Aesthetically the results were disappointing too. As a landscape lens
I love the 10-22, especially in the mountains where the extreme
wide-angles can really emphasise the sense of space and scale. For
shooting multiple image panoramas it's not ideal, though.

Al
--
[This space intentionally left blank]

Hi Frank,

Very nicely done, particularly using PSCS2. I've tried the PhotoShop
pano feature and was less than impressed with the results I got. The
reason I use Panorama Tools is because it can correct the perspective
distortion of the lens, so in theory it should work properly even when
using fisheye lenses. I haven't tried this though.

Have you tried using Canon's PhotoStitch? I've actually found that as
long as you're reasonably careful taking the photos it does a really
good job, much better in my opinion than PhotoShop and it's all
automatic. It corrects the distortion of the lens and automatically
chooses and matches control points. Panorama Tools is much better still,
but not exactly easy to use. The panoramas I'm going to be making are
full 360 degree panos, which I'll then convert to QTVR.

I really need much wider than 24mm though, because I'll be doing a lot
of interior panos in holiday park cabins and things. I've found I get an
extremely narrow view when using 24mm in landscape orientation. I can't
use portrait orientation yet, because I need to make myself some kind of
bracket to flip the camera and still have it panning around the nodal
point. This is very important for interior views, they just wont stitch
unless it's done properly.

Eugene



If your are really talking about true panoramas (where several shots
are stitched together) rather than simply extreme wide-angle shots
you are leaning the wrong way in lens selection. If you use
wide-angle lenses to shoot panoramas the perspective (distortion) of
each shot, edge to edge, will make it very difficult to match the
images. It is better to take more images with medium to long lenses.
Chuck


As an example, this rough one was made with a 20D Canon, 24-70 2.8L
lens, 24mm, 1/250 @ f/7.1 or thereabouts, ISO 100, four frames from end
to end, something like 15% overlap, handheld
twist-at-the-waist-platform, selecteded into the PSCS2 make-a-pano
facility, processed and cropped top and bottom:
http://www.fototime.com/36449B870CF212E/orig.jpg