S2 Architecture Sigma or Nikon lens

[imager67]

First of all I would like to thank everyone on this forum. I have gathered much useful information over the past few months on the Fuji S2 from the post here. I now own my fist digital camera, a shinny new Fuji S2.

I need to purchase a lens to photograph architectural interiors and exteriors. My choices are narrowed down to the Sigma 14mm AF aspherical, the Sigma 15mm diagonal fisheye, the Nikon 14mm AF, or the Nikon AI 16mm fisheye.

From what I have read it seems that the Sigma has less distortion than the Nikon. My main concern is over which lens will deliver the widest undistorted view when leveled with the room scene or exterior.

Thanks, Mark

[Ron Green]

Fisheyes don't work for serious architectural photography. And why settle for Sigma when the best Nikkor super-wide ever made is available. If you can pick up a older manual focus Nikkor 15mm f3.5 you'll be very pleased with the results This is a rectilinear lens second to none. When level, all verticals are vertical, no pincushioning and it is extremely sharp. It has been used successfully by architectural phograpers for years. It does flare when struck directly by light but that is a problem with all super-wides and easily corrected with hand shading. This lens was $2,400 when new and I have seen a couple on e-bay for $800-900. Autofocus is ridiculous on a lens this wide so don't worry about that. And, if you want through the lens metering with your S2 it will need a chip added ($80). I had mine chipped and it works great. These are somewhat rare but if you can find one the resale value will remain about what you paid for it for years to come.

[Topngu]

Ron i agree w/ u 100%... i saw on (www.photostop.com)...about
$1400 for sale...try ebay may $ less...i bought Pentax 15...and
modify for myself....

[Tom V]

Mark,

The day I got my S2, I got a call to shoot some model homes. An ugly fence in front of the homes required that I shoot the entire house from aproximately 30 feet away. An hour after seeing the location, I bought a Sigma 14mm ƒ2.8 lens. It works great. See my shot that was posted months ago: http://www.s2pro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126 which also describes how I correct perspective.

There is some barrel distortion, but as I understand it, ALL recilinear wide-angle lenses have it to some extent. Maybe the Nikon 15mm mentioned above has more or less distortion, but for only $800 new, the Sigma is perfectly fine for me. Any distortion can be fixed with in Photoshop, with a free plug-in.

I use the Photoshop Moire Reducer Action (http://www.s2pro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=335&highlight=moire) to eliminate moire I sometimes get in diagonal patterns in bricks, siding, and shingles.

I took one recent shot were the distortion bugged me a little, so I have been testing Helmet Dersch's PanoTools v2.2, which can correct pincusion or barrel distortion. See http://home.no.net/dmaurer/~dersch/Index.htm (a mirror site, official site is currently down).

PanoTools not only corrects these distortions, but can accurately simulate center filters, correct color shifts and fringes, off center lens images, perspective, flatten out fisheye images (incredible! Try this for architectual photography! http://home.no.net/dmaurer/~dersch/architect/arch.html), or stiching panoramic cylinders, spheres, cubes, and much much more.

I would love to see a full frame from the Nikon 15mm ƒ3.5.

I think I am going to look into getting a fisheye too! I think it would be awesome to make 140° rectilinear images.

[robertfel]

"the best Nikkor super-wide ever made... older manual focus Nikkor 15mm f3.5"

i've used the 15mm 3.5 and it's a great lens. but i heard that the best ever wide angle nikkor was the 13mm 5.6. i've never used it and it's probably harder to find than the 15mm. i think they were only made to order for a price around $10,000.

[Ron Green]

Robert is right, although the 15mm is significantly faster and weighs less. More on the 13mm can be seen at:
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/ultrawides/13mm.htm

[Tom V]

I just looked for a Nikkor 15mm lens as (recommended by Ron) and found one on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2943567149&category=3343

The auction ends August 6th, and is about $850 or so as of now.

[Topngu]

I had a change to work in camera shop...and test almost any lens
...any brand...included all rare lens...13mm Leica modify for Nikkon...14 Sigma is not a bad choice for $$$ is problem....Nikkon
& Pentax has built in filter (4 difference kind)....
Tom...said Ebay go for $850...that good bid...same one i bid today on stock MVIS....--:)....good luck...
any one shoot 1200mm nikkon?...8mmmm...
i forget to mention if U buy old lens and need modify...AI...AIS...
to use with S1 or S2...send me email....

[Tom V]

Originally posted by Ron Green
.... If you can pick up a older manual focus Nikkor 15mm f3.5 you'll be very pleased with the results This is a rectilinear lens second to none. When level, all verticals are vertical, no pincushioning and it is extremely sharp. It has been used successfully by architectural phograpers for years. It does flare when struck directly by light but that is a problem with all super-wides and easily corrected with hand shading. This lens was $2,400 when new and I have seen a couple on e-bay for $800-900. ....

Although I am not an employee of ebay, I constantly scan the Nikon lenses. There is a 15mm going right now (ends Dec. 21 03) which is decribed as like new and currently only $830.

I would get it myself, except I already have a 14mm.

[snapshot69]

Tom,

I want to thank you for the Perspective Correction Tutorial. I printed it out and followed your instructions and applied it to an early evening shot of a new federal court house in our city.

It worked out real well (my opinion) and I'm attaching a before and after. This was a spare of the moment type shot with nothing really pre-planned. I originally thought of shooting this with my 4x5, but I wanted to try your tutorial in PS. I plan on using this tool with other shots in the daytime.

I'm also attaching a shot of another new building taken at night, obviously, with a Pentax 15mm full frame fish-eye lens. There is distortion in the center of the image, but I corrected the ends of the building to try and give it a better look. A Nikon 14mm or 15mm lens might have eliminated the distortion, but I don't have the $$$.

With recent announcements from Kodak concerning their discontinuing the production of slide projectors and further research development into silver-based film........does this mean that our 4x5 cameras (as well as other film based cameras) are now obsolete and to be used as paper weights??
Should we sell our darkroom and film-based camera equipment now and focus strictly on digital??

Comments please.

Thanks Tom.

Gary
PS I may have messed up the photo attachments, sorry.

[snapshot69]

Lets see if these attachments work.

Sorry, I can't get the images posted. I must have done somethiong wrong.

[Tom V]

You can only post one image at a time. Downsample your image to about 600 pixels across, and save it as JPG with some low to medium compression. When you attach the image to your post, do not preview it. If you preview the post with image, the image will get lost, and you will have to re-attach it AND DON'T PREVIEW the post, just submit it.

:beerchug:

[snapshot69]

Thanks Tom,

Let me try again.

[snapshot69]

This is the after shot.

[snapshot69]

This is the before office building shot.

[snapshot69]

This is the after shot, but you'll still see distortion in the center

[Tom V]

Nice shots.

Perspective and Distortion are two different things. Photoshop can correct perspective, but cannot do a thing about distortion. (I can't recall if Photoshop CS has something in the RAW converter or not to help distortion). To correct distortion, I use PanoTools, a plug-in that does amazing things.

Amazing like Fisheye to Rectilinear conversion and back, pincushion or barrel distortion correction, aberation correction, recentering, stitching, etc.

And it's free.

http://www.panoguide.com/software/reviews/panotools_v21.html

I think Panotools is the only non-Adobe plug-in I use.