First Tests: Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L a Winner

[mackguyver]

I think I'm going to need a huge target to calibrate the 11-24 with FoCal. The Sigma 12-24 had to be about a 30cm from the standard A3/8.5x11" target at 12mm just to see it...so this will be even more difficult...

Do you really need to use FoCal with this lens? I mean, the depth of field is so massive that any front/back focus will just change the overall sharpness of the image so slight with respect to the hyperfocal distance that you wont' ever notice anything at 11mm lol

24mm may offer some visual difference, but I highly doubt 11mm will do anything!

Honestly, I don't see myself using FoCal on it, as I doubt I'll even use AF most of the time. If I do calibrate it, I'll report on the humor of it!

 

[Zv]

Isn't there a fisheye straightening tool in Photoshop? (Or something?)
How good is it How much does it degrade the image? Can you get close?
I've got an 8-15mm, but my old PS crashed and I haven't bought a new one yet, and I really balk at the Creative Cloud blackmail.

I've typically applied the Canon 15mm fisheye profile in LR to defish the 8-15 and adjust as needed. It stretches out the fisheye projection to the edges and corners, and the further away from the center the pixels are the worse the stretching. You can crop the defished imaged to eliminate the worst of the artifacts, but then you're sacrificing AOV. Images with geometric patterns (think cabinets, floors and ceilings) are easier to interpolate and look OK, but for details (landscapes), it'll be pretty poor.

The very cheap Plugin FisheyeHemi is a fantastic tool for defishing fisheye images, it doesn't do full rectilinear corrections so doesn't have the edge projection issues a simple remap can introduce, it uses a more complicated remapping algorithm and the pixel level IQ remains very high.

http://www.imagetrendsinc.com/products/prodpage_hemi.asp

Have you seen this guys method of defishing using FisheyeHemi? He changes the canvas size for a landscape shot into a portrait shot to run it through Hemi again so that it corrects both axis.

http://www.lonelyspeck.com/defish/

The FisheyeHemi stuff is near the end of the article.

 

[Viggo]

My 16-35 is sharpest wide open and follows a nice smooth curve with a steady decrease in sharpness all the way to f22. This is according to FoCal and I agree doing test shots.

I think I'm going to need a huge target to calibrate the 11-24 with FoCal. The Sigma 12-24 had to be about a 30cm from the standard A3/8.5x11" target at 12mm just to see it...so this will be even more difficult...

You use 50x the focal length, the 1635 was at 80cm and worked great. The 1124 would only need 55cm so with the A3 target there should be no problem ?

 

[9VIII]

It's a shame that most of the LR tests are done wide open only, since the tests are so good there. Let's face it. For the most part, people don't shoot 16-35 IS, 11-24, 14-24, etc. at wide open, but more likely f/5.6-f/11, so I'd love to see the lenses tested at say f/7.1 (enough to avoid too much diffraction but also to get more of a sense of landscape shot performance). (and when you do shoot f/4 and faster and especially f/2.8 and faster, wide open, you are not as often caring about the edges corners as when stopped down a bit)

True, they will likely be closer at f7/8. But obviously the 11-24 is going to be bad-ass whatever, and likely better than the 16-35 f4 for instance.

Looks like the quality does justify the price. Shame I can't justify the price (yet).

Brian (TDP) has his test images up...

 

[privatebydesign]

Isn't there a fisheye straightening tool in Photoshop? (Or something?)
How good is it How much does it degrade the image? Can you get close?
I've got an 8-15mm, but my old PS crashed and I haven't bought a new one yet, and I really balk at the Creative Cloud blackmail.

I've typically applied the Canon 15mm fisheye profile in LR to defish the 8-15 and adjust as needed. It stretches out the fisheye projection to the edges and corners, and the further away from the center the pixels are the worse the stretching. You can crop the defished imaged to eliminate the worst of the artifacts, but then you're sacrificing AOV. Images with geometric patterns (think cabinets, floors and ceilings) are easier to interpolate and look OK, but for details (landscapes), it'll be pretty poor.

The very cheap Plugin FisheyeHemi is a fantastic tool for defishing fisheye images, it doesn't do full rectilinear corrections so doesn't have the edge projection issues a simple remap can introduce, it uses a more complicated remapping algorithm and the pixel level IQ remains very high.

http://www.imagetrendsinc.com/products/prodpage_hemi.asp

Have you seen this guys method of defishing using FisheyeHemi? He changes the canvas size for a landscape shot into a portrait shot to run it through Hemi again so that it corrects both axis.

http://www.lonelyspeck.com/defish/

The FisheyeHemi stuff is near the end of the article.

I had not seen that or used that technique, thanks. I don't seem to get the same results as him on the second run but I'll keep playing.

One thing I will say, and always do, that old Canon EF 15mm f2.8 fisheye is an outstandingly good lens.