Lenses in the 20mm range

[gregborkman]

I'm in the market for a new lens. I'm going to be using it indoors with and without a flash to capture room environments (places I take photos will probably call for portions of the room to be darker than others in some instances). Anyways, I need a lens that is at least 20mm wide (94 degree viewing angle) to capture an entire room from a corner.

I was hoping people who own lenses in the 20mm range could weigh in on the topic considering the specs I'm requiring of the lens and provide me with recommendations.

BTW I'm new here

Thanks!
-Greg

 

[Loswr]

Budget? By all recent accounts, the Canon 16-35mm f/4L IS is excellent and would meet your needs quite well. Alternatively, if you have time to set up and converging verticals to correct, the TS-E 17mm f/4L is also an excellent option.

 

[gregborkman]

No limit on budget, I just want good glass. I've been reading reviews from slr lounge and kenrockwell and they can't seem to agree on the best. I was looking at the 16-35mm f/4L a little bit as well as the 20mm f/2.8. I actually hadn't even thinking about TS till now, I'll look into it. I was going to rely on the DxO software to do the correction in post.

 

[nc0b]

I am very pleased with my Zeiss 18mm f/3.5mm lens. I bought mine used for under a $1000 in perfect condition, with the excellent factory hood and a screw-in lens cap. No auto-focus, of course, but the focus confirmation LED works, and all EXIF data is there. Generally I just zone focus it for landscape work, which might be just find for your usage. The new Canon 16-35mm f/4 sounds like a winner, too. Before I bought the Zeiss I got rid of Canon 20mm and 28mm f/2.8 lenses, since they were unsharp in the corners on a FF body. The Zeiss has considerable falloff wide open, like any ultra-wide lens. It is minimal at f/5.6 and virtually gone at f8.

 

[Random Orbits]

+1 on the TS-E 17. It was made for interior shots. The 16-35 f/4 IS may have more uses, but nothing does interior shots better than the TSEs.

 

[infared]

The following are used on a 5DIII.
I own the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8, the new 16-35 mm f/4L IS and the 17mm f/4 TSE II.
I would choose in this order for interiors:
1. 17mm f/4 TSE II (Canon Extender EF 1.4X III turns it into a very descent 24mm TSE)
2. 16-35 mm f/4L IS Zoom
3. 21mm Zeiss f/2.8

Like someone mentioned above...if you plan on using the lens for other things, buy the new Zoom and be done with it!

 

[e17paul]

+1 on the TS-E 17. It was made for interior shots. The 16-35 f/4 IS may have more uses, but nothing does interior shots better than the TSEs.

That all depends on whether planning to use a tripod whenever light levels are low. IS would be a winner if needing to take shots hand held where a tripod would be a problem, or program does not allow.

I'm happy with my 24/2.8 IS for interiors, and like the focal length for it's fairly realistic view of the space, whilst still including a good part of the interior. Where a wider field of view is more important, then I have been looking at the Canon 20/2.8, whose curvature of field may help for interior shots, and the Zeiss 18/3.5 as mentioned by others. Both of these have a depth of field scale, ideal for capturing interiors.

Alternatively, the Sigma 12-24 has a depth of field scale, but lacks IS. If relying on autofocus, or making your own judgements then I concur with those who have suggested the 16-35 IS. The slow shutter speeds possible with IS will allow stopping down to keep the whole room in focus, whist keeping ISO down to a reasonable level.

Shutter speeds of half to one second can sometimes achieve the blur of people or other moving objects sometimes seen in architectural shots. However, where there is opportunity to use a tripod, longer exposures can do this more reliably.

Let me know how you get on, I'm looking at these options for myself. I'm hoping that Canon continue their roll out their IS primes at Photokina in September. Meanwhile the new 16-35 IS seems the obvious answer for full frame, assuming that a tripod cannot always be used.

 

[e17paul]

I forgot to ask, are you using a full frame 6D/5D/1DX, or a crop sensor camera from the rest of Canon's range?

Paul

 

[ecka]

To be honest, anything could work, even stitching. It is only a matter of convenience. TS-E may be the best choice (as a specialized lens). However, any decent gear combined with good post-processing skills could easily outweigh the best possible equipment, if you know what you're doing. 16-35/4L is a decent multipurpose option.
Stabilized UWA lenses are great for handheld video, but there's no way it could replace a decent tripod. At long exposures (like 0.5+sec) IS only compensates for vibrations, the movement stays + without a tripod it would be difficult to keep the perfect level alignment (if not impossible).

 

[Random Orbits]

I forgot to ask, are you using a full frame 6D/5D/1DX, or a crop sensor camera from the rest of Canon's range?

Paul

I'm assuming that he's using FF because a 20mm lens would give a 94 deg diagonal angle of view from his original post. And if he wants to do a whole room corner-to-corner, then a 17mm lens would get you to 93 deg for the horizontal AOV while a 20 would get you 84 deg.

To be honest, anything could work, even stitching. It is only a matter of convenience. TS-E may be the best choice (as a specialized lens). However, any decent gear combined with good post-processing skills could easily outweigh the best possible equipment, if you know what you're doing. 16-35/4L is a decent multipurpose option.
Stabilized UWA lenses are great for handheld video, but there's no way it could replace a decent tripod. At long exposures (like 0.5+sec) IS only compensates for vibrations, the movement stays + without a tripod it would be difficult to keep the perfect level alignment (if not impossible).

True, although horizontal and vertical tilts have their limits in software. Past 10 using LR, and the results start looking hokey. A TS-E is faster to use if a tripod is used. Shift can be used to compensate for tripod height changes and for getting yourself out of the frame when standing in front of small mirrors (i.e. small bathrooms).

 

[DRR]

If you can afford the TS-E 17mm then I would go for that. The 16-35 IS and other primes are nice as well, but the tilt and shift functions of the TS-E are essentially un-reproducable with other lenses and both factor heavily into a workflow for interiors.

 

[Radiating]

I'm in the market for a new lens. I'm going to be using it indoors with and without a flash to capture room environments (places I take photos will probably call for portions of the room to be darker than others in some instances). Anyways, I need a lens that is at least 20mm wide (94 degree viewing angle) to capture an entire room from a corner.

I was hoping people who own lenses in the 20mm range could weigh in on the topic considering the specs I'm requiring of the lens and provide me with recommendations.

BTW I'm new here

Thanks!
-Greg

There are only 6 lenses in the 20mm range that do not have serious image quality defects:

Canon 16-35mm f/4.0 IS L
Canon 11-22mm f/4.5-f/5.6 EF-M
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
Nikon 16-35mm f/4.0 VR
Zeiss 21mm f/2.8
Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-f/5.6

Take your pick.

 

[gregborkman]

I forgot to ask, are you using a full frame 6D/5D/1DX, or a crop sensor camera from the rest of Canon's range?

Paul

I'm assuming that he's using FF because a 20mm lens would give a 94 deg diagonal angle of view from his original post. And if he wants to do a whole room corner-to-corner, then a 17mm lens would get you to 93 deg for the horizontal AOV while a 20 would get you 84 deg.

Yes, I'm shooting 5dmkiii and 1dx.

That all depends on whether planning to use a tripod whenever light levels are low. IS would be a winner if needing to take shots hand held where a tripod would be a problem, or program does not allow.

And yes, I'll also be shooting on a tripod in most cases when I use this particular lens.

 

[privatebydesign]

With tripod use and a measured approach 17 TS-E without question. Shift is a very valuable interior technique and the 17 TS-E is unmatched in this field in the 135 format.

If you want AF, IS etc I wouldn't know.

P.S. Interior spaces that are "square", that is the four walls are at 90º to each other, you miss a huge amount of wall space on the two closest walls where the camera has to be a few inches off the corner. More than 94º is important for record type images.