Wide Angle Lens For Indoor Shooting

[olds]

My wife takes pics for real estate agents of houses for sale or rent.
She has done OK with a point and shoot but now she will be using a Canon XSi DSLR.
She needs a wide angle lens so she can step into a corner of a room and get a shot of the whole room. A DSLR will also be better in winter when the ambient light is so low.

At what focal length does the fish eye effect start happening?
Would something like a 17-40MM work OK or should she go fixed?
Would this lens allow you to take a wide angle shot at say 20 and then a regular shot of an open room at 40 or would you need to change lenses?

TIA

 

[Munky]

Fish eye lenses are specifically named as such because they heavily distort the picture. A wide angle lens (not fish eye) can have various degrees of distortion, but not anywhere near that of a fish eye lens. Without knowing the exact lens model you're talking about, I can't say how much distortion it will have. But there's nothing stopping you from taking a shot at the widest angle and then zooming in to any other focal length covered by the lens to take another shot.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

What brand Dslr? Tokina 11-16 is great. 18-55mm is cheap but not *that wide

 

[Deleted member 4644]

The above are for canon or nikon.

 

[olds]

Edited OP.

It a Canon XSi.

 

[jpeyton]

She needs a good tripod and an IR remote:

http://www.amazon.com/Dolica-A...&qid=1245524013&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-RC...&qid=1245524026&sr=8-9

If her kit lens isn't wide enough, get this:

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-EF...&qid=1245524173&sr=1-1

 

[imported_Irse]

Sigma 10-20

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm doing real estate photography right now:

http://www.victorlinphoto.com/realestate/

There's actually quite a bit more to it than just grabbing an ultrawide and shooting. You've gotta correct barrel distortion on your ultrawide, make sure all vertical lines are parallel and not converging, and you've gotta control your lighting using either extra external flashes or HDR. The latter is the biggie, because if you don't get it right she could be producing photos that are bland, too dark in many places, or too bright in many places (like windows).

At the very least she'll need a tripod, IR remote, and a lens starting in the 10-12mm range. Doing it with something at 17mm would be too hard, as the spaces in many homes are just too confined, especially bathrooms.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
You've gotta correct barrel distortion on your ultrawide, make sure all vertical lines are parallel and not converging

Nice images. How do you do this yourself?

 

[troytime]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
You've gotta correct barrel distortion on your ultrawide, make sure all vertical lines are parallel and not converging

Nice images. How do you do this yourself?

i think photoshop has it built in nowadays doesn't it fuzz?

 

[swtethan]

this is the lens you need

http://www.the-digital-picture...L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

a bit expensive though, VERY little distortion

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: swtethan
this is the lens you need

http://www.the-digital-picture...L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

a bit expensive though, VERY little distortion

Why does he need that? He's using it on an XSi, not a 5D or 1Ds.

A 14mm on an XSi isn't even really that wide...about 22.5mm equivalent. What's the point of spending $1k on something that doesn't zoom and isn't even that wide on an XSi?

The Canon 10-22mm Ultrasonic is the best choice in an ultrawide for crop-sensor Canons. The Tokina 11-16 is a very close second if you need a faster f/2.8 aperture and can give up a bit of zoom range and the ultrasonic focusing. Then there are the various Sigmas, Tamrons, etc, but they are a notch down from the Canon 10-22 and Tokina 11-16.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
You've gotta correct barrel distortion on your ultrawide, make sure all vertical lines are parallel and not converging

Nice images. How do you do this yourself?

To correct barrel distortion and parallel vertical lines I use PTLens. It has a built in lens database that reads the EXIF and corrects the barrel distortion automatically using built in lens profiles. You just have to supply the focal length, not too difficult if you shoot 11mm for all your room shots anyway. Way easier and cheaper than DxO, and integrates nicely into Lightroom.

You can use PTLens to correct for verticals too, but I prefer to just get them parallel while shooting. Make sure the camera is perfectly level, not tilting up or down. The tilting is what introduces converging verticals. Shoot it perfectly level, and verticals will be parallel, or close enough.

 

[Kaido]

My wife started doing Real Estate photography about 2 months ago. She uses a Nikon D90, 18-55mm VR lens, and an SB-800 flash. She just does it all by hand, thanks to the VR lens.

Like fuzzy said, you can use something like PTLens to fix barrel distortion in post without having to significantly upgrade your hardware.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Ugh.. TRUST ME. Get the Tokina 11-16. It is PLENTY of lens for what you are proposing to do, and VERY sharp. The 10-22mm is good only if you are rich, and I'm not even convinced the images it produces are as good as the Tokina, although I havent used it.

BE SURE to stop whatever lens you get down to F8 when you shoot, and for the love of god, use a tripod.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Deleted member 4644
Ugh.. TRUST ME. Get the Tokina 11-16. It is PLENTY of lens for what you are proposing to do, and VERY sharp. The 10-22mm is good only if you are rich, and I'm not even convinced the images it produces are as good as the Tokina, although I havent used it.

BE SURE to stop whatever lens you get down to F8 when you shoot, and for the love of god, use a tripod.

The canon is only $125 more, $600 vs $700 (after current rebate). It's not THAT big a difference. But I'd lean toward the tokina no mater what because I'm partial to fast constant aperture glass.

 

[ElFenix]

a tripod, a bubble level, something wide, and ptlens.