Need advise for lens options

[riefa]

all,

i'm searching for a lens to make fast panorama & QTVR, thus needed a wider lens with wider FOV, and of course with a good image quality...

my current system is Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) + EF 17-40mm f/4 L

my options of are:
Canon EF-S 10-22mm - rectilinier lens
Tokina 10-17mm - fisheye lens
Sunex 5,6mm - circular lens

I can only obtain 1 amongst those 3 lenses.

Can anyone share some hands on experience on any of those lenses mentioned above? really appreciate it....

thanks a lot..

=riefa=

[nick fan]

all,

i'm searching for a lens to make fast panorama & QTVR, thus needed a wider lens with wider FOV, and of course with a good image quality...

my current system is Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) + EF 17-40mm f/4 L

my options of are:
Canon EF-S 10-22mm - rectilinier lens
Tokina 10-17mm - fisheye lens
Sunex 5,6mm - circular lens

I can only obtain 1 amongst those 3 lenses.

Can anyone share some hands on experience on any of those lenses mentioned above? really appreciate it....

thanks a lot..

get the sigma 8mm F3.5 for speed. You only need 4 shots (at 7.5 deg tilt) plus a nadir shot (can be replaced by tripod cap or mirror ball). Get the Tokina 10-17 for higher resolution. At 10mm, you need 8 shots.



Nick

=riefa=

[riefa]

get the sigma 8mm F3.5 for speed. You only need 4 shots (at 7.5 deg tilt) plus a nadir shot (can be replaced by tripod cap or mirror ball). Get the Tokina 10-17 for higher resolution. At 10mm, you need 8 shots.

Nick

thanks nick...

As far as i know, Sigma 8mm f3.5 will only give me full circle image if i used full frame camera (i.e 5D). I'm now using 1.6x crop factor sensor (400D). I assume your reference of 4 shots + Nadir shot is for camera with full frame sensor....or its already for 1.6x crop factor sensor?

Tokina @ 10mm, 8 shots, is that already including nadir & zenith? I've looked at www.vrwave.com but settings for Tokina is still empty..

=RIEFA=

[nick fan]

thanks nick...

As far as i know, Sigma 8mm f3.5 will only give me full circle image if i used full frame camera (i.e 5D). I'm now using 1.6x crop factor sensor (400D). I assume your reference of 4 shots + Nadir shot is for camera with full frame sensor....or its already for 1.6x crop factor sensor?

Tokina @ 10mm, 8 shots, is that already including nadir & zenith? I've looked at www.vrwave.com but settings for Tokina is still empty..

=RIEFA=

the settings are for 1.6x cropped sensor. Tokina at 10mm need 6 around plus zenith and nadir.

Nick

[John Houghton]

I've looked at www.vrwave.com but settings for Tokina is still empty..

Not all lenses are included, but you can use data for similar lenses. The Tokina is a fullframe fisheye and at 10 or 11mm zoom is very similar to a Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye, so you need 6 shots around + Z + N as Nick says.

John

[riefa]

the settings are for 1.6x cropped sensor. Tokina at 10mm need 6 around plus zenith and nadir.

Nick

Thanks nick..

Not all lenses are included, but you can use data for similar lenses. The Tokina is a fullframe fisheye and at 10 or 11mm zoom is very similar to a Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye, so you need 6 shots around + Z + N as Nick says.

John

Thanks for the tips John.. I've noticed from your website gallery that you used the sigma 3.5mm, tokina 10-17mm, and even Nikkor 10.5mm (on Canon body) for your spherical panos.
Could you please share a bit info about each lens image quality? I've read that Nikkor is giving the sharpest result, but how sharp is it? (in comparison to the other two lenses mentioned)...and how about CA / fringing / flare? I've also read somewhere in the internet that wide/ultra wide lenses are sometimes having problems at these departments.......

my current system is Canon, but for panos, i think lens compatibility can be compromised as manual focusing (preferably using hyperfocal focusing) is i think the best way in obtaining good focus thoroughly....although having the same brand is un-doubtly prefered for compatibility..

=RIEFA=

[John Houghton]

The panoramas on my site show that there isn't a huge difference in quality from the different lenses when they're generated from 6000x3000 equirectangular images. Of course image defects have been corrected/avoided one way or another. CA is common in fisheye lenses but is easily corrected in RAW processing, so it's of little consequence (to me, anyway). Flare is less with the Nikkor 10.5 than the Sigma 8mm and the Tokina is somewhere in between. I think the Nikkor is slightly sharper in the centre than the Tokina but the Tokina is sharper at the edges. The Sigma 8mm images will appear less detailed because of the shorter focal length. Obviously, more detailed images are optionally available with the Tokina set at longer focal lengths, which makes it a more versatile lens. However, when resized down to 6000x3000 there will probably not be any great benefit. Of course, it's a different story if you want to generate higher resolution panoramas that enable zooming in to see all the available detail from larger equirectangular images.

John

[riefa]

well explained... thanks a lot John....this really helps me in determining which lens should be on my next shopping list.....

=RIEFA=