NN5 with Olympus 8mm Fisheye or 9-18mm

[jcbrig00]

I am looking for some advice on which lens to purchase for strictly panos. I have a NN5 and plan to use my e-620 and used the 14-54 but it simply took too long and required too many shots. I have been given a lens budget of under $1000 for a wide angle lens. Both the 8mm fisheye and 9-18mm fall into that category but I am unsure of the pros and cons of each. I am using autopano giga pro and autopano tour to create the stitched panos and virtual tours and it is supposed to be able to handle fisheyed images. Does anyone have experience with this combination of products? Any input regarding this issue would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

[hindenhaag]

Hi,

i do not have experience with this combination cause i am a nikonian. May be this will help you a bit further: http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/...-18_4-5p6_o20/

http://forum.fourthirdsphoto.com/showthread.php?t=19927.

When you google, you will find some more hints. Especially with the zoom lens it seems to be important to check it with your camera body, cause i came across a comment that the faults of the lens differ with different camera bodies.

Heinz

[nick fan]

I am looking for some advice on which lens to purchase for strictly panos. I have a NN5 and plan to use my e-620 and used the 14-54 but it simply took too long and required too many shots. I have been given a lens budget of under $1000 for a wide angle lens. Both the 8mm fisheye and 9-18mm fall into that category but I am unsure of the pros and cons of each. I am using autopano giga pro and autopano tour to create the stitched panos and virtual tours and it is supposed to be able to handle fisheyed images. Does anyone have experience with this combination of products? Any input regarding this issue would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

with the 8mm fisheye, you only need 6 shots around, zenith andnadir, a total of 8 shots.
with the 9-18mm, you only need 8 shots around at +30 deg, 8 shots around at -30 deg, zenith and nadir, a total of 18 shots.


nick

[hindenhaag]

Hi,

i spend some time to check what olympus is doing right now cause in analog times i used OM4 Ti system. If i would be you to take the decision, i would take the 8mm lens. It is a pro lens, not a standard one, has a fixed aperture of f3.5. Even with 9mm you start with f4.6 and will end up very quickly with 5.6. In low light conditions you very soon have to raise your ISO plus you might have to open up your aperture with consequences in depth of field.

You already have a 14-54mm lens, so i think there is not too much you will miss in between 8 - 14mm.

As Nick told you, the zoom lens will ask you 18 shots. This will take you about 10 minutes to arrange everything secure. 18 shots in low light condition will ask a lot of concentration of you to take the pictures: people walking around, trees moving in the wind, clouds going by, trams and cars moving around.

To keep it short: i would take the 8mm lens.

Heinz

[jcbrig00]

I believe that I will be getting the ZD 8mm Fisheye lens. Someone from another forum was kind enough to send me some images that I could test with my software. The final stitched images turned out beautifully. Does anyone have the settings for a NN5 and the Olympus ZD 8mm Fisheye? I looked at the reference page and was unable to find the lens.

[hindenhaag]

Hi,

good decision, but i do not think you will find somebody with your combination on this forum. May be you are lucky.

You will find advice how to find the settings on your own on this forum, for example john's nnp tutorial. Go to camera settings and you will find what you have to know about getting the right NNP.

Success

Heinz

[spiritburner]

yep no problem, on a Mac autopano giga works brilliantly everytime since i asked them to include the camera in their database, however tour needs a little more work and is only in beta stage, i use cubic converter and cubic connector both of which are brilliant if you want your output in QTVR otherwise for flash its back to tour, there is a little CA produced by the lens but you can fix this normally in adobe Raw, the photos it produces are quite stunning especially in low light. any queries on this setup email me. cheers Neil nice to see another olympus user!