Architectural Photography Lens?

[drew sumrell]

I am getting increasingly interested in residential architectural photography and have a Nikon D70S with a 18-70mm lens. It works well for some situations, but I'm beginning to realize that I need other lens. The problem is I don't know what lens to acquire as a second lens. Would a 200m zoom be a good next choice or perhaps a 24mm. At some point, I would like to have a PC or tilt/shift lens, but it seems that other lens may be more useful for now. I would appreciate some guidance from someone that's been doing this for a while. Thanks!

[el-capitano]

if you are going to take building shots, a wide angle would be handier than a zoom lens.

Zooms are great for landscapes etc, but usually in a building, esp. interior shots you are cramped for space, so the wide angle would be the one to go.

[jcruiz]

It is impossible to obtain perfectly vertical lines (two point perspective) with a wide angle lens . For this kind of photography an special lens is needed , the shift one, to correct the line parallax, or placing the lens in a shadow device I guess these devices are not alredy available for digital cameras. For serious architecture photography , a medium format camera like the Hasselblad or Mamiyas continues being indispensable.

[Stijn]

I got a Canon EOS 400D, with
- an EFS 18-55mm lens : good for overalls
- an EF 55-200mm lens : good for zooming/details/far away stuff
I have been looking for a wide angled lens, but they are too expensive for what it's worth for me...

[Tony Flora]

All the images on my site with the exception of a couple exteriors were shot with the 18-70mm nikon lens. I very rarely ever feel like I need something longer as the 18-70mm FOV gives you amble ability to get in tight when needed. I just picked up the sigma 10-20mm and while it is softer at the corners (all ultra wides seem to be) it is still very sharp. Even compared to my 50mm 1.8. The sigma lens is making a great companion to the 18-70mm and I would highly recommend going with a wider lens. I think for interiors wider will always be more useful.

[Nick Fox]

Maybe I'm missing something here but I woud have thought that if your camera has an 18-70mm lens then you already have a very wide angle lens? If you want perfect verticals then maybe consider buying an old plate camera that lets you tilt/swivel the lens - not practical but hard to beat for quality. Does anybody know if there is such a thing as a digital back for a plate camera (would have to be super expensive)?

[Tony Flora]

I woud have thought that if your camera has an 18-70mm lens then you already have a very wide angle lens?

If he was using a full frame sensor you would be correct but since he is using a DX sensor, you have to multiply that 18mm lens by 1.5...which would give it a FOV equivilent to a 27mm lens. On a full frame sensor this would be plenty wide, but that would require him to purchase a new camera and lens..... Nikon doesn't make full frame and the 18mm-70mm lens is designed to only cover the small sensor.

If you want perfect verticals then maybe consider buying an old plate camera that lets you tilt/swivel the lens - not practical but hard to beat for quality. Does anybody know if there is such a thing as a digital back for a plate camera (would have to be super expensive)?

Digital backs and adapters are available for large format cameras but it is not used often. I would guess that 95% of the shooters using digital backs are doing so on medium format digital bodies from Hasselblad and Mamiya and correcting verticals using software solutions.
Yes they are very expensive, 15K++++++....

[nicholas]

I am about to hire a camera and lens; two options proposed for cannon cameras- can someone give any advice? Thanks


Based on your requirements for 12 days, we have the following packages for you.

1. 1Ds (fullframe) + 24mmF1.4L
2. 1Ds(fullframe) + 17-40F4L

For both packages, we will issue 6GB worth of memory cards. You will get 4 batteries too.

Personally, we recommend package 2 as the 17-40 is a very sharp lens and if you do distant landscape shots you will likely step down to F11 and below which means that sharpness is not an issue. Also you get the chance to have some focal range to play with.

[Nick Fox]

Originally Posted by Tony Flora

I woud have thought that if your camera has an 18-70mm lens then you already have a very wide angle lens?

If he was using a full frame sensor you would be correct but since he is using a DX sensor, you have to multiply that 18mm lens by 1.5...which would give it a FOV equivilent to a 27mm lens. On a full frame sensor this would be plenty wide, but that would require him to purchase a new camera and lens..... Nikon doesn't make full frame and the 18mm-70mm lens is designed to only cover the small sensor.

If you want perfect verticals then maybe consider buying an old plate camera that lets you tilt/swivel the lens - not practical but hard to beat for quality. Does anybody know if there is such a thing as a digital back for a plate camera (would have to be super expensive)?

Digital backs and adapters are available for large format cameras but it is not used often. I would guess that 95% of the shooters using digital backs are doing so on medium format digital bodies from Hasselblad and Mamiya and correcting verticals using software solutions.
Yes they are very expensive, 15K++++++....

I believe the Hasselblad gives a 40+MB images per shot, which is quite impressive - the results from that camera are quite staggering. I used to have a 500C before I discovered computers - been poor ever since LOL.

[Stijn]

Hasselblad's quality rocks indeed. But so does its price...