Affordable approach to get wide angle lens?

AUTOSTITCH. Bingo. This works great . My search for wide angle is over. I found it in this free app. Thanks so much for the tip, and here is a sample.

Congratulations. That wasn't what I had in mind and I would never have considered a pano for that sort of scene, but I now realise that it is a legitimate approach, and clearly worked fine!!

I suspect yours used just a few wide angle pictures. Below was eight normal frames for a field of view of about 120 degrees, and I thought that was a bit risky.

Camera was a cheapo Samsung. Huon estuary, Tasmania

Yea, I just stitched 2 pics together to get the drummer into the shot. Yours is massive that could never be done by a lens, so it seems like FREE software trumps some $500 lens. To me, this is a no brainer. The only time thi won't work is if the subject is not stationary. (like a sporting event, etc)

Bottom line, I won't be buying a wide angle. I will donate a few bucks to AUTOSTITCH instead!

G1Shooter said:

Ditto for me - the Oly M.Z 9-18 is one of my favorites. Very sharp and good color/contrast. It takes filters also, if that matters to you, whereas the Pan 7-14 doesn't. It is a lot less $ than the 7-14, too.

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For anyone interested, here is a link to DPR's interactive lens sharpness widget with the 7-14 and 9-18 lenses side-by-side.

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/widget/Fullscreen.ashx?reviews=82,81&fullscreen=true&av=4,4&fl=7,9&vis=VisualiserSharpnessMTF,VisualiserSharpnessMTF&stack=horizontal&&config=LensReviewConfiguration.xml%3F1

With wide angle lenses, every couple of mm more wide makes a noticeable difference.

20mm (which in the Panasonic's case is apparently more like 18.5mm) is a very moderate wide angle; c. 35mm in traditional full frame/35mm film terms.

18.5mm/37mm is very moderately wide, 14mm/28mm is the beginning of true wide angle, 12mm/24mm is wide, and 10mm/20mm is very wide. Every 2mm on mFT makes a big difference.

I've photographed with similar lenses for decades and there are significant steps from the traditional 35mm to 28mm to 24mm to 20mm to 17mm to 14mm (in Full Frame equivalents), which is the widest FOV that you'll get with the the Panasonic 7-14mm.

Edit; I should have added that I have the 7-14mm mFT zoom, but if I was buying again now, I'd get the 9-18mm which was not available when I purchased. 9mm is wide enough for me.

pix_crash_course said:

Hmm, that Panasonic 7-14 is $900
I already have the 20mm f/1.7, so 14mm isn't such a big jump.

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I see you've found a stitching option which works for you now. If you want to buy a really good wide angle lens for a reasonable price, hunt out the SLR Magic 12mm f1.6 lens. I have one and it is absolutely superb and much cheaper than the Olympus 12/2.
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Don.

A Land Rover, a camera ... I'm happy!

The Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye is a nice and cheap fisheye lens. The images can be "defished" to rectilinear, with some programs.

If you are looking for a very wide, low cost lens, then you can hardly beat this lens.

Here is my review of the lens, and a comparison with the much more expensive Lumix G 8mm fisheye.

http://m43photo.blogspot.com/2012/02/samyang-75mm-f35-fisheye-lens-review.html

richarddd said:

B&H list the 9-18 at $699 and the 7-14 at $889. That's not a massive difference.

From all the reports I've seen, optical quality is very similar, with a slight edge to the 7-14. I'd decide based on which focal lengths you prefer and whether the differences in size and weight matter.

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For some reason the Panasonic is very expensive here in the UK. For example UK Digital has the 9-18 for £489 and the 7-14 is £1,049. That corresponds to $1,670! Makes it the most expensive item (camera or lens) in m43-land by a long way.

Michael

I use an old Minolta ACW100 add on lens and a 52/49 step down ring on my Panasonic 14/45 lens. They can be bought for only a few tens of pounds (typically £30-£40) and the image quality is stunning. It brings the 28mm actual field of view down to 22mm. In other words its becomes a 11mm lens on the m43 system - which is good enough to even do small room interiors for architects. Which I often do.

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Adrian

http://www.t1000.co.uk/photography/gallery1/
http://www.t1000.co.uk/photography.htm