Wide Angle Lens for Real Estate - D7100

[kadenm]

I am looking for a wide angle lens to shoot interior of homes for vacation rentals. I would also like to be able to use this lens for my free time and shooting landscapes etc.

I was looking at the Nikkor 10-24mm f3.5-4.5, but would rather not spend that much. I have also looked at the Sigma 10-20 f3.5 and Tokina 11-16 f2.8 and I am leaning between one of those 2.

Can anyone offer some insight on what you think would be the better lens for what I will be shooting or have another lens that you would recommend?

 

[Chris Malcolm]

I used to have the Sigma 10-20mm, but when a careless assistant broke it I took the opportunity to upgrade to the Sigma 8-16mm. I find the extra width very useful, both for RE and for landscape, and at least on my copy is sharper and with better edges. But it has a protruding lens which makes the use of filters more difficult.

 

[landscaper1]

Since I do shoot an occasional interior scene I can say with some experience that the most critical thing, IMO, is that the lens be as free of distortion as possible. Nearly all interior scenes, and most exteriors as well, contain lots of straight lines, some vertical and others horizontal. It's hard to imagine how an architectural image with curving lines that are obviously supposed to be straight will help to sell anything.

For that reason, I recommend a prime lens rather than a zoom. A zoom lens, because of its need to function reasonably well at a variety of focal lengths will usually feature some degree of distortion, especially at the widest focal lengths.

Curvature distortion isn't much of a problem with 35mm, and even 28mm, focal lengths (full frame format). Unfortunately, those aren't nearly wide enough for some interiors. I recently tried to shoot a confined interior with a 24mm focal length and even that wasn't wide enough.

I own a Venus Laowa 12/2.8 in EF mount, and I can say it is nearly distortion free. That means that straight lines remain straight even when the lens is pointed up or down rather than perfectly level. That quality frees you to be a little more creative than if you're constrained to always keep the camera and lens perfectly level.

 

[Sagittarius]

I am looking for a wide angle lens to shoot interior of homes for vacation rentals. I would also like to be able to use this lens for my free time and shooting landscapes etc.

I was looking at the Nikkor 10-24mm f3.5-4.5, but would rather not spend that much. I have also looked at the Sigma 10-20 f3.5 and Tokina 11-16 f2.8 and I am leaning between one of those 2.

Can anyone offer some insight on what you think would be the better lens for what I will be shooting or have another lens that you would recommend?

I have Tokina 11-20 f/2.8 and Sigma 8-16 f/4.6 - f5.6. I use mostly Sigma for interiors, because with smallish rooms every mm counts.

 

[AaronsLyfe]

I am looking for a wide angle lens to shoot interior of homes for vacation rentals. I would also like to be able to use this lens for my free time and shooting landscapes etc.

I was looking at the Nikkor 10-24mm f3.5-4.5, but would rather not spend that much. I have also looked at the Sigma 10-20 f3.5 and Tokina 11-16 f2.8 and I am leaning between one of those 2.

Can anyone offer some insight on what you think would be the better lens for what I will be shooting or have another lens that you would recommend?

I have Tokina 11-20 f/2.8 and Sigma 8-16 f/4.6 - f5.6. I use mostly Sigma for interiors, because with smallish rooms every mm counts.

 

[Chris Malcolm]

Since I do shoot an occasional interior scene I can say with some experience that the most critical thing, IMO, is that the lens be as free of distortion as possible. Nearly all interior scenes, and most exteriors as well, contain lots of straight lines, some vertical and others horizontal. It's hard to imagine how an architectural image with curving lines that are obviously supposed to be straight will help to sell anything.

For that reason, I recommend a prime lens rather than a zoom. A zoom lens, because of its need to function reasonably well at a variety of focal lengths will usually feature some degree of distortion, especially at the widest focal lengths.

Curvature distortion isn't much of a problem with 35mm, and even 28mm, focal lengths (full frame format). Unfortunately, those aren't nearly wide enough for some interiors. I recently tried to shoot a confined interior with a 24mm focal length and even that wasn't wide enough.

I own a Venus Laowa 12/2.8 in EF mount, and I can say it is nearly distortion free. That means that straight lines remain straight even when the lens is pointed up or down rather than perfectly level. That quality frees you to be a little more creative than if you're constrained to always keep the camera and lens perfectly level.
by

These days quite a number of image editors include automatic correction of lens geometrical distortion, i.e. straight lines in the world are rendered as perfectly straight lines in the image. It's done automatically (when enabled) by reading the camera and sens models, including the focal length a zoom was used at, from the EXIF data. Some have more complete lens distortion databases, so check whether your favourite editor does correct a wide angle lens you're considering. PTLens, which doesn't cost much, offers very comprehensive geometry correction as both a standalone program and a Photoshop plugin for all editors which accept PS plugins.

There's no need these days to worry about geometry distortions in wide angle lenses, although note that the correction may lose you a little bit of image width.

 

[33Eyal]

Check out the new tamron i just bought it and really happy with it, im shooting interiors also.

Tamron 10-24mm HLD there is more then one review on youtube on this lens and everyone talk highly about it.

 

[Mark K]

I just bought the Sigma 10-20/f3.5 for a number of reasons.

1. 82mm filter thread: the standard size for many of my current zoom lenses

2. fixed aperture of f3.5

3. relative good quality

4. light weight