Real estate photography and ultra-wide

[michaeladawson]

I've done a couple of house real estate interior shoots recently and have the possibility of getting into it more frequently.

For the most part I'm pretty well set on equipment. I've got a Z7 and Z7ii. I have the Z 14-30 and 24-70 f/4. Plus I use the 19mm tilt-shift with the FTZ. I've got a closet of DSLR cameras and lenses as well, but I'm happy with the Z bodies for this purpose.

The one issue I have run into a couple of time is that 14mm is not as wide as I would like for the shot I want to get in a very tiny space. Let me be clear that this has not been a major problem. The realtor was pleased with the photos. This is more of a personal quest. If I had a 14mm shift lens I would probably be all set. But alas...

I'm wondering if any of you out there that have shot real estate interiors (or similar) have any suggestions on a lens wider than 14mm that is sharp enough edge to edge for this purpose. I don't shoot wide open so I do get the benefit of sharper edges by virtue of stopping down to f/5.6 or f/8.

I'm open to any suggestions. Manual focus is fine. F-mount on the FTZ is fine. Even a 14mm or 16mm F-mount lens might be fine if there was a wide enough image circle that I could get a little shift out of it with an F to Z shift adapter.

Anyone have just the ticket for me?

 

[Jim Keye]

Irix, Rokinon, et al. make a few primes wider than 14. Otherwise, it's sigma's 12-24, or buy the cheapest Canon body you can and their 11-24. But that would get expensive quickly.

Not saying you're going to live the IQ you'll get, but let's be honest, most real estate stuff is used at screen resolutions--a fraction of your sensor--so a lot of sins can get buried there.

 

[robertfel]

gets good reviews. But it isn't that much wider for the price.

Would the 15mm shift lens work?

Laowa has some other gimmicky wider lenses, but I'm not sure they'd suit you. The 10-18 zoom needs lots of post.

I have their older 15mm shift macro lens for F-mount. It's a very fun lens, 5" minimum focusing distance and very wide. But when you shift, you'll need to stop down and do some post. It's only $500 and takes 77mm filters. Definitely softer than my F mount 14-24 at 15mm. I bought it for some cool video shots on a gimbal.

 

[Kirnbichler]

The widest you can get is with the Venus Optic "Laowa" 9/5.6 FF RL. This is a rectilinear ultra-wideangle lens (not a fisheye!), albeit a MF lens. But with that focal length, you can just set the lens to some useful hyperfocal distance and forget about focusing.

This lens is available in Z mount.

The next widest would be the Irix 11mm, this is also a MF lens, but designed for use on (D)SLRs, thus noticeably larger and you'd have to use the FTZ adapter.



Both lenses are said to be excellent; I've used the Irix on a 36MP Pentax K-1 and found it to be one of the sharpest lenses I had encountered on that camera.

 

[24Peter]

Sigma 12-24 F4

 

[michaeladawson]

Irix, Rokinon, et al. make a few primes wider than 14. Otherwise, it's sigma's 12-24, or buy the cheapest Canon body you can and their 11-24. But that would get expensive quickly.

I thought about the Sigma. The issues with the lens in the reviews is what prompted this post to see if there was anything else out there. Still an option.

The 11-24 lens is interesting. For real estate purposes I could get the Fringer or the recent Viltrox adapter. I’ll take a look.

And yes, the Z7 is a bit overkill for this specific purpose. I have to downsize to 2000x3000 for delivery to the realtor. As you say, that can hide some flaws.
--
Mike Dawson

 

[michaeladawson]

I forgot about Laowa’s shift lens. I’ll look it up. I thought the shift came with some change in focal length with a TC or something to get the wider image circle. But yes, 15mm shift would probably be enough.

 

[michaeladawson]

Sigma 12-24 F4

Yes. I’m looking at that. See my reply to Jim Keye.

I started getting picky when I read about the IQ of the lens at the longer end. Which prompted this post. But yes, my use case is in the 12-16mm range.

 

[michaeladawson]

The widest you can get is with the Venus Optic "Laowa" 9/5.6 FF RL. This is a rectilinear ultra-wideangle lens (not a fisheye!), albeit a MF lens. But with that focal length, you can just set the lens to some useful hyperfocal distance and forget about focusing.

This lens is available in Z mount.

The next widest would be the Irix 11mm, this is also a MF lens, but designed for use on (D)SLRs, thus noticeably larger and you'd have to use the FTZ adapter.

Both lenses are said to be excellent; I've used the Irix on a 36MP Pentax K-1 and found it to be one of the sharpest lenses I had encountered on that camera.

Let me see if I can find some online reviews of those two. I’m sure I’ve read the Iris one in the past.

When you say the Iris was sharp, how was it towards the edges? I don’t need the sharpest lens out there. But it does need to have good edge sharpness.

 

[michaeladawson]

An option I just realized I already have…

I could take advantage of the 19mm T/S to stitch together 4 shifted images. It’s not the way I would do the whole house. But for one problem area it could work.

Just so we’re all clear… I know full well I’m going overboard with this on the lenses. The realtors aren’t going to appreciate the difference. It’s way more the lighting and the framing composition. Not how wide you go. This is more about my own geeking out.

 

[kk123]

I hope the Z cameras soon can do photos like this: D5, 10,5 mm DX fisheye without lens hood. Hopeless to have such a DX limitation! Good also for narrow interiors and use the Capture NX-D lens correction for the 10,5mm to straighten out lines.

 

[Sagittarius]

I've done a couple of house real estate interior shoots recently and have the possibility of getting into it more frequently.

For the most part I'm pretty well set on equipment. I've got a Z7 and Z7ii. I have the Z 14-30 and 24-70 f/4. Plus I use the 19mm tilt-shift with the FTZ. I've got a closet of DSLR cameras and lenses as well, but I'm happy with the Z bodies for this purpose.

The one issue I have run into a couple of time is that 14mm is not as wide as I would like for the shot I want to get in a very tiny space. Let me be clear that this has not been a major problem. The realtor was pleased with the photos. This is more of a personal quest. If I had a 14mm shift lens I would probably be all set. But alas...

I'm wondering if any of you out there that have shot real estate interiors (or similar) have any suggestions on a lens wider than 14mm that is sharp enough edge to edge for this purpose. I don't shoot wide open so I do get the benefit of sharper edges by virtue of stopping down to f/5.6 or f/8.

I'm open to any suggestions. Manual focus is fine. F-mount on the FTZ is fine. Even a 14mm or 16mm F-mount lens might be fine if there was a wide enough image circle that I could get a little shift out of it with an F to Z shift adapter.

Anyone have just the ticket for me?

I am using Sigma 8-16 on Nikon D500 which has basically same AOV as Nikon z 14-30. Now I am moving to Z 7II and z 14-30. Most of the time this AOV was quite adequate even for tight spaces. I am afraid than bigger AOV in close distance will result in bad distortion and after correction you will en up with the same picture. For what spaces you find 14-30 not enough?

--
Best regards

 

[24Peter]

Sigma 12-24 F4

Yes. I’m looking at that. See my reply to Jim Keye.

I started getting picky when I read about the IQ of the lens at the longer end. Which prompted this post. But yes, my use case is in the 12-16mm range.

Mike -

No issues on my end with IQ.

Here's a gallery of images. I took all the wide angle shots with it:

Loading…

www.peteralessandriaphotography.com

 

[daleeight]

For the most part I'm pretty well set on equipment. I've got a Z7 and Z7ii. I have the Z 14-30 and 24-70 f/4. Plus I use the 19mm tilt-shift with the FTZ. I've got a closet of DSLR cameras and lenses as well, but I'm happy with the Z bodies for this purpose.

The one issue I have run into a couple of time is that 14mm is not as wide as I would like for the shot I want to get in a very tiny space. Let me be clear that this has not been a major problem. The realtor was pleased with the photos. This is more of a personal quest. If I had a 14mm shift lens I would probably be all set. But alas...

Maybe a dumb question, but how does a 14mm tilt-shift get you wider than 14mm on the 14-30mm ???

 

[robertfel]

Loading…

www.digitalcameraworld.com

 

[michaeladawson]

You get wider because you don’t have to do any perspective correction and cropping.

With a regular 14mm you either have to place the camera high and tilt down or keep it horizontal to the floor.

If you tilt it down you have to do perspective correction. Once you crop it you’ve lost a few mm of focal length.

if you keep the camera high and parallel to the floor you have way, way too much ceiling and have to crop down.

With a shift lens you keep the camera high and parallel. Then shift it down to remove the ceiling and get more floor. You retain the full angle of view of 14mm.

 

[michaeladawson]

Yes. And that is how you can go even wider.

 

[michaeladawson]

I am using Sigma 8-16 on Nikon D500 which has basically same AOV as Nikon z 14-30. Now I am moving to Z 7II and z 14-30. Most of the time this AOV was quite adequate even for tight spaces. I am afraid than bigger AOV in close distance will result in bad distortion and after correction you will en up with the same picture. For what spaces you find 14-30 not enough?

Yes, that’s what I’m afraid of. Once I eliminate distortion with an even wider lens I’ll be no better off than I was with the 14-30.

One of the trouble spots I had was a tiny full bathroom. I ended up taking it in portrait orientation, which is sort of frowned upon. The alternative was to stand out in the hallway in landscape and get a bunch of hallway wall.

 

[daleeight]

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/...a-panoramic-photograph-with-a-tilt-shift-lens

I don't think panoramic shooting is the answer to my question

 

[daleeight]

You get wider because you don’t have to do any perspective correction and cropping.

With a regular 14mm you either have to place the camera high and tilt down or keep it horizontal to the floor.

If you tilt it down you have to do perspective correction. Once you crop it you’ve lost a few mm of focal length.

if you keep the camera high and parallel to the floor you have way, way too much ceiling and have to crop down.

With a shift lens you keep the camera high and parallel. Then shift it down to remove the ceiling and get more floor. You retain the full angle of view of 14mm.

Thank you