Photography - was Wide Angle lenses NOW some pretty pics

[Grizzly_Adams]

G'day All.

I've got a Konica-Minolta dImage 7i digital camera which is pretty good at taking shots. However I never seem to have enough wide-angle to take the shot I want.

The standard specs for the dImage 7i is an "optical zoom lens range 7.2mm - 50.8mm (equivalent to 28mm - 200mm in 35mm)".

I've found a wide-angle lens that will give me 22mm equiv (see http://www.raynox.co.jp/english/digital/eg...egdimage7hi.htm).

I was wondering if anyone with a bit more experience with photography could tell me if this was a good expansion? Or should I look for a wider-angle lens or even to a fish-eye lense - though personally I've yet to use a fish-eye and I'm not overly impressed with the photo's.

I get some beautiful views up here and would really love to be able to capture them properly...

[abaddonxi]

Whatever you do, don't buy the fisheye. I, of course, can't find the link now, but to paraphrase, nobody uses fisheyes except for writing camera reviews.

22mm doesn't really sound that much more wide than 28mm. Unless you're going for it because it is a lot faster (smaller f-stops) than your zoom? I'd guess, off the top of my head that 6mm of lens width would be about three paces back. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Watch out for distortion. Not-so-good wide lenses get a bit odd around the edges. A good test is a grid (just horizontal and vertical lines) or a calibration chart (same as a tv test pattern) shot full frame at different distances. This should show if the lines stray from horizontal and vertical. It sounds like you're looking for a wide lens for close work rather than landscapes, and if so you'r going to be very unimpressed if you find your new lens gives distortion such that you can only get the equivalent of 28mm of undistorted image.

Something like a 15-18mm is going to give you much more wide that you can actually see.

Cheers

Simon.

[Grizzly_Adams]

Thanks for the hints Simon, and actually I'm going for landscapes rather than close work :-)

However I guess it'll have to wait until I get home

I can't seem to find any lenses of the type you suggested for the Minolta dImage 7i that I have (it has a fixed-lens), and I'm not overly keen on using step-up / step-down lenses.

I guess next time I'll get a camera with a removable lens in order to be more flexible :-

[abaddonxi]

So, you can't remove the lens? Too bad. I see it has a 49mm thread - same as Pentax I think or Nikon, can't recall. But there are lots of adapters you can pick up for almost nothing.

I was hoping to suggest this http://www.lensbabies.com/,http://www.pinholeresource.com/,http://www.dansdata.com/gz050.htm
but most of that stuff is for slr/dslr cameras, too bad, I thought that might be a fun alternative and would get you a wider angle. Too bad, pinhole cameras are a lot of fun.

It looks like the adapter threads are right out on the end of the lens. If so I reckon you could put anything on the end and see what happens. As long as you're not going to drive the lens through a filter when you hit the zoom it should be okay. If so, you should be able to either get onto ebay or your local camera store bargain bin and pick up one of every 49mm adapter for not much more than nothing and play around.

I wouldn't worry too much about the loss of image quality with an adapter, you're already going through 16 bits of glass, one more isn't going to make as much difference as the comparision between a fixed focal length lens and zoom lens.

hth

Cheers

simon

[mauricem]

if you are shooting landscapes using a tripod then investigate taking a series of overlapping images and stitching them together using a panorama program. Youll get much wider shots with no distortion and the equivalent quality of a much higher megapixel camera.

Your camera probably came with such software, photoshop cs2 has it and a good freebie is available at http://www.panoramafactory.com/download.html#freeware

Maurice

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I would love a fisheye... but cost has made it prohibitive. Last time I looked, a second hand non-af fisheye for my nikon slr was over $1000 . 8O

I agree with the above.. If you want it for landscapes you're barking up the wrong tree. They are a really cool thing, but you have to be able to exploit their distortion of perspective. Vignetting (??) is a common problem.

[Grizzly_Adams]

Here's some pics I took this afternoon from our balcony.

Can't wait to get back to Australia as Autumn over here is absolutely miserable - though it does bring out some fantastic colours.

It's views like these that make me want a wide-angle lens to capture them properly. I have done some panoramic work before and it turned out ok but I'm lazy and if I could capture more with a wide-angle lens then I'd go that route :roll:

Looking down towards Affoltern am Albis:


Directly out from our balcony:


The backyards over here are small though. This is classed as a "large" backyard (it's our neighbours):


For those who like playing M$ Flight Simulator 2004, there's an airfield add-on you can get called "Hausen am Albis" which is literally just down the road from us. See http://www.fsimzone.com/new/download4-330-...0-dateA-15.html - in fact for our 2nd wedding anniversary my wife got me an introductory flying lesson and that's where it's being held at! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

In fact I'll be flying one of these - an Aquila a210:

[Steinzy]

Very Nice,

I have benn looking at getting a Cannon EOS 10D but don't know if its worth paying the extra $$$ for a few more features than the 300D

[abaddonxi]

Hey Stienzy

Check out this review.
http://www.dansdata.com/20d_intro.htm
Covers a bunch of those issues.

Cheers
Simon

[Steinzy]

Thanks abaddonxi

That was a great review with some links to get some really well priced gear. Well you have answered all my questions - looks like I might get a 350D and put the money I save to a locker for the Rangie!