Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)
  • Buing a DSLR?
  • waynekerr
    Free Member

    I’m looking to take indoor photos in confined spaces(estate agent type pics), so need a wide angle jobbie. I’m looking to do this cheaply as possible as I have short arms & deep pockets. I have looked on ebay but I don’t know enough about it to chance a purchase. I even asked on a photography forum & they were an unhelpful bunch of barstewards. I have looked at a compact with wide angle but they are not what they make you believe they are. I reckon I am looking for a DSLR body and 10-20mm lens, I’m not sure if I would need a flash also. A Sigma 10-20mm lens is £350 and a body is about the same. Someone did suggest using what I have & stitch them together with a photoshop package, but I don’t really want any hassle.
    If I really need to spend that kind of money what should I be looking at, is there a better way of doing it, will that do the job.
    Do I need a flash, if so what kind, I have an old one from when I owned an SLR about 20 years ago, would it be of any use on modern DSLRs.
    Sorry for so many questions, but I am confused by all the jargon & there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable people on this subject here. Who knows, I may even get bitten by the bug & start new hobby.

    wysiwyg
    Free Member

    Personally id get a used Sigma or Tamron wide angle lens and a used Canon 20D body if you can run to it. If not a 350D or even a 300D will suffice as long as you dont want A2 sized prints off it. And yes id get a flash. Something that has bounce and swivel so you can point the flash at the ceiling and bounce the light for a more natural look.

    Should you go down the canon route I have a fully auto 420ex flash for sale in the classifieds, totally takes out the guess work.

    And no your old flash will likely be of no use on a new body, it will fire only at full whack id imagine.

    andym
    Free Member

    Check out the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Good quality 24mm (35mm equivalent) lens. You don’t really want to go much wider than that as it just looks weird.

    Yes an off-camera flash is useful. Bounce it off the ceiling. But don’t use too much. A tripod might also be a good investment too. The trick is to use natural available light without burning out the windows.

    Mind you if it’s for ‘estate agent-type’ pictures any old crap will do. 😉

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    richpips
    Free Member

    A good deal of older flash guns have a much higher trigger voltage than modern one.

    Basically that means that an old flash gun can fry your new DSLR.

    waynekerr
    Free Member

    My current Panasonic has a 35-105mm equivalent lens. I see the fx3 has a 24mm equivalent lens. I have hunted the net to find comparison pictures from the same vantage point & could only find one & it was a landscape, anyone know of a site I could look at to see what the difference between the 24mm & 35mm equivalence would be, preferably of a room in a confined space(BTW I’m not an estate agent). Or can anyone take & post such a pic?

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    if it is going to be used on a tripod then you could use a Peleng 8mm lens availabel to fit most dslr bodies. you won’t get any metering on cheaper models and will have to chesk the back of the lens does not foul the mirror (it has been known to on some models. flash will be of little help with this as it’s too wide unless you can get a good bounce. I don’t have any indoor examples but this is taken with one then corrected with PS

    flickr

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    here you go, our living room, just now

    Peleng 8mm at f5.6 (goes wider but you can get some flare), handheld, 800iso, natural light only, 100% lens correction in PS (not that necessary) and a slight tweak to the perspective.

    waynekerr
    Free Member

    Thanks for those.
    I think that is too distorted for my purposes though, so at what focal length/lens size does the distortion effect become minimal?

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    depends on the lens

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    same image corrected with the PT Lens plugin for photoshop

    andym
    Free Member

    It is going to be used on a tripod then you could use a Peleng 8mm lens availabel to fit most dslr bodies.

    Good examples of what I meant by ‘looking weird’.

    EDIT: ‘Wayne’ (tee hee I’m an On the Hour fan too) for examples of angle of view look here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_view

    AndyPaice
    Free Member

    should be noted that you may not be allowed to photoshop the images as there are restrictions on estate agent photograpy arn’t there?

    the distortion from a 10-22 or a 10-20 or 12-24 will be far less than that 8mm fisheye but wont fit as much in.

    ” Good quality 24mm (35mm equivalent) lens. You don’t really want to go much wider than that as it just looks weird.”

    I disagree, having used both my 10-22 and 17-85 lenses on the same room, the 17mm angle was not enough to fit a whole room in one shot. The 10mm focal length was quite good for it.

    andym
    Free Member

    I disagree, having used both my 10-22 and 17-85 lenses on the same room, the 17mm angle was not enough to fit a whole room in one shot. The 10mm focal length was quite good for i

    Yes you can fit the whole room in but look at the distortion. A 28mm lens is the closest to the human eye’s own natural angle of view, going much below that is simply counter-productive – unless you have the expertise to use a tilt-and-shift camera and to correct the perspective distortion. there’s a reason top-end architectural photographers are paid so much. besides, if you can’t take a decent shot with a 24mm (equivalent) lens then you probably shouldn’t be bothering.

    AndyPaice
    Free Member

    aye, T&S lenses are not cheap are they ! It’s not like it’s a fully comissioned shoot, just a few shots of the inside of the building. As long as the exposure is good it should give a usable image for a brochure. to cover a room at 28mm would require stiching wouldn’t it?

    However, the distortion from my 10-22 (on a 1.6x crop camera) was quite acceptable for most images, whereas a ‘proper’ fish eye lens gives the type of distortion shown by the 8mm lens posted above.

    On the photography forum I go on there were a few threads about this and several estate agents posted up that they used the siggy or canon 10-20/10-22 with sucess, but were quite limited on the image post processing allowed

    waynekerr
    Free Member

    If 24mm was wide enough? how much difference would there be between say the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 which has a 25-105 (35mm equivalent) & an entry level DSLR with a 18-55mm lens which is 27mm? (35mm equivalent) in term of getting better pictures. I have been hunting all day & would like image stabilizing, live view,etc. but I know it all increase the cost, what in you guys opinions are good features & which are not all that necessary. Basically whats the best value for money? I have looked at Canon 1000D & 450D, Olympus 420SE, Sony A200, Nikon D90, or do you know better.
    BTW Thanks so far for the help

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Shortly to be “got the gear no idea(r)”

    How on earth can you buy something so specialized for a purpose you will not divulge, on other people’s opinions?

    I fancy a new camera, will keep an eye on classifieds…

    waynekerr
    Free Member

    I said exactly what I wanted it for, I know little about the subject so I’m just trying to find out facts to see what I need to spend & if they fit my needs.

    BTW I take it you have just found out your wife is getting it elsewhere.

    richpips
    Free Member

    BTW I take it you have just found out your wife is getting it elsewhere.

    We all know your wife.

Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)

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