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A7R + superwide for elevated/mastphotography

danlindberg

danlindberg

Well-known member
I need a solution of elevated imagery in my large residence photography gigs. Thinking of getting a 7.5 meter mast, but it is NOT that stable and I cannot, will not, shall not, I swear I won't.....send up an Alpa TC + SK 28 XL + Credo 60 that high and watch it sway about. Never :shocked: (Although I do have a cable release of 10 metres)

At the same time it feels pretty sour to present an elevated image from some compact with IQ from another world compared to the rest of the shots. I am seeing a possibility of using the small A7R coupled with a high resolution wide for this single shot in most assignments.

What I would like to have is a lens in the 15mm - 18mm range. The smaller and lighter the better due to elevated position and wind/swaying concerns. Obviously I would love it as sharp as possible with good contrast - especially maintain contrast and being flare resistant if the sun position is not favourable. The one factor that I am somewhat less concerned with in this case is distortion.

Any suggestions?

(Canon 17Tse is too expensive and too large/heavy.)
 
M

mbroomfield

New member
The only 2 lenses I can think of are the 18mm Distagon and the 15mm Voigtlander. They won't do well on the A7r though. They will have colour casts on the A7 which will have to be fixed. I think they are OK for smearing but you should check (best place is probably Fred Miranda).
 
J

jlindstrom

Member
But what if you drop the R and get the regular A7, which is supposedly better with wides. Or if you really need the R, then there are reports that the 19mm Elmarit-R is excellent. Though I'm not sure if it's wide enough for your needs..

Guy has reported great success with the A7r + 19mm elmarit-R, so if you need more info or samples of that he's the man to talk to.

//Juha
 
Annna T

Annna T

Active member
If you really want a small camera gig, why not consider an Olympus Pen with the 7-14mm F4 ? The Pen bodies are really small (E-Pm2, or E-Pl5) and offer a good Sony sensor (but it is only 16MB, so this will depends of the print size you need). The E-P5 (a newer model) offers WIFI with a link to smartphone or tablet, but is a little bigger. The new E-M10 would be handy too if you need WiFI. They are all smaller than the A7/7r and will offer you several wide angles : the 7-14mm (equivalent to 14-28mm) is highly regarded, but subject to flare and purple fringing. There is also a light 12mm (24mm equivalent) opening at F2 and even a pancake 14mm F2.5. An E-Pm2 plus that pancake would not be much heavier than a compact, but would produce better IQ, although less wide than you asked. Samyang/Rokinon is also offering a 7.5mm F3.5 fisheye which is very light and small. But a fisheye on a pole may not be ideal if it can't remain parallel to the building. People say it is very sharp, but my copy is less sharp than I would like.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
The Zeiss 18mm distagon for Nikon or Canon work really nice on the A7r which you could pick up used for a good price like 1200 dollars. Couple members are shooting that here. The Leica 19 r is killer but expensive around 3300 dollars. As Anna mentioned you could get a Samyang 14, 24 mm lenses and they are very inexpensive. The 14mm is really wide distorts like crazy but a easy fix.
 
Michiel Schierbeek

Michiel Schierbeek

Well-known member
I would use the 14mm Samyang for that or the C/Y Zeiss Distagon 18/4. Does very well on the A7r, is smaller and has probably less distortion as the Samyang.
(Just posted some pics with it in the Fun thread)
 
danlindberg

danlindberg

Well-known member
Thank you all for good info!

True that maybe it would be an easier task with finding a matching superwide to the non-R, but I am an MP junkie and shoot nothing but the Credo 60 today. Smaller sensors than a 24x36 is not going to cut it. And hope there is a good solution for the 'R'.

Distagon 18/4 C/Y
Distagon 18/3.5 ZF.2
Distagon 18/3.5 ZE
Distagon 18/4 ZM

Haven't seen any samples with any of these on the R. I have seen samples with the Voigtlander 15 and it produces terrible colourcasts, trust the Distagon 18 is much better in this regard!?
Which one of the above is the better choice?

The Leica 19R is rare and difficult to find, and probably too much green to fork out if there should be one...

Maybe I should not disregard the Samyang 14....its just that I have to get over a physocological barrier with the brandname.....
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Dan
The ZF.2 and ZE are the same lens in Nikon/Canon. They work with adapter they are full frame lenses.

The ZM I believe is Leica M mount that will not work I believe.

C/Y is I believe a Contax mount of a older design. This one I have to look up though
 
danlindberg

danlindberg

Well-known member
I guess the better and easiest choice would be the 18/3.5 ZF.2 which has the aperture ring and the Canon mount doesn't.

If anybody has seen any sample/test images on this 18 with the R, I appreciate if you could give me/us a link :)
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
So with the Canon which I just bought the Z 25f2 you buy the Metabones III adapter it cost 400 dollars but you get aperture control via the camera , full EXIF data and it will auto focus a Canon lens. Reason I went Canon was I have the adapter so I could rent when needed the Canon 17/24 TS glass. So I gave myself a option there.

Nikon adapters are basically dumb adapters will not do anything mentioned above and they have this silly aperture control on the adapter for Nikon G lenses to control the aperture problem is you have no idea what aperture your setting , the TS won't work . Now with a Zeiss Nikon mount you can control the aperture via the lens but you need to put lens on adapter a certain way. I shaved the coupler off inside the adapter so I did not have to screw with it since I only had Zeiss glass.

So reason I switched to Canon was it made more sense I get the benefits and also can rent the TS glass. But the adapter costs more.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
BTw the 18mm is a nice lens and pretty darn sharp stopped down to about 5.6/8 in the corners and has a nice look. If I did not have the Leica 19r I would have the 18 for sure.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Distortion on the Samyang is very severe but can be corrected with PT lens plug in as they have a profile for it. Actually they have one for the 18 also which is your typical distortion levels for a wide. It's just not that severe as the 14. Corners f5.6/F8 on both of them is very good. In the Sony fun thread there are several 18mm shots posted. I could look for some raws guys and put up a link for you to download . Actually I have both lens files. Let me know and I'll hit my database and you can play. Both lenses shot with the D800e. Yes Zion I had both lenses on hand. If you go back to that thread on the Samyang 14mm I actually compared them together.
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Raw's would be great Guy, the D800e will give a perfect idea of what to expect from the A7r. If you have the 14-24 too to add to the mix then I'll have to lick your boots...

The 18mm would be perfect for me, it's the smallest and would give me the focal length I use for architectural work (I used to use my 16-35L II at the wide end). Wondering about how many mm I'd lose to fixing the samyang curvature and whether it's too wide. The 14-24mm is to be honest the best solution for quality and versatility and probably resale value but it's a huge beast and I'm not sure I want to lose the ability to polarise.
 
U

Uaiomex

Member
Another option could be to use a Fisheye lens. They are very sharp, small and light. You can use software to de-fish. My favorite one is ImageTrends Fisheye. It works beautifully straightening verticals only but the image quality doesn't suffer.
Eduardo
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Ben Rubinstein said:
Raw's would be great Guy, the D800e will give a perfect idea of what to expect from the A7r. If you have the 14-24 too to add to the mix then I'll have to lick your boots...

The 18mm would be perfect for me, it's the smallest and would give me the focal length I use for architectural work (I used to use my 16-35L II at the wide end). Wondering about how many mm I'd lose to fixing the samyang curvature and whether it's too wide. The 14-24mm is to be honest the best solution for quality and versatility and probably resale value but it's a huge beast and I'm not sure I want to lose the ability to polarise.
Click to expand...
Let me work on that. Tough call they both have there pluses. I would myself tend to lean towards the 18 as it is a much nicer lens build wise and it has a nice Zeiss look to it but I like Zeiss lenses too. But the Samyang is cheap and fun to have in the bag as well. Since I have the 19 now I may get the a Samyang again when I have some cash. I'm very much a wide angle person

Women's hockey is on now at Olympics and should be good US vs Canada . I ll get them up after that
 
B

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
I don't do a lot of personal wide angle work, it's mainly commercial. Here is a shot from my 16-35L II at 16mm. The lens was invaluable for wedding work where it had an entire camera to itself (the other camera had either a 50mm or 85mm mounted) and I've shot a huge amount of commercial work with it. Mainly architectural. I've sold it since, it was just too big for the A7r. Here's one of my rare wide angle personal shots.

 
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