Interior Architectural Lens

[gunnar1]

The 12-24 arrived yesterday so now I get to play around with it and see how it works. I'll post up my initial opinion of a bit later. Thanks for everyone's comments and help.

[KevinA]

Sorry, I realize this is off topic, but I agree with Rob. And the overall point is important I think. Now that the full frame sensor bodies are reasonably priced, in combination with T/S lenses, they are clearly the way to go for architecture and interiors. With crop sensors, and especially zoom wide angles, once you get the perspective straightened out (which involves cropping and interpolation), and the barrel distortion straightened out you have compromised allot of the original resolution of the image. I have students who work with crop sensor cameras and zoom lenses for architecture and the final result, though adequate for many purposes, is clearly inferior to a FF with T/S lenses.

Agreed with Rob and Kirk. This notion that everything can be fixed with photoshop is the wrong approach to have when leaving your door to do a shoot. If anyone is serious about shooting architecture a shift is the minimum you should be thinking about as a basic kit. Stitching and photoshop are fine tools to have, but not something you should think is going to work on every shoot or a substitute for good photography.

Kevin.

[KevinA]

I wouldn't dismiss the 17-40mm L or the 16-35mm L (which I use). My colleagues and I have done excellent interiors with those lenses.

That being said, if your architectural photography income can pay off a TS lens, that would be the ideal choice.

I would absolutely dismiss the 17-40mm for Architecture, I would find it hard to think of a worse lens, the distortion is all over the place. Colour, resistance to flare and contrast are excellent. Getting anything straight with it would be a long drawn out nightmare. For landscape, weddings or street photography a fine lens, architecture on a tripod you are starting at a huge needless disadvantage. Most photographers I know (other than me) bought it and quickly got rid, because of it's distortion and very poor edge performance. I like it's ability to shoot wide into the sun and hold contrast and colour that is why I use it.

Kevin.