Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L and panoramas with RRS gear

[Ellis Vener]

I shoot predominantly with a 1D X but if you shoot with a 1D Mk 4 or maybe even a 1Ds mark III you might be able to help me.


Has anyone yet worked out a good starting set of entrance pupil / nodal point offset values for this lens when using the Really Right Stuff MPR-II rail and RRS camera plate or L bracket?

[shadowblade]

The 11-24 (like the Nikon 14-24) will be terrible for shooting panoramas - it's just too wide to stitch properly, due to the rectilinear exaggeration at the edges.

These lenses are for great for single-frame images (either in one exposure or multiple exposures) but, for rotational stitching, a narrower (35mm and up) lens works much better.

[kers]

I shoot predominantly with a 1D X but if you shoot with a 1D Mk 4 or maybe even a 1Ds mark III you might be able to help me.
Has anyone yet worked out a good starting set of entrance pupil / nodal point offset values for this lens when using the Really Right Stuff MPR-II rail and RRS camera plate or L bracket?

I would only use it for shooting 360degrees panorama's and spheres...
I have used the 14-24 nikkor @ 14mm and it worked well.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I shoot predominantly with a 1D X but if you shoot with a 1D Mk 4 or maybe even a 1Ds mark III you might be able to help me.


Has anyone yet worked out a good starting set of entrance pupil / nodal point offset values for this lens when using the Really Right Stuff MPR-II rail and RRS camera plate or L bracket?

Hi Ellis,

I'm not entirely sure what it is that you are looking for. You presumably know how to determine the no-parallax-point (NPP) for a given focal length setting, and it will probably differ for most focal lengths in the range (even for different focus distances). I'm also not sure if the MPR-II, when you use the camera in portrait orientation, will stay out of sight at the wide end of the focal range.

If you need a a quick starting point as to where the NPP might approximately be, just look through the front of the lens and with closed aperture (DOF preview mode) estimate its apparent position in the lens barrel, and use that for starting the optimization of its position. Once found, take a note of the engraved ruler position for later reference.

I'm a bit wary about other people's reported NPP positions, because there are usually some assumptions involved, but not mentioned. Depending on the L-plate configuration, there may be a difference in body positioning in Portrait orientation versus Landscape orientation (on my 1DS3 it's a 25mm difference on the MPR-II rail index). Also, some measure not on the MPR-II but from the tripod screw position, or from the infinity marker, with varying accuracy. And focal distance is usually not specified/verified. And not everybody is as precise, I have one lens that needs 0.5mm precision in setting up, or otherwise the parallax will be more than 1 pixel.

If your question is about which focal lengths to use, I'd say probably the longer ones because they provide higher resolution tiles.. The shorter ones can be useful if you do want to stitch, e.g. for an even wider FOV than the 11mm offers, and you want to reduce the number of tiles to do it with (e.g. if also HDR bracketing is involved).

Cheers,
Bart

[Ellis Vener]

Thank you to all who have replied so far.

"The 11-24 (like the Nikon 14-24) will be terrible for shooting panoramas - it's just too wide to stitch properly, due to the rectilinear exaggeration at the edges."

" ..would only use it for shooting 360degrees panorama's and spheres..."

In my experience with both of those lenses and other ultra-wide angle lenses, the  answer to those criticisms is a firm "not true". You just make sure you have plenty of over lap (15 degree intervals works very well for the 11-24mm at 11mm) and you over shoot by a frame or two on each end.

I should also say that when I know I am going not shoot for panoramic stitching I always have the camera oriented vertically(portrait orientation) so I get the maximum amount of vertical image resolution

"I'm also not sure if the MPR-II, when you use the camera in portrait orientation, will stay out of sight at the wide end of the focal range."

As a matter of fact, much to my surprise, at anything shorter than 14mm you see the end of the MPR-II so I switched to a  combination of the Really Right Stuff MPR-192 rail and FAS clamp combination. According to my tests , With the camera in portrait position  the the end of the MPR-192 is out the frame at the 13.4 mark.

[Ellis Vener]

A single row 360-degree (horizontal) panorama, 12 frames  with EF 11-24mm f/4L. raw files processed in Lightroom 5.7 and stitched in PTGui Pro.  Size reduced, border created, and JPEG version created in Photoshop CC2014.

[NancyP]

The tree shadows are a bit confusing on the 360 degree panorama - whoah, rather fun. 

[Ellis Vener]

after three days of shooting with it - two to learn with and one to put it to work -  here's my pocket review.

-It's a lot of fun.

-Surprisingly flare resistant, at least as long as the light isn't raking across the lens from the side.

-It focuses really, really close.

-It's big and front heavy. But merely looking at pix of it can tell you that. Putting it on a camera body is where you really see and feel that, Even on my 1D X it is big and front heavy.

- Sharp, sharp , sharp all across it's range, and surprisingly well corrected but let's face facts: you probably are not interested in it for it's 14-24mm range, with this lens that's the lagniappe. The 11 - 13.99mm range is the meal you came for.

- In many scenarios it eliminates the need for stitching, period. If you do a lot of stitching that single factor may very well pay for the lens, especially if you use the the new 50mp 5D cameras.

- If you are thinking about one of those 50mp Canons for architectural work and you won't need the full 50mp coverage for your project, and you are not cropping intolerant. using the 11-24mm f/4L can even eliminate the need for a shift lens like the 17mm and 24mm TS-E lenses.