What focal length for panorama

[erick.boileau]

What is your favorite focal length for panorama?

[Ben Rubinstein]

I'd say that the question is as broad as saying 'what's your favorite focal length, period'....

[erick.boileau]

the question was :  for pano ?

[geotzo]

It really depends, I use anything from 28mm to 200mm, according to distance from subject etc. There is no "One" I mostly use

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I normally use a 24-70/2.8 zoom for pano and pretty much everything else. I generally choose focal length for vertical crop and take the amount of horizontal exposures that are needed. Aside from that I have used anything from 12 to 560 mm...

Best regards
Erik

What is your favorite focal length for panorama?

[Ben Rubinstein]

the question was :  for pano ?

And it makes as much sense as saying 'what is your favorite focal length'. What type of pano, what type of image, what subject, etc.

A pano of macro subjects, architecture (inside and outside), landscapes, city scapes, these are all very very different and each might need several focal lengths.

See why it's a silly question?

[francois]

For landscape, I mostly use something in the 70-120mm range.

[erick.boileau]

For landscape, I mostly use something in the 70-120mm range.

same for me


thanks to all

[erick.boileau]

See why it's a silly question?

a silly question for you
I suppose that you know exactly your optical center (or nodal point) for all your lens from 16mm to 400mm to do a good work ?

[MarkL]

This is a pretty broad question since panos can be almost spherical with very wide lenses right down to a convential composition but getting more resolution by stitching frames togther. It will also depend a lot on how many frames are shot and the subject.

For near-far landscape shots I tend to shoot about 9 frames and my most used lens is my 85mm (on full frame). Occasionally I use a 50mm if the 85mm will need loads more frames and for distant mountains, vistas etc. it could be anything between 100 and 200mm.

[BernardLanguillier]

In 2009 I worked mostly with a 100mm, 300mm and 24mm T/S.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Jeremy Payne]

When I first started stitching with my point and shoot a few years ago, it was almost always at 28mm and horizontal with an exteremely wide FOV after processing.

Today, with the some exerience and a much more robust DSLR setup, I commonly shoot at 100-135mm and make vertical as well as horizontal compositions with more 'normal' fields of view.  I would go all the way to 200 if the Nikon 70-200VR wasn't so crappy at 200mm.  Hopefully I'll upgrade to the new 70-200 soon.

[Ben Rubinstein]

a silly question for you
I suppose that you know exactly your optical center (or nodal point) for all your lens from 16mm to 400mm to do a good work ?

That is supposed to be an argument, what the heck has that got to do with it?

You ever shot a pano or you just trying to talk the talk?

My webpage of pano's is below, I'm selling them and I know exactly what I'm talking about. Oh and I've never used a nodal slide and I know why I don't need one.

[Jonathan Wienke]

the question was :  for pano ?

It doesn't matter. Focal length is determined by subject and best composition, not the other way around.  I've used everything from 17mm to 350mm.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

What is your favorite focal length for panorama?

68.3 mm

[NikoJorj]

Focal length is determined by subject and best composition, not the other way around.  I've used everything from 17mm to 350mm.

Couldn't agree more, 16 to 400mm (eq. 24x36) for me.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

What is your favorite focal length for panorama?

Hi Erick,

It depends on the FOV I want/need, and the number of tiles (=resolution) I need.

The pano's FOV will be determined by my position and what I want to include in the image. The resolution is whatever I need for output at a certain quality level. I shoot from 16mm to 200mm (or more when I use an extender) on a full 24x36mm frame sensor, but the quality of my 24mm Tilt and Shift lens allows high quality, with a wide angle of view, in only a few tiles (saves time). I like shooting with 45mm (TS-E) or 50mm as well, since it still allows a lot of DOF if needed, and the tiles have higher resolution because of the increased image magnification factor compared to the 24mm, without requiring huge numbers of tiles (with HDR bracketing things get more timeconsuming to process).

Cheers,
Bart

[sid_v]

Ideally a 50mm and above on a cropped sensor is good for distortion free images and seamless hasslefree blending later, and 70mm and above for full frame. That being said, with the ease of the software today with all that cylindrical perspective stretching, you can use a wide angle too.

regards sid.

[erick.boileau]

thanks to all

[fike]

I use anything from 17mm to 400mm.  Generally, the easiest good results come in the 24-70 range.  When you work at much longer focal lengths or much wider focal lengths, your technique needs to be more precise.  

Very wide angle lenses (under 17mm, but more like 10mm or 11mm) tend to have more potential for parallax error because of the substantial increase in close-up foreground when using level tripod framing of the images. This is not to say that the same problems can't exist with a normal (50mm) lens, but when you use a very wide angle lens, you are likely to find it harder to control.  This increased presence of closeup foreground heightens the need for well calibrated pano head.  

On the long end, you need to do a better job leveling your tripod because small errors in your level yaw rotation will result in a image that is angled (horizon will not be level) .  This probably will require more aggressive cropping than you intended due to the need to rotate the image to get a level horizon.

Here is a visual illustration of the answer to your question Trailpixie.net: Comparing Focal Lengths and Panoramic Stitching