Lenses for stitching with IQ180

[markymarkrb]

A few months back, I sold my Fuji GX617 camera and I recently purchased an IQ180/645DF and 80mm lens combo.  I love the 617/3 x 1 format and am trying to mimic that as much as possible with my new camera.  I purchased a RRS pano head and am trying to decide where I should go for lenses.  I am strictly a landscape shooter so I don't necessarily need the LS lenses but something that will maximize the IQ180 potential.  I also am striving for the best depth of field possible.  What I don't want is to crop my Iq180 shots.  I paid for the big sensor and I intend to use it if not with a few images stitched together.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for the help!

[Schewe]

You can shoot with the 80mm but it's a bit "long". I would suggest looking at the 45mm lens. I've done a lot of panos with it with the camera in the vertical position with excellent results. Depending on your f stop the DOF is pretty good. Just remember you loose overall sharpness due to diffraction is you stop down too much, but F11 is pretty good.

[Brian Hirschfeld]

I mean, can't you do a pano with any lens? Just a question of merging them all together, focal length is still determined by your composition no?

[theguywitha645d]

I hope your computer has a good processor.

I came from shooting flat field pano cameras like the Fuji and swing lens pano cameras like the Widelux. The neat thing is that you can chose your field of view at the scene. However, the projection becomes an issue. I find I use the cylindrical projection the most which makes the world more like a swing-lens camera, except that I have more control of the focal length. The attached Boston pano is a cylindrical projection taken with a 120mm lens and you don't get the extreme curves you would with a Widelux. Shorter focal lengths give more curves, but the type of lines in the scene are important--the ocean and city panos are with a 55mm, which is normal on a 645D. The last pano of a lake is a test with a 300mm lens.

A couple of things. Diffraction is overstressed with MFD, especially when you start stitching. Use the aperture that will give you the DoF you need--by the time the pano is printed you are not going to see any diffraction. I have been printing 44x144 (12 feet) panos stitching Pentax 645D frame and I can't see all the detail in the file. 100% monitor view does not give you a real world viewing condition.

I would start with your 80mm and play. You can also stitch with the sensor vertical for a wider angle of view. Try pushing the aperture and printing out the result. I have been pleasantly surprised how far I can push MFD--the second pano is handheld, the night pano is on a tiny table-top tripod sitting on the floor at ISO1600, the Boston pano was shoot through the hotel window and is very sharp.

Did I mention computer processing power?

[elf]

Actually, the focal length of the lens doesn't determine perspective. A 20mm lens will give you exactly the same perspective as a 120mm lens if they are at the same position relative to the subject. The FOV will be different for single images, but this doesn't really matter for panoramas. The best answer for what focal length to choose is to select it primarily based on how much detail you want in the image and secondarily on how much processing power your stitching computer has.