The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[The Monkey]

Neat.  What about something a little wider?

[Salt Peanuts]

Sigma makes a 12-24 FX lens, iirc.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/755358-REG/Sigma_204306_12_24mm_F4_5_5_6_EX_DG.html

Edited June 11, 2013 by Salt Peanuts

[nikongod]

Neat.  What about something a little wider?

 

I use my 24mm prime a ZILION times more than I use the 14. Shooting the 14mm lens is hard. 

 

On that note, any time (except for the weekend of June22) you want to borrow my Rokinon 14mm for a week or so you are welcome to it.

Edited June 11, 2013 by nikongod

[The Monkey]

Ari, what do you find so hard about the 14?

 

EDIT: and many thanks for the offer.

[Fitz]

Noah took a photo he took of me last November, and gave it a Fallout style treatment...

 

 

Needless to say I'm quite impressed.

[Fitz]

Noah would like to add he only did that in about five minutes of photoshop work as a private joke, while half asleep, and never meant it to be posted publicly.

[Currawong]

Nice shots, everyone.  Jeff, you are a fisheye animal.

 

Jon, tree looks great - hardly any flare at all.

 

Amos, grats on the D800, 14-24 and 28-300 - there's nothing you're not ready for with that combo.  You are keeping the 14-24, right?

 

The 14-24 is a loaner for a couple of months as it has been sitting unused and I'll be travelling. The 28-300 is a lazy choice, replacing the 18-200 "I can just grab the camera and take a photo" lens. I'll deifinitely get a wider prime once my wallet has recovered.

 

I use my 24mm prime a ZILION times more than I use the 14. Shooting the 14mm lens is hard. 

 

Being realistic, while it is possible to do crazy photos in impossible places, I'm more inclined to actually buy a 20 or 24mm prime (but they were all sold out here when I wanted one).  In the two pairs of similar shots in my last post, one was taken at 14mm and the other at 24mm. It seems to me there are only a few of situations where one could actually use it at 14mm when 24mm wouldn't work, such as grabbing the entire view of a room from one corner (especially in Japan where rooms are much smaller than in the US or Aus), events where you don't want to ask people to get out of the way when shooting stuff, or an entire object, such as a building -- basically where you can't step back at all easily and fudging it with a panorama series of shots is also hard or impossible. 

 

A prime is also a hell of a lot lighter than this crazy beast. The full kit with flash is unpleasantly heavy.  But heck it's fun! To me, the distortion with the 14-24 is often subtle enough it doesn't stand out immediately (though only in landscape, not portrait), instead giving depth to the picture, without bending everything. I like that. 

Edited June 11, 2013 by Currawong

[nikongod]

Ari, what do you find so hard about the 14?

 

EDIT: and many thanks for the offer.

 

In one sentence:

Unless you are very careful you wind up with a photo of "lots of nothing."

For example: half of the photo is a pretty uniformly bland sky or similarly uninteresting fore-ground. A whole lot of who cares with your subject way off in the distance. 

 

After that crop to what you would have gotten with a 20-24ish lens. So why not have moar megapixels, less weight, and moar-good-optics and just shoot the 20 or 24?

 

The really wide FOV makes it a bit harder than normal to keep crap from casually creeping into the corners/edges of the image but this usually manageable. 

 

The DOF is always "whoa a lot" so you can not rely on the background going out of focus to force attention back into your subject. 

 

These characteristics/problems/challenges are still there with the 20 or even 24, they are just not as difficult to deal with. 

 

When you shoot the 14mm lens "right" it is amazing. It does really well in confined spaces (Cubicles or other very small rooms, closets, cars, etc) or when you are outside just remember to fill the frame with your subject* which usually requires getting VERY close. In crowded cities this is actually a good thing - by the time you are far enough from the bull on wallstreet to get it all in with a 28mm a tourist grabs its balls... The weird perspective shifting the lens does is also a cool thing in the city. Making people look larger than buildings and whatnot. 

 

If you have not read it, read the Ken Rockwell article on ultrawide angle lenses. Take it with a pinch of salt, 'cause he is Ken Rockwell, but it is one of very few articles on how to shoot ultrawides. 

 

*yes, photography 101, I just find I need to make a very conscious effort of it with this lens. 

Edited June 11, 2013 by nikongod

[The Monkey]

Thanks, Ari, as always, very very helpful.

[Currawong]

Yes, seconded, thanks Ari. I need to re-read that article. It was interesting getting back home, looking at the shots and finding out what was bad as much as what was good. 

 

Edit: Re-read it. Now I've made the mistakes it makes much more sense than it did the first time. 

Edited June 12, 2013 by Currawong

[Jon L]

The Blue.  Taken with 70-200 + 2x TC, then heavily cropped.

 

EOSD3469 by drjlo1, on Flickr

Edited June 13, 2013 by Jon L

[nikongod]

If anyone is interested, onesaleaday.com has Rokinon lenses on sale today. 

 

8mm, 14mm, 35mm, 85mm... yummy. 

[Knuckledragger]

Geebus.  Those are some screaming deals for anyone not afraid of manual focus.

[The Monkey]

I'm afraid of manual focus.

[Cankin]

Some F mount Rokinon/Samyang lenses have focus confirmation chip so it's like "guided" manual focus

[crappyjones123]

Dinny, the rokinon 35 is absurdly sharp.

[crappyjones123]

In other words dew eet.

[VPI]

It will only give focus confirmation if those lenses happen to have the chip. That is not standard on these lenses they are additional price add ons. I see nothing on the Nikon lenses that say they have the chip.

[VPI]

I am talking about the Rokinon lenses.

[crappyjones123]

Taken from the description for Nikon 35.

"Rokinon has also added a focusing scale to this lens which will help the user focus more accurately. The lens is available in the following mounts: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax & Olympus 4/3. This version also features a built-in focus confirm chip for auto aperture and auto exposure."

[Salt Peanuts]

Holy poop, the upcoming Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 listead at $799 for pre-order.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/967345-REG/sigma_18_35mm_f1_8_dc_hsm.html

Hell of a lot cheaper than I'd expected.

[Jon L]

So wish that was full frame lens 

[Salt Peanuts]

^ Probably would make it a size of a bazooka. I'd rather just carry a fast 28 and 50.

[Jon L]

SLRgear already has a review of Sigma up, and I must say the IQ appears to exceed my jaded expectations.  To pre-order or not-to-preorder..

 

http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1609/cat/31

[Cankin]

If it has a bit more reach and OS, I'd sell my Sigma 17-70 2.8-4 C and Nikon 35 1.8 for it.

Sigma has improved a lot these days.