Good Lens for shooting 'apartment for rent' pictures

[personalt]

I am a landlord with two units up for rent both of which need some better pictures for the listing. I am thinking about renting a lens as buying another lens is not in the budget right now and I can write of the rental cost for the business a little better then I could if I bought a new lens and tried to allocate the usage to the business

Problem is I dont know what size lens to rent. What I do know(or think I know but could easily be wrong)

• I have a Nikon D80 - this part I am sure of
• When I shoot with my 24mm-120mm at 24mm it is 'way to narrow' but not sure how to quanify how much too narrow
• As a point of reference, a few years ago I sold some condos where my realtor hired someone to do broshures and looking at the metadata they where shot mostly at 15-18mm but on a full frame Canon.
• I liked the look of them but I know that 15mm on a full frame camera is not going to appear the same as 15mm on my D80

I was thinking a 10mm-24mm Nikon or Tamron/Sigma but wanted to see what others that shoot apartments might use. My plan was to rent from borrowlens.com but since I work in NYC I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation on somewhere in NYC where I could do a rental but pickup as I only need it for a few days and the two way shipping comes out more then the rental when you are talking about such a short timeframe.

[Ads]

[fjrabon]

The Sigma 10-20mm is great for this purpose, but make sure you shoot it level or you'll get weird perspective distortion.

[g13a]

I would prefer Tokina 11-16 f2.8 over sigma on a APSC sensor body...

[2WheelPhoto]

^^^agree with the Tokina

Perhaps work on the lighting, WB, flash mixed with ambient too

[personalt]

Any idea where I can rent this in NYC? I tried a few places but no one seems to have that lens. Andorama has a NIKON 12-24/4 G DX @ $20 per day but that was the best I could find.

[manaheim]

I use the Sigma 10-20 exclusively for this purpose and have done a lot of work with it. It's a very solid performer.

BTW, your shots are really quite good apart from being a bit too tight (which you know about). Good lighting and such.

[fjrabon]

I would prefer Tokina 11-16 f2.8 over sigma on a APSC sensor body...

why? The f/2.8 is totally irrelevant for this purpose, because you shoot it on a tripod and have the shutter speed as long as you want. Also, you definitely don't want shallow DOF here either. If anything you want your depth of field as deep as possible.

I think the Sigma is a bit sharper from 10-13mm. And occasionally the seemingly minor 10mm difference that the Sigma brings is useful.

Sure, for other uses, f/2.8 on a wide angle is nice. But it serves no real purpose here.

[personalt]

To clarify - these shots are not mine. They are shots at 15mm-18mm from a full frame Canon. They are from a building that I own, I had paid for these shots a few years ago when I tried to sell as condos. I was trying to use them as a point of reference of the type of apartments I am trying to shoot and how they frame up on a 15mm .

If I can get my hands on a Tokima or a Sigma in this 10-20 or 11-16 range I wlil post some shots.

I use the Sigma 10-20 exclusively for this purpose and have done a lot of work with it. It's a very solid performer.

BTW, your shots are really quite good apart from being a bit too tight (which you know about). Good lighting and such.

[mjhoward]

I would prefer Tokina 11-16 f2.8 over sigma on a APSC sensor body...

why? The f/2.8 is totally irrelevant for this purpose, because you shoot it on a tripod and have the shutter speed as long as you want. Also, you definitely don't want shallow DOF here either. If anything you want your depth of field as deep as possible.

I think the Sigma is a bit sharper from 10-13mm. And occasionally the seemingly minor 10mm difference that the Sigma brings is useful.

Sure, for other uses, f/2.8 on a wide angle is nice. But it serves no real purpose here.

DOF is a non issue at these focal lengths. For example, if you set focus @ 8ft with the lens set on 12mm and f/2.8, the DOF is from 4.1ft to 171ft... pretty deep. According to lens tests conducted by photozone, the Tokina is as sharp or sharper than the Sigma at every focal length and aperture that is common between the two:
Sigma AF 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM - Review / Lab Test Report - Analysis
Tokina AF 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX (Canon) - Review / Lens Test Report - Analysis

Barrel distortion is a bit higher at the shortest focal length on the Tokina but distortions are similar for the other tested focal lengths.

[mjhoward]

If I can get my hands on a Tokima or a Sigma in this 10-20 or 11-16 range I wlil post some shots.

I've used these guys a couple times in the past. They're great!
LensRentals.com - Rent a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 for Nikon DX

[fjrabon]

I would prefer Tokina 11-16 f2.8 over sigma on a APSC sensor body...

why? The f/2.8 is totally irrelevant for this purpose, because you shoot it on a tripod and have the shutter speed as long as you want. Also, you definitely don't want shallow DOF here either. If anything you want your depth of field as deep as possible.

I think the Sigma is a bit sharper from 10-13mm. And occasionally the seemingly minor 10mm difference that the Sigma brings is useful.

Sure, for other uses, f/2.8 on a wide angle is nice. But it serves no real purpose here.

DOF is a non issue at these focal lengths. For example, if you set focus @ 8ft with the lens set on 12mm and f/2.8, the DOF is from 4.1ft to 171ft... pretty deep. According to lens tests conducted by photozone, the Tokina is as sharp or sharper than the Sigma at every focal length and aperture that is common between the two:
Sigma AF 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM - Review / Lab Test Report - Analysis
Tokina AF 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX (Canon) - Review / Lens Test Report - Analysis

Barrel distortion is a bit higher at the shortest focal length on the Tokina but distortions are similar for the other tested focal lengths.

I absolutely agree that DOF isn't a concern here, that was kind of my main point, that the f/2.8 constant aperture is a bit of a waste in this scenario, because you don't need more DOF control and you don't need a faster lens either.

I perhaps should have specified that I was more talking about barrel distortion than 'sharpness'.

I mean they're both great for this type of application, but if you're just shooting architectural, to me the cheaper sigma, with the extra 10mm and 17-20mm and less barrel distortion is the better bet and is cheaper to boot. Is there any reason to prefer the Tokina for this type of application?