Wide angle, distance to subject 8' to 16' - lens choice?

[chrisv2]

I have a 16mm "pancake" lens on an APS-C camera that seems to do a decent job; I detect very little curvature when taking shots inside a room (for example). I am looking for more sharpness however - the lens just seems a little too soft to me.

For doing shots of rooms (e.g. real estate photos) or cars inside a dealership -- if you had an APS-C camera which lens would you grab first? My own research led me to this:

Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 ED AS IF UMC Lens for Sony E-Mount FE14M-E

but the reviews confuse me. Everyone seems to use it for landscapes I just want to know if I should expect it to work out for me, given my two example use cases? I don't want any "fisheye" effect...

Attached is one of my best attempts with the 16mm pancake lens. I am looking to improve beyond this.

 

[Designer]

Several factors affect overall sharpness. Are you printing your shots really large? Have you zoomed way in to see where the lens is not performing? Is it a factor of the depth of field? Are you hand-holding your shots? What aperture and shutter speed?

 

[Derrel]

Holding a steel Stanley measuring tape up to my screen, I measured front tire height at 3/4 of an inch, and I measured the rear tire height at 1 and 1/2 inches. At the distance the camera was from the car, with the car in that angled relationship to the lens axis, the rear end of the car looks very big, the front end looks inconsequential. This is pretty clearly a distorted rendering of the vehicle's actual shape. This is called foreshortening. This tendency will be somewhat more-pronounced with a 14mm lens.

The problem at car shows is the people who are right up close, ringing the car...you go to a wide-angle lens to be able to get the whole car into the frame, while two other dudes, each with a camera, crowd in next to you. I see this issue a LOT in car photos done by amateurs and even the many,many "semi-pro car shooters" who work on Facebook: really short lens focal lengths, that take good-looking, well-proportioned cars and distort the vehicles in a way as to make them look ugly, or to present the cars in such a way that the beauty of the body design, shaping, and proportioning looks UGLY.

What I see here is a 1.5 inch rear wheel and tire...BOOM!...that is what leaps out--a massively distorted tire and wheel is the main focal point of the picture...and the front tire size looks like it belongs on a top fuel dragster. The beauty of the car's elegant design has been altered, materially.

The shorter the lens length, the more expertise it takes to use it effectively. some of the MOST absolutely God-awful work one will see comes out of the people shooting the 10-20 or 10-22 lenses. I'm not trying to bag on your car photography, but just want to let you know that going wider-angle, going to shorter focal length, is not without a huuuuuuge potential penalty that can make your car images actually look worse.

 

[chrisv2]

Thanks...I couldn't figure out how to get the exif to follow along with that image upload; it was f/4.5, 1/60 sec, iso-100. No flash and 16mm at 24mm equiv/35mm. Hand-held.

Derrel, I could not agree with you more. Aside from the lens bugging me a little, the composition of the shots also suffers as you point out. There is some perspective in that shot as the car is slightly facing away - but no excuse for the giant rear quarter panel we are starting at.

Here's another picture I took outdoors. This is with a Zeiss "Touit" lens, 32mm (48mm equiv), f/5, 1/800, iso-100. I think this is a lot better, but for the reasons you mention it is almost impossible to use this lens at a crowded indoor auto show. Maybe I have to yell "hey, Chip Foose is over there!"...then get the picture.

 

[Designer]

Crowded car shows is a tough place to get good photos, whether indoors or out. People milling about, poor lighting, distracting backgrounds, limited space in which to find the shot. More practice will give you insight on when is the best time to have fewer people in the way, or methods to find the shot in the poorest of conditions. If your specialty is cars, perhaps you need to get with the owners to have them pose their cars for you. You might even work it into a paying gig.

 

[Ihatemymoney]

I have a 16mm "pancake" lens on an APS-C camera that seems to do a decent job; I detect very little curvature when taking shots inside a room (for example). I am looking for more sharpness however - the lens just seems a little too soft to me.

For doing shots of rooms (e.g. real estate photos) or cars inside a dealership -- if you had an APS-C camera which lens would you grab first? My own research led me to this:

Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 ED AS IF UMC Lens for Sony E-Mount FE14M-E

but the reviews confuse me. Everyone seems to use it for landscapes I just want to know if I should expect it to work out for me, given my two example use cases? I don't want any "fisheye" effect...

Attached is one of my best attempts with the 16mm pancake lens. I am looking to improve beyond this.

View attachment 117142

TS-E 17mm

 

[jcdeboever]

I would get a list/map ahead of time, go early (less people), and use 35mm prime but I am a noob and that may be wrong.

 

[beagle100]

I have a 16mm "pancake" lens on an APS-C camera that seems to do a decent job; I detect very little curvature when taking shots inside a room (for example). I am looking for more sharpness however - the lens just seems a little too soft to me.

For doing shots of rooms (e.g. real estate photos) or cars inside a dealership -- if you had an APS-C camera which lens would you grab first? My own research led me to this:

but the reviews confuse me. Everyone seems to use it for landscapes I just want to know if I should expect it to work out for me, given my two example use cases? I don't want any "fisheye" effect...

Attached is one of my best attempts with the 16mm pancake lens. I am looking to improve beyond this.]

could be DOF issues, I don't think the Rokinon is better but I've never used it

I use a cheap ($50) 22mm f/2 pancake lens for cars
(outside)

Untitled by c w, on Flickr

years ago -
Canon digital Rebel XSi - Tamron 17-50 2.8 at f2.8, 1/30

 

[dennybeall]

First off, the car show photos you see that are so very good are usually done prior to the general public gaining access. The regulars know what needs to be done to get the whole car shots. Once the crowds get there you're better off to go for the artsy/pretty shots of car parts and the crowd oohing and ahhhing.