Camera Talk

How wide have you gone? At a certain point I had a 15mm lens and a 17mm Fisheye (still have)
But with the 1.5 factor because of the APS-C camera those are not that dramatic anymore.

I got some (kinda unexpected) extra income from a job I did in 2018 and bought a Sigma 10-20/3.5 from KEH
My camera is APS-C format (PENTAX) so at 10 it should be equivalent to a 14mm in 35mm
The lens arrived a couple of days ago and I just took it around the neighborhood.
- Lens is heaaavy!
- AF works well,
- Pictures are sharp enough even though not super sharp
- Angle of view is quite dramatic, distortion is not bad
- Purple CA is noticeable, towards the edge
- I had a graduated ND filter from Cokin and allowed to get decent sky colors



All in all, I guess it more me that needs to learn how to use this lens better

PS, just for fun I put the lens in an old ME Super...
Not bad!!! vignetting at 10mm, gone at 14mm

I had that lens a while back, but wound up selling it because I found only limited use for that wide a lens. Below is a sample shot with a not-yet old Pentax K100D (6MP as I remember).

Widest I have used is 18 mm in a zoom, and 21 mm in fixed lens. Good for dramatic perspectives, line composition and if you get splendid skies.

I remember people using ultrawides in meetings, Al Kaplan was a fan of 15 mm.

For almost five years, I have had an 8mm Olympus lens for my OM-D. I do use it now and again (just to remember what it's like!), but it's a sort of one-trick pony and I have not really figured out what to with that one trick.

The Sigma f3.5 10-20mm is plain lousy at 10mm, but sharpens up from 12mm onwards if closed down to f5.6 or f8. Chromatic aberration is also bad at any focal length. https://bit.ly/2WS55Ph
I bought a pre-loved Nikkor 10-24mm f3.5-4.5 G ED for my Nikon D7100, which is APS-C, and I am very happy with it. This is taken at 11mm:

This at 15mm

I had the Voigtlander 15mm (I think that was the focal length), but apparently I sold it. I haven't seen it in years, so I guess I sold it.

I have the Zeiss Ikon Contarex Hologon, which has a no-focus fixed-aperture f/8 15mm Hologon lens. I think depth of field is 18 inches to infinity. It's a pretty cool lens, although its uses are definitely limited. This was shot on Kodak Gold 400 - way too much grain.

I've been looking at some of the Irix lenses. They are affordable.

The widest I've gone is 144mm on 10x12":
Scientific Lens Co. W.A. 8x10 by Scott, on Flickr

This was a Scientific Lens Company 8x10 Wide Angle. Have no idea what the 135 equivalent would be. Funny thing was it was a tiny little lens, especially mounted on the 10x12:
New lens... by Scott, on Flickr

I went to Wilmington for a meeting and stayed overnight, stopped by the USS North Carolina in the morning
Took the 10-20 with me and I still need to learn how to use it

Wow, the old girl is mud bound! Guess they don't have to worry about it breaking the lines and floating away.

I have the VC 15mm Super-Wide Heliar in M mount to get those photos you just can't back-up anymore to get everything in the frame.

Boone Furnace by P F McFarland, on Flickr

My shortest lens in APS-C is the Nikkor 12-24mm which unfortunately no longer works (I think the chip in it died).

Impending Mayhem by P F McFarland, on Flickr

I used to have an 18mm Spiratone lens in F mount I used for interiors, but it was kind of crappy, so later on I got the AF Nikkor 20mm D which is my widest SLR lens at the moment.

Nikon N90s Test 1 by P F McFarland, on Flickr

Lomo Fisheye of unknown focal length was probably the widest lens I ever had.

00260007_2_2 by P F McFarland, on Flickr

I always find it handy to have a Super-wide or Ultra-wide lens. You can get some dramatic images from them.

PF

I’m enjoying this thread with lenses I never tried