Nikon wide angle with lowest distortion?

hans voralberg

hans voralberg

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Hi all, what would you recommend from 35mm and wider that have minimal distortion possible in the Nikon F-mount?

The reason is I've been shooting a lot of people in buildings lately and the only two wide lens i have (35/2 Nikkor-O and Tokina 28-70) show some abysmal distortion! Is the new 16-35/4 worth a look or the Zeiss line up?

I only care about severe and weird barrel or pin-cushion, if something has small and consistently correctable distortion then I dont mind trying :)

And any tip on how to get the lens perfectly perpendicular to the ground is much appreciated!
 
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When you say distortion do you mean keeping straight edges straight or do you mean keaping buildings vertical?
For buildings use a shift lens or a lens baby?
 
I'm shooting 100% at eye level so it means keeping edges straight, almost like shooting a brick wall except with a model in front.
 
hans voralberg said:
The reason is I've been shooting a lot of people in buildings lately and the only two wide lens i have (35/2 Nikkor-O and Tokina 28-70) show some abysmal distortion!
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Sure you mean distortion? At least the former is fairly low distortion for a 35mm SLR wide angle - and these tend to be a low distortion class of lenses as a whole even in the worse examples.

Many people say "distortion" when they really mean "wide angle projection". You can buy wide angles with non-rectilinear projection - these are called fisheye, and have their own set of issues.
 
you can get bubble levels which will fit in the flash mount. Don't know how accurate they are. I suspect your eye is a better judge. Also grid viewing screen should allow you to line up building verticals with grid.
 
sevo said:
Sure you mean distortion? At least the former is fairly low distortion for a 35mm SLR wide angle - and these tend to be a low distortion class of lenses as a whole even in the worse examples.

Many people say "distortion" when they really mean "wide angle projection". You can buy wide angles with non-rectilinear projection - these are called fisheye, and have their own set of issues.
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Unless I'm very much mistaken the fact that when I'm shooting straight at a series of square boxes directly in front of me produces curvy edges (of the boxes) is distortion, barrel to be exact. The photo involve nudity so I cant post. But I'm sure you know what i mean.
 
hans voralberg said:
Unless I'm very much mistaken the fact that when I'm shooting straight at a series of square boxes directly in front of me produces curvy edges (of the boxes) is distortion, barrel to be exact. The photo involve nudity so I cant post. But I'm sure you know what i mean.
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28mm AIS 2.8 is my choice then.
 
the 20/3.5 AIS is very rectilinear once it's squared and leveled up. in general, the slower wides will be a little safer bet. and people do post nudes here from time to time.
 
hans voralberg said:
Unless I'm very much mistaken the fact that when I'm shooting straight at a series of square boxes directly in front of me produces curvy edges (of the boxes) is distortion, barrel to be exact. The photo involve nudity so I cant post. But I'm sure you know what i mean.
Click to expand...

You are not mistaken. You are describing barrel distortion. People do post nude shots here, by the way. Check out Frank Petronio's stuff in the gallery. (It may be that you can only post those in the gallery, and not in a thread; I am not sure.)
 
There are numerous post-processing tools to correct barrel and pincushion distortion. Even the best wide-angle lenses have a bit of barrel distortion. Software corrections do stretch the pixels, so the smaller the distortion the better the final result. PTLens is an inexpensive program. Lightroom 3 will automatically correct barrel distortion of the lens is supported by Adobe Camera Raw. These programs can also correct for converging verticals. Some lenses have simple (first order) distortions and others have more complicated distortion. I know for a fact that the Tokina 11-16/2.8 has much simpler distortion than the Nikkor 12-24/4.

Some zoom lenses transition from barrel distortion to pincushion distortion. It is possible you could find a wide-angle zoom lens that has negligible barrel distortion as some intermediate focal length. I suggest you research the reviews at Dpreview and Photozone.

I use a tripod with a gear head with a built-in bubble level. You can also buy levels that slide into the camera's flash shoe. Finally the one of the best lens for your application is the PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED lens. This lens is a tit-shift lens and it has minimal barrel distortion as well
 
I would say the cheapest route to go would be to correct the distortion in post. You could also try using a 35mm or 28mm Nikkor shift lens.

Bob
 
I agree on the 28mm. The 24mm f2.8 Ai-s is also excellent on the F3. Another lens is the Zeiss 35mm f2.0 which IMHO is fantastic, but pricey. Personally, I went with the 24mm & 35mm to give me greater range. The 28mm was between the two. The 25mm on a rangefinder was prohibitive but not a 24mm Ai-S. On a personal basis I shot some ruins (buildings) with a 24mm lens. The next time I went back and shot it with a 35mm. I found that the difference in perspective was neglible but the Zeiss was sharper & I prefered the 35mm Zeiss. It is personal and also depends on the subject matter and the perspective that you desire.
 
Forgive the question, HV: why wouldn't you use your M6 and Color Skopar for this ? Seems like the perfect application ....

Roland.
 
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