Super-wide angles - what they purposed for?

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minoltist7

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I have a 20mm lens and use it very rarely - it's distorted perspective is quite unnatural from human eye perspective, so it deserves a special case to use it.
but afaik 12mm and 15mm exist - what they used for ?

I had 12-24mm Sigma zoom and sold it, becouse I didn't use it most of the time.

I see one obvious application - technical photos , i.e. shooting building interiors.
What is an artistic purpose to justify a need for 12mm ?

p.s. I'm talking about rectilinear wideangles, not fisheyes
 
Although I'm not 1 of them, many people just like the super-wide look, & that's sufficient artistic justification (IMHO).

minoltist7 said:
I have a 20mm lens and use it very rarely - it's distorted perspective is quite unnatural from human eye perspective, so it deserves a special case to use it.
but afaik 12mm and 15mm exist - what they used for ?

I had 12-24mm Sigma zoom and sold it, becouse I didn't use it most of the time.

I see one obvious application - technical photos , i.e. shooting building interiors.
What is an artistic purpose to justify a need for 12mm ?

p.s. I'm talking about rectilinear wideangles, not fisheyes
Click to expand...
 
It really comes down to knowing how to use one... I can go out all day with just a 21mm, a 15mm is a little more specialised...

2246321438_167be4cb04.jpg

The 90 degree FOV of 21mm in 135 but in MF

296844365_263d8a00fb.jpg

15mm in 135 format
 
I've used 15 and 21, but given up on them and only use 28 and up today.
The problem with the super wides is that you normally have to include a lot of
foreground to make good pictures other than lens tests. 28 and up is
easier and part of learning photography for me has been to learn how
to crop right. Here are some of my 15mm shots:

48878770-L-1.jpg


48878761-L-1.jpg


48878763-L-1.jpg


The first two I couldn't have done with 28. The third one would have improved.

But it's mostly useful for architecture. Forget people ...

Roland.
 
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> 15mm in 135 format

this is why I not always like wideangle. too much empty space on the foreground
but the last shot by Roland is great -becouse of accented foreground
 
As I've said previously, that third shot of yours Roland is simply amazing. Looks a bit like a classic Chinese painting. Just beautiful.

-Randy

P.S. As for wide angle lenses, I've never used them enough to either get comfortable or good with them. All my wide angle shots look like "mirror at the fun house" pictures, if you know what I mean...
 
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Thank you Randy. I should stop posting it .... but I don't have too many
good wide angle shots. We are due for a beer again, aren't we ?

Cheers,

Roland.
 
Since I'm no longer shooting for a living about the only lens I use is a 15mm on a Bessa or one of my Leica M bodies. I keep trying to use my 21 more but I've gotten used to seeing really wide. Back in the late 1960's I fell in love with the rangefinder mount 19mm Canon. http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com/ has a lot of my 15mm shots (along with some zany stories).
 
Some really nice WA shots here! Yes, there can be an empty forground - that's where one has to work to put something interesting there. Ansel called it 'near and far' (so did Grover!). My widest is 20mm on a 35mm camera. I love it, but would like something even wider.
As Roland said: But it's mostly useful for architecture. Forget people ...
Roland, that photo of the Great Wall (I think) is beautiful.
 
ferider said:
Thank you Randy. I should stop posting it .... but I don't have too many
good wide angle shots. We are due for a beer again, aren't we ?

Cheers,

Roland.
Click to expand...

It's a great shot so it deserves the repeat showings. :p

And yeah, we are due. Early next week work for you? Shoot me an email.

-Randy
 
I have a shot from Grand Central Station taken with a Nikon 20/2.8 and F4 on a table-top tripod. Gives a great sense of the vastness of that interior space. I recently used a C/V 12mm lens on an M8 to capture pix of kids on a swing at a city playground and the huge, arching, black limbs of a tree against a NYC winter sky. Also had good luck with a picture of the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge using a C/V 15mm lens on an M8. These are hard lenses to use as a general purpose lens, but they definitely have their uses. Unfortunately none of these pix is on my work computer.

Ben
 
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