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Going wide, for interiors and architecture


IWC Doppel

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We'll I've gone n done it.....

 

Bought a VC 15mm with metal viewfinder and the 12mm with the same. I am starting to have a play, having just exchanged on a house in Bath that neads a lot of work and I found the 18 just a little too tight for some shots and perspectives.

 

I'd be very keen to see how others use these lenses with coding and I'm intending to read up on corner fix this evening, never used this before. I'll probably do mostly B&W but still...

 

My very quick observations are, both good resolution, possibly the 12 betters the 15 here, the rendering of the 12 looks quite classic with a lower contrast but nice tonal range, they are both light cheap and nice to use. It's stopped raining so I'm heading out !

 

PS my other wides are 18mm, 21 Elmarit ASPH, 24 Elmarit ASPH, 28 Summicron (feels like a long lens after using the 12 !

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I think it really depends on what types of shots you are trying to get. Many moons ago I tried the 12mm, but there was no way to get things accurate at that focal length. Cool perspectives though. 15/16mm was too wide as well. 18mm started to get a bit better.

 

I am a full time architectural photographer and the widest lens I use is a 21mm, but I rarely even use that. I was using a 24mm tilt shift for a long time and it worked out splendidly. Now I am actually shooting on a Leica R 28mm PC (Shift lens) and that is a joy.

 

When I need wider, I just shift and stitch. Doing this with a longer focal length keeps perspectives in check and is much better for "technical" architecture.

 

But oh man the fun you can have with that 12mm....

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To put it very simple - the Heliar 15/4,5 is one of the most funny lens I ever used on my M9 - highly recommended!! Sometimes you get red edges and CA - easily fixed in Lightroom.

Have fun!

/Anders

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Thanks guys, I am just about to complete on a 'new' house (Old, very tired and needing complete refurbishment, but new to me and Jane !)

 

So far I have a lot of magenta on the LHS of the 15mm, not had chance to play with Cornerfix and very but still taking pictures. The 12mm is very good as well (better I think, but haven't A-B'd certainly much less colour shift

 

I'll post more thoughts and do more reading later !

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I agree that the CV15 is quite a good lens but the color cast issues (IMO) are not "easily" fixed in PP. Even using Cornerfix, the results to me were not acceptable for print. For web use, it would be perfectly fine though. In the end I sold the lens as I could not be bothered spending all that time in post fixing things up. I have seen that the CV12 has much fewer color cast isues FWIW.

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Thanks guys, I am just about to complete on a 'new' house (Old, very tired and needing complete refurbishment, but new to me and Jane !)

 

So far I have a lot of magenta on the LHS of the 15mm, not had chance to play with Cornerfix and very but still taking pictures. The 12mm is very good as well (better I think, but haven't A-B'd certainly much less colour shift

 

I'll post more thoughts and do more reading later !

 

I would use the LCC tool from Editing photos (lens correction).

One can easily use it in LR.

You need two .DNG images.

One is your image, the other your correction image, best taken at the same time.

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the 12 can produce some really unusual images if used selectively .......

 

this is a church in Belgrade from a few months ago .....

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Im very busy at the moment, so no real time to test, pointed the 15 at the cloudy sky on the way out this morning (I know I thought I got all sky but didnt !), heres the results, very obvious on all picture. A quick shot from the roof....

 

Should it be this bad and uneven ? resolution and sharpness okay but not great to the edges of frame. Do you think my copy is a duffer ? :(

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Par for the course with the 15 from what others have posted, I'm afraid......

 

The 12 is VERY much better behaved with only a very small % of images affected .... and to a much lesser extent as well....

 

 

That seems to be the case indeed, at least what one can read about on the forums.

I don't own either lens, but have seen discolorations as in the second image with other lenses on an A7R. Lens Cast Correction (LCC) will take care of that. What it won't correct is if there is corner smearing.

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This has been taken with the 12mm, even though the EXIF says "16mm". JPEG out of the camera, with the exception of the scaling no PP.

 

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I had the 15 and now have the 12, which I'm much happier with.

 

The 12 is better behaved in all respects and unless the focal length is the deciding factor I can see no advantage in the 15 whatsoever, though I suppose it is a tiny bit faster and a little less expensive, which may also matter.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I have considered getting both of them. I got the impression that it is very easy to edit out the italian flag with a lightroom plugin?

 

From my experience, though I don't have the photos to hand to demonstrate it, the 12 is sufficiently superior to the 15 that a cropped image from the 12 is preferable to an uncropped one from the 15, so no need to buy both.

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I have considered getting both of them. I got the impression that it is very easy to edit out the italian flag with a lightroom plugin?

 

Not so simple. Vignetting depends on focusing distance and aperture, so it is hard to get a perfect result. It usually is acceptable, though.

 

That, and the fact the M will not let me use Live View with my v1 CV15 unless I disable Lens Detection (stupid firmware), made me decide that the CV15 stays at home (or on the NEX6, when I need wide).

 

Go for the 12 and, as Peter says, just crop when you need 15 ;)

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