Looking for best lens for 360° photography

[Peter E]

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Hi all,

 

I'm looking for a good lens to use for 360° photography.

I prefer 18 or 21mm with minimum distortion and good colors.

 

I want to use it on my SL. I already used/tested the tri-elmar which is very good but I'm wondering if there is another option like a fixed18 or 21mm that is cheaper and as good.

A fast aperture is not a priority as I always work in the best range for the lens (5,6 / 8 or 11, depending on the lens)

 

I'm looking forward to receive some input.

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

Best regards

Peter

[ramarren]

I have the Super-Elmar-R 15mm, Elmarit-R 19mm, and Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21mm (WATE) in this ultrawide range. The WATE produces the best corner to corner sharpness, most even illumination, and the least distortion when paired with its appropriate lens profile for the focal length out of this trio. For ultrawide stitching purposes, I don't know many lenses that can compete with the WATE. 

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[Dr. G]

Sorry to ask this in your thread, but I'm completely naive when it comes to 360 degree photography.  How does one go about processing the multiple images for the complete view?  

[Peter E]

I have the Super-Elmar-R 15mm, Elmarit-R 19mm, and Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21mm (WATE) in this ultrawide range. The WATE produces the best corner to corner sharpness, most even illumination, and the least distortion when paired with its appropriate lens profile for the focal length out of this trio. For ultrawide stitching purposes, I don't know many lenses that can compete with the WATE.

 

Thanks Ramarren!

 

I've used the wate too (borrowed it ) and the quality is very very good!

I was also thinking for a R lens, thanks for your answer about them.

I was checking also with Zeiss ZM 21 but I read that those are not so good.

Leica has some M 18mm lenses and 21mm not summilux but I don't know how they perform, maybe those are very good too with a lower purchase price then the WATE ;-)

 

It seems until now, the best way is the WATE...

 

Best regards

Peter

[Peter E]

Sorry to ask this in your thread, but I'm completely naive when it comes to 360 degree photography. How does one go about processing the multiple images for the complete view?

 

Hi,

 

For 360 you need:

- a panohead to mount your camera and do the photograpy. Your nodal point is very important to avoid parallax problems during stitching.

- for stitching you need software like ptgui or autopano giga (there are a lot others but those are mostly used)

- to make the VR tour you need software like pano2vr, panotour or others. In this software you import your stitched panoramas and create a VR tour.

 

On the internet you'll find a lot of info about this.

 

Check this webpage, this contains tons of information on different pages:

https://www.panoramic-photo-guide.com/virtual-tour-360-photography/how-to-make-virtual-tour-summary.html

 

It is not complex, but you need to do it right to get nice results.

 

 

I hope this little information helps a bit :-)

 

Best regards

Peter

Edited December 18, 2017 by Peter E

[IkarusJohn]

Hi Peter,

 

I've stitched some large panoramas together to make huge landscapes, but never a 360º image.  I recall seeing one from the Bodleian (?) library in Oxford.  The photographer had a descending mount, centred on the aperture.  The result was astonishing - you could read the spines of the books.

 

I'm curious as to why you would use a wide angle lens for this, as distortion is inevitable.  In the past I have used an AA 90 Summicron (the results were spectacular, and there were no issues with stitching).  Certainly, the widest I would contemplate is 50mm - granted you end up with a huge file, but it gives more options.  I used to use PTGui, but now I prefer merge in PhotoShop.

 

What subject do you have in mind?

 

Cheers

John

[Ingo]

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My favorite lens for 360 Panos is the TL-23mm.

[saxo]

To make it short: Super Elmar-M 3,4 21mm

[Dr. G]

Hi,

 

For 360 you need:

- a panohead to mount your camera and do the photograpy. Your nodal point is very important to avoid parallax problems during stitching.

- for stitching you need software like ptgui or autopano giga (there are a lot others but those are mostly used)

- to make the VR tour you need software like pano2vr, panotour or others. In this software you import your stitched panoramas and create a VR tour.

 

On the internet you'll find a lot of info about this.

 

Check this webpage, this contains tons of information on different pages:

https://www.panoramic-photo-guide.com/virtual-tour-360-photography/how-to-make-virtual-tour-summary.html

 

It is not complex, but you need to do it right to get nice results.

 

 

I hope this little information helps a bit :-)

 

Best regards

Peter

 

 

Thanks.  I was looking at this:  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1301055-REG/really_right_stuff_bh_55_pclr_bh_55_ballhead_with_lever_release.html

I still need to get a tripod, so I figure I can just pick up everything at once.  

Edited December 19, 2017 by Dr. G

[su25]

Since the final result is that of a stitched photograph, I suppose the deciding factor would be price and focal length. Lack of corner sharpness can probably be ignored, as overlap will take care of this weakness in the chosen lens.

[Peter E]

Hi Peter,

 

I've stitched some large panoramas together to make huge landscapes, but never a 360º image.  I recall seeing one from the Bodleian (?) library in Oxford.  The photographer had a descending mount, centred on the aperture.  The result was astonishing - you could read the spines of the books.

 

I'm curious as to why you would use a wide angle lens for this, as distortion is inevitable.  In the past I have used an AA 90 Summicron (the results were spectacular, and there were no issues with stitching).  Certainly, the widest I would contemplate is 50mm - granted you end up with a huge file, but it gives more options.  I used to use PTGui, but now I prefer merge in PhotoShop.

 

What subject do you have in mind?

 

Cheers

John

Hi John,

 

You are absolutly right if you do huge landscape panoramas.

I'm using it to make virtual tours inside museums, stores, but even for the farming industry ...

Close subjects are between 0,8 - 0,9m, so I need a lot of DOF to get sharpness over the whole distance to infinity.

This is only possible with wide angle lenses or fisheye lenses but I don't want to work with fisheye lenses.

 

Best regards

Peter

[Peter E]

My favorite lens for 360 Panos is the TL-23mm.

Thanks Ingo, I'm going to check this one, is this a full frame lens?

 

Best regars

Peter

[Peter E]

To make it short: Super Elmar-M 3,4 21mm

Thanks Saxo, this can be interesting :-)

Do you have experiance with this lens?

 

Thanks!

Best regards

Peter

[otto.f]

I agree with John in #6. You get the best results with a 50mm in my view, because wide angles always give perspective distortion and will therefore limit your stitching possibilities. And more captures will give more resolution. So I vote for the 50 Summilux SL

Edited December 19, 2017 by otto.f

[saxo]

Thanks Saxo, this can be interesting :-)

Do you have experiance with this lens?

 

Thanks!

Best regards

Peter

 

Very little distortion, good resolution, not too pricey and 21 mm is just about a super wide-angle, but not too dramatic, I use it mainly indoors. It has the same filter mount as summilux 35 and 50mm.

[Ingo]

Thanks Ingo, I'm going to check this one, is this a full frame lens?

 

Best regars

Peter

No, you will get 10MP for each photo on the SL. I take 16 photos for each row, three rows + nadir + zenit. So in sum I get more pixels than I need. 

I use the TL-23 because I own it and 35mm (equivalent) is a common focal length for panorama photography (although you can of course use whatever you want).

 

Sometimes and for web presentation only I use a fisheye. In this case I only need 4 frames for a complete 360 panorama. 

 

Just for completeness: 

Sometimes I use my WATE (8 frames per row) or the 24-90 @ 24mm (10 frames per row).

[helged]

The  24-90 @ 24mm is outstanding wrt sharpness and colour, even into the corners. Sharpness is of less importance for a stitch, but uneven colouring towards the edges can be an issue when stitching. 

A very small and outstanding lens for stitching is the newest 28mm Elmarit-M.

[saxo]

...

I use the TL-23 because I own it and 35mm (equivalent) is a common focal length for panorama photography (although you can of course use whatever you want).

 

....).

 

I agree, for panorama 35mm (full frame) gives a very natural angle of view (best would be about 40mm, e.g. Hasselblad Distagon 4/40mm with a Zörk-panorama shift adapter, but not for 360° ).

 

I only suggested the Super-elmar, because the thread opener asked for a lens within this super-wide angle range.

[Peter E]

Since the final result is that of a stitched photograph, I suppose the deciding factor would be price and focal length. Lack of corner sharpness can probably be ignored, as overlap will take care of this weakness in the chosen lens.

Hi su25,

 

I try to use a lens with less as possible distortion to get the best stitching result, for me personal this is important.

 

Best regards

Peter

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[Peter E]

I agree, for panorama 35mm (full frame) gives a very natural angle of view (best would be about 40mm, e.g. Hasselblad Distagon 4/40mm with a Zörk-panorama shift adapter, but not for 360° ).

 

I only suggested the Super-elmar, because the thread opener asked for a lens within this super-wide angle range.

Hi Saxo, thank you :-)

 

The only reason for the wide angle is the great DOF I can have, this is not possible with a 35 or 50mm.

For 360 spherical shoots you need to work with fixed focus and if you want to work in the best range of the lens (f5,6 8 or 11, depending on lens) and want the images to be sharp from 0,8m to infinity there is no other option.

 

Of course, if the closest subject is further away, you can work with 28, 50 or even tele.