UKC

I'm not a huge fan of digital photography but I do have the need to shoot room interiors at wide angles for work and digital makes sense for this.

What are my options for getting reasonable low light performance wider than 24mm without breking the bank??

I have a 20mm manual focus nikkor that I could use but that would mean going full frame, used D600/700 being quite a chunk of cash and does metering become an issue with an older lens? Or do I go crop sensor D3200 and a 10-20mm class lens from a 3rd party (tokina etc). Or is there a bridge, mirrorless or compact that fits the bill?

What's this going to set me back?

your thoughts appreciated.
George

In reply to George Fisher:



If it's static interiors you're shooting then you could just use a tripod and buy f5.6 lenses as opposed to f4, f2.8 etc?

In reply to George Fisher:

My advice would be that for architectural interiors, you want minimal distortion, (unless for whatever reason, you're not bothered by that.) In which case, I'd probably stay cropped sensor format and get a wide angle such as the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 which is fast and sharp. No point in splashing cash for full frame , giving you wider images, but which will consequently be more distorted.

Of course, I might be talking rubbish and no doubt someone more qualified (of whom there are many on this site / forum alone) will come along with better and more appropriate advice Best of luck.

In reply to George Fisher:

I used to use a 10-22mm on a 1.6 crop body. As long as you correct the barrel distortion, it's not a problem.
Currently I have a 1.3 crop and a 17-40, which isnt really wide enough for shooting bathrooms/kitchens in an average sized house imho.

In reply to George Fisher:

Get a cheap m43 body and a samyang 7.5mm fisheye. I own it and it is excellent value for money. It's F3.5, but I don't think you'll find anything 'faster' at a 14mm equivalent apart from the new olympus 8mm fisheye.

In reply to George Fisher:

Genuinely thought this was a thread about buying offwidth gear on a budget before I realised it was posted in photography. :')

In reply to George Fisher:

Worth looking at the Fuji X-series. You can get a used Fujifilm X-E1 for peanuts these days. I have one and it's great for a cropped-sensor camera, especially in low light. There are several wide-angle options including cheap Samyang lenses, but even the standard 18-55 kit lens is actually pretty good, with an f/2.8 aperture at 18mm and quality optics. There are also several native wide-angle primes available for the X-mount.

Other options might be better, but I'm a very happy user of this system.

In reply to George Fisher:

When I had a film Nikon I used to have a cosina 19-35 f3.5-4.5. It was a great lens for the price, but wasn't quite sharp enough when I went to an aps-c digital.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53756291

A more expensive but excellent full frame option is the nikkor 20mm f2.8d but that will set you back over £400 unless you are lucky. There's an old manual focus version of the lens that is optically identical but much cheaper if you can find it.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/20af.htm

The cheapest decent ultra wide zoom I have used for crop sensor SLRs is the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, but it will still set you back a the best part of 400 quid.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/11-16mm-ii.htm

In reply to George Fisher:

I have a Sigma 12-24 (full frame) and love it to bits. You can't do anything about perspective distortion but I get very little if any barrelling so the results don't have that fish-eye yukness and don't tie your brain in knots. I think it's something like f4.5 so not fast, but DLSRs are so good in low light now it doesn't matter if you push the ISO a few stops (as long as you're happy with DOF of course).
Lent it to a BBC cameraman recently and he went out and bought one straight afterwards.

In reply to George Fisher:

sigma 10-20mm....good and (relatively) cheap.

In reply to George Fisher:

So a used D600 seems to be around £600 from a dealer. That with my 20mm f3.5 sorts the indoor stuff and i can use my other AI lenses 50+35 for other stuff.

I'm sure I'd want an AF lens of some kind too. This is how it starts..again.

In reply to George Fisher:

That Nikkor is a decent lens, I'd be tempted to pick up a second hand Sony A7 and an adaptor for the nikkor. That's a platform you can then do a lot with in the future, rather than the options of Nikon fx or dx which are much more limiting. It'd be small enough to make a great climbing/ walking setup too.

In reply to George Fisher:

Alternatively get a second hand go pro and use the still facility....at about 12mp they might be good quality but slightly fish-eye.

In reply to George Fisher:
I have a Sony Nex-6 (the modern equivalent in the A6000) and use the excellent Samyang 12mm f2.0 for wide angle stuff. It's fully manual so you have to know what you're doing, but if you're not a fan of digital photography anyway, that might appeal. Fixed 12mm with f2.0 would make it pretty excellent at interiors I should think. Their 8mm fisheyes look great too, and not too expensive.

edit: A6000 less than £500 new, with kit 16-50mm.
Samyang 12mm f2.0 about £270.

Examples of both (well, the discontinued Nex-6) here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/105585253@N07/

In reply to Morgan Woods:


They are good but only if you're really on a tight budget. I couldn't justify the extra for the Tokina and got a Sigma, but soon regretted it and splashed the cash. The Tokina imo definitely has better optics and is much sharper right across the board. I got a used one on here for about £270 I think it was ,and am very glad I switched.

In reply to George Fisher:

Of interest:- https://luminous-landscape.com/rokinon-samyang-12mm-f2-8-fisheye-defished/