EF 8-15mm Panos compared
Every panographer need this!
The EF 8-15mm is a genius idea by the folks at Canon. Fits a fullframe camera, full circular fisheye at 8mm and 15mm at the other end. Are they guys at Canon shooting a lot of panoramas?! cos’ this is elegantly engineered like all Canon L Lenses and is just great fun to shoot with.
The Sigma 8mm has been our primary working lens for a while now and is generally great lens shooting 4 shots panoramas but thetime do come when higher resolutions panoramas is requested. For displaying on larger displays, projected…and shooting 4 shots even with a 5D MK2 of 22mp seemed lacking.
That’s when we bring out the Canon EF 15mm f/2.8
Below: The 2 lenses.
With the 8-15mm, you can shoot 4 shots around to freeze busy areas for panoramas and 6 shots around at 15mm for higher resolution when needed. All with a single lens! Nodal point set to the same. No adjustment needs on a Nodal Ninja 3! Time saving much! Below: Sigma 8mm and the Canon EF 8-15mm with the lens hood on.
Below: Sigma 8mm with the 360 Precision Atome lens ring attached. All hoods removed.
Below: The AF button placement on the Sigma and the Canon
Panorama Compared All below shot with same lens on a 5DMK3.
Click image to launch panoramas. 15mm 6 around, 60 degrees each shot
– PTGui reports 14,620 x 7310 pixel as Maximum output allowed
– Image is output as 10,000 pixel x 5000 pixel
15mm 8 around, 45 degrees each shot
– PTGui reports 14,428 x 7214 pixel as Maximum output allowed
– Image is output as 10,000 pixel x 5000 pixel
On a 5D MK2
15mm 6 around, 60 degrees each shot
15mm 8 around, 45 degrees each shot
Summary
Allowing panos to be shot at 8mm or 15mm or anything in between for that matter, allows a panographer to be travelling light leaving more to concentrate on shooting than worrying about the weight and at times, distances needed to cover a single location. Lugging around all those gears will just be inefficient.
All above shot with a Nodal Ninja 3 and a RD8 rotator allowing easy changing of the click stops with just a few spins of the knob to loosen then another few spins into the desired degree clicks (90, 45, 60) It allows a panographer to decide on the spot to shoot 4 shot pano. Allowing freezing of the scene when there’s a lot of movement of people or objects or shoot at higher resolutions of 6 shots at 15mm.
It’s a good, flexible and valuable arsenal in any panographer’s bag. Buy it, no matter the cost!
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