Noobie needs help.

[dawngel]

Hi,

I am embarking on a Hokkaido trip in June.
I have a fujifilm F31 and canon A75.
I am thinking of getting a wide-angle lens for my canon A75 to use on the trip.

Can anybody advice me a cheap and good wide lens? I am not planning to spend a bomb on this one..cos this is more like a test shoot to see effect of wide lens. and cos my A75 is a really old camera now.

Will appreaciate any advice on brand, model, where I can buy and the price range that I should be looking at?

Thanks a million.

 

[ujinII]

get a canon 450d with kit lens !

 

[dawngel]

hi thanks for the reply...but I am not intending to buy a new camera...just a lens solution..

Thanks

 

[karnage]

Most wide-angle convertors don't have very good image quality. If you must, you can try those made by camera manufacturers. Canon have some right? Or you can try Olympus ones for a cheaper alternative. I'm sure Nikon and other brands also have. Raynox could be another brand to look at. I'm assuming you know that you need an adaptor tube to mount those lenses onto your A75.

If you have friends that have such convertors, you could try borrowing? Since it's only test test.

On the other hand, you could take a few overlapping photos to cover the scene that you want, then come home and stitch them together. If done correctly (same focus distance, same exposure etc), it also gives you a wide angle view. =)

 

[dawngel]

Hi Karnage,

Thanks for the reply.
Ashamed to say that, I did not know that an adaptor tube is required to mount the lens.
Can you give me a rough idea how much to expect for the adaptor tube and the lens?

I am trying out the paranoma solution...still trying to grasp taking overlapping photos with similar exposure...sometimes the angle seem to be off...esp when I do not use tripod.
Think more practise will help this, right?

 

[yeekhai]

you may google lensmate something, i think they have some adapter and wide angle thingy there, or u may check under the mass sale section - mcgill, they may have the solution for u.

 

[dawngel]

thanks yeekhai.

Some questions:
I have trying to take photos and stitching it as a paranoma.
But I am having some problem - part of the paranoma have shadows that do not match the shade of the shadows of the other portions when I tried to stitch.
I am not sure where has gone wrong.

Can the experts here..enlighten me what should do done?

Thanks in advance

 

[dawngel]

hi can anybody give me some advice on this? Thanks.

 

[Shin Howard]

Hi Dawn,

Not sure what program you uses to stitch the pics, but I'm using Photoshop CS3.
Pretty easy and the result came out quite fine.

- Mount the camera on a tripod
- Adjust the tripod to a desirable height (You could handheld if you are stable enough)
- Shoot a series of pictures from left to right, make sure they have at least 45% overwrite on each other.
- Auto-align & auto-blend using using CS3
- You cld straighten & crop the pic, and even add some words.

This is what I did last year.

 

[CS TAN]

If you want more info, you can take a look HERE for lens adapter and wide angle converter.

They are recommending Raynox DCR-6600PRO .66x (Wide Angle Converter) 52m.

Good converter - not cheap. I just sold mine about a month ago in the B&S section.

 

[dawngel]

Thanks CS Tan, will look into that.

Hi Shin,

I am using Adobe CS2.
I did let it autoalign and blend by CS2. but there are still some shadows. How do I straighten the picture? What I did is to merge the photos together using CS2 and crop it...did not see options to straighten it.

If you notice the last two...I get shadows which I cant seem to get rid of and I am not sure y. (I did not take the photos using tripod though)

Btw, very nice photos you have there! =)

 

[Shen siung]

IMHO, is it you using auto when shooting? As a result, the camera select certain combination of Aperture / Shutter / ISo and result in slightly different exposure
With different exposure. when join together, the 'dark ' and not dark become visible - shadow...

If you are not using auto.. then I don't know... me also quite new...

 

[dawngel]

Hi Shen Siung,

I am using Manual, but I did lock the exposure, shutter speed etc...I am not sure how to do it..or rather..don't know of my camera allows me to do it anot..cos I am not using DSLR, I am using Fujifilm F31

Do you have any idea how to lock the exposure. shutter speed etc...to prevent such occurence again?

Thanks in advance

 

[dawngel]

Doing an up...in case this mail is missed...=)
Hope to get some advice on this..^_^

Thanks in advance

 

[jeremyteocx]

Thanks CS Tan, will look into that.

Hi Shin,

I am using Adobe CS2.
I did let it autoalign and blend by CS2. but there are still some shadows. How do I straighten the picture? What I did is to merge the photos together using CS2 and crop it...did not see options to straighten it.

If you notice the last two...I get shadows which I cant seem to get rid of and I am not sure y. (I did not take the photos using tripod though)

Btw, very nice photos you have there! =)

the last two shots are panorama shots right? if so, may i ask how did you join them? you may not have blended them in well enough while doing PP and may have resulted in those shadows ...

 

[dawngel]

Hi Jeremy,

All 4 are panorama.
I used CS2 to join the photos.
I go File -> Automate -> and start joining.. I think auto alignment is on.

I selected the box 'snap to image' and 'advanced blending'.
There are no other selections to change the settings further (or maybe I dunno how...).

 

[Rashkae]

CS2 is not exactly the best for stitching. CS3 is much better, but my own choice is PTGui.

 

[dawngel]

Hi Rashkae,

Is PTGui a freeware? What is the limitation of the trial version? Is it an unlimited period trial?
Or do you have a freeware stitching program to intro?

Thanks =)

 

[Shen siung]

Hi Shen Siung,

I am using Manual, but I did lock the exposure, shutter speed etc...I am not sure how to do it..or rather..don't know of my camera allows me to do it anot..cos I am not using DSLR, I am using Fujifilm F31

Do you have any idea how to lock the exposure. shutter speed etc...to prevent such occurence again?

Thanks in advance

Hmm, I do not know how to lock exposure :think:
You mean you have already set the aperture / shutter / iso same for all shoot of a single panorama picture?

 

[dawngel]

Sorry...I mean I did not lock the exposure, shutter speed etc..I just shoot.

I played ard with my camera. I can only lock aperture or lock shutter speed.
Which one will be better to keep locked?