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Re: [OM] What to buy for architectural photography at a budget?

Subject: Re: [OM] What to buy for architectural photography at a budget?
From: "Piers Hemy" <piers@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:56:51 +0100
I concur with what you say Chuck, save that if it is $25 now, the price has
increased considerably since I bought it! 

But I did find that the specifications for images to provide for calibration
are pretty exacting. It might be better in the circumstances to choose a
lens which is already in the PT Lens database, r t heed the following advice
from the helpfile:

===
When PTLens identifies your camera make and model, relevant lenses appear in
the lens drop-down menu. For example, Canon lenses appear in the menu when a
Canon camera is selected. In addition, lenses manufactured by 3rd party
manufacturers such as Tamron, Tokina, and Sigma are also included. Lenses
from Pentax, Nikon, and Olympus are not included.  But what if you want to
correct an image taken with a Canon 5D and an Olympus Zuiko 24mm shift lens?
There are two ways this may be accomplished and both techniques involve
hiding the fact that the image was taken with a Canon camera. 
Method 1. Remove exif information from the image prior to invoking PTLens.
In Photoshop choose File > Save for Web. This will strip all EXIF
information. Then load the altered image. 
Method 2. In PTLens choose Tools > Options and disable Detects Camera. 
With no Camera information PTLens will let you choose any configuration. For
this case you would choose Olympus SLR for Make, 35mm: full frame for Model,
and the Zuiko 24mm shift lens in the Lens drop-down list.
===

Piers

-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Norcutt [mailto:chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: 19 October 2010 00:57
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] What to buy for architectural photography at a budget?

No PhotoShop required.  You can use PTLens which is better than PhotoShop
and costs only $25.  While those of us with PhotoShop use the plug-in
version, PTLens also comes as a stand-alone version and also as an external
editor for Lightroom.  Both PC and Mac are supported. 
<http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/index.html>

One really great feature of PTLens is a database of lenses which has
built-in distortion correction parameters.  If you have a lens not in the
database you can send the author a set of images using that lens and he will
determine the correction parameters from your test images and include it in
the database.  For digital images having lens data in the EXIF data the
correct lens is chosen automatically.

If you're going to be be bending pixels to correct perspective than having
lots of pixels is an advantage to help maintain resolution.  The Canon 550D
gives 18 MP vs 12 on the E-620 and the Canon EFs 10-22 lens would be a good
match.  Unfortunately, that pair, at US prices is about
$70-80 over budget.  I also don't know how the 10-22 performs whereas the DZ
9-18 is well reviewed at DPReview (low distortion is one of its charms).

Of course, outside 4/3 cameras one can look at Tamron, Tokina and Sigma lens
alternatives.  The Tokina 12-24 and 11-16 are excellent lenses.  I assume
the Tamron 10-24 is also.  And don't forget Pentax for bodies. 
The Tamron 10-24 is available in Pentax mount.  It seems to me that Andrew
just recommended the just released Pentax Kr ($800) for something recently.
The Tamron 10-24 has a $100 rebate on it right now and can be had for $400.
Within budget.

Chuck Norcutt


On 10/18/2010 4:22 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> I'd stick to Olympus normal 4/3rds as the mFT lenses tend to be more 
> expensive. Also it looks more 'professional' . It's not that much of a 
> dead end - you won't care what the situation is in 5 years time!
> The E-620 with 9-18mm and 50mm would be good. What you really need is 
> a shift lens but you don't have the budget for it so access to 
> computers with a site licence for Photoshop is essential. Andrew 
> Fildes afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> On 19/10/2010, at 5:59 AM, iwert bernakiewicz wrote:
>
>> Hello everybody,
>>
>> Long time no write, but it has been very busy here. I've been 
>> reviving the tool of photography at my architecture school and it is 
>> rather successful. I'll be doing two courses for alumni about 
>> photography in the architectural practice (architectural models& 
>> other specialties as well as the basics). the first was full in 48 
>> hours, so there appears to be a need in the professional world :).
>>
>> Now that the iron is hot I got a friendly mail today telling me to 
>> propose a camera for school with a budget of 1500 Euro maximum.
>>
>> Now there are a few quirks: no second hand allowed, and to be of EU 
>> origin, and including TVA, so this will be the rough equivalent of 
>> 1500$.
>>
>> Students as well as teachers will use the camera, not always too 
>> friendly I suppose. So I've been thinking:
>>
>> Panasonic G2 kit (570) + 7-14mm (1019), has video, lots of DOF 
>> (required for architectural models, the more the better:) and can 
>> mount the old Leica macro lenses we still have through an adaptor.
>>
>> Panasonc GH1 kit (1019) + Olympus 9-18 (599)
>>
>> Olympus E-620 (509,-) + 50 f2 (589,-) + 9-18 (509,-) might do it 
>> however. Question if this is not too much of a dead end?
>>
>> (but all these are over budget by 100 Euro..., why isn't it possible 
>> to buy body only with panasonic... would do the trick
>> otherwise)
>>
>> First two offer video, which might be interesting to experiment with 
>> for the students.
>>
>> Live-view is a definite plus. Canon is not good at the wide end 
>> (except for the shifts, but that is not within budget either :).
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Iwert --
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
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>> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>>
>>
>
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