Wide Angle lens for Building & Architecture Photography.

Hello,

I would like to start taking images of Buildings and Architecture both internal and external, mainly of Churches etc using my Pentax K5 DSLR. I currently have a Pentax 16-45mm lens but have noticed in certain images that the focusing is not as sharp on the outer edges of the image as it is in the center. Maybe its my technique or settings that are incorrect and not my lens!

The images I produce will be for viewing on screen, projected and printed up to A3 size.

So my question is, which lens do you suggest would be a good purchase? I am looking to spend around £500ish on the lens.

Since the Photo Show is only a few weeks away I thought I would ask this question now and then look at the lenses suggested at the Photo Show.

So will it be Pentax, Sigma, Tamron or Samyang and which model?

Also should I be looking for a fast lens such as an f2.8 or will an f4 or f2.8/f4 lens suffice?

Best Regards,

I personally have the 15-30 but thats A: Really expensive and B: I only have it because I have the K1 and need a full frame lens, its excellent though!

On the APS-C options I'd normally suggest a Tokina 11-16 but I don't believe thats available in a Pentax Mount....
I briefly owned a Pentax 12-24 back in my K20D days and was very impressed with it but I also understand that the newest Sigma 12-24 is excellent, both appear to be similar price wise and to be honest I'd probably buy a Pentax lens over a Sigma given the choice....

The Samyung 14mm F2.8 is pretty good and well within your budget, it's of course manual focus only, I've not had mine long and don't think I've got the best from it yet, down to me and not the lens.

There will be a difference between the centre and at the edges, but I'm surprised it is troublingly so. A somewhat better lens in that respect is the 12-24, which at least at the wide end is excellent in the centre and good at the edges (it tails off a little towards 24mm).

But it's probably worth trying to squeeze what you want out of your current lens. Your question about whether or not you need a fast lens makes me wonder if you are using the lens at too wide an aperture (that would explain the noticeable centre-edge difference). I'd recommend stopping down further than you have been, even if (for interiors) the ISO has to increase to compensate. Of course if you're in one of those rare churches that allow tripods, just drop the speed instead.

For the particular purpose you mention, paying more (and carrying more weight) for a fast lens is money/energy wasted.

For wide shots, you might like to try a different approach. Use any of your lenses at its sweet spot for sharpness, take several overlapping shots, and stitch them together in software. This photo of Kingston Lacy House started as four images shot hand-held from left to right with a 35mm lens on a K-5IIs; they were then stitched in the free software from Microsoft, called Image Composite Editor (Microsoft ICE). This gave a very high resolution composite image (around 40 megapixels), downsized for display here:




Cheers.
Philip

When I upgraded my 18-135 lens to the 16-85 I was much happier photographing interiors. The 16mm at the wide end adds significantly to the FOV, the edge to edge sharpness was dramatically better. although I do keep the aperture around f8 and use a tripod. I have a Sigma 8-16 which is a lovely lens for interiors, allowing plenty of room for perspective cropping to get those columns and windows vertical. I nearly always use a tripod as exposure bracketing/HDR is nearly always needed to deal with the dynamic range. Not really had a problem with tripod use in churches and cathedrals although I do write asking prior permission if I am travelling a long way to photograph - always had a polite positive reply and permission, maybe with a small fee to be paid and a non commercial disclaimer. The glaring exception was Durham cathedral who asked me not to take photos as it is a sacred place. They then sent me an invite to a photography open day - at a cost. The no photography rule does not apply to camera phones it seems as most visitors seemed to be using them.

Sigma 10-20mm is fantastic. Both version with the slower one being in my opinion, sharper and better overall. But that's just based one 1 sample so hardly any evidence. I have enjoyed using it immensely having taken thousands of interior shots with it. Lovely colour rendering, good sharpness, good handling. The only issue I had with mine is the lens hood - it kept on falling off! Strangely enough, never even cracked. Fantastic value for money.

Agree with Mag07. Great lens for interiors plus good value.

these were all shot using Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, a Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4 then when that broke i picked up a Pentax 17-70 f4 . nearly all are small village churches with a couple of a bigger ones albeit in small villages
the majority are at 17mm and none are with the lens wide open. shot using tripod, remote shutter release and bracketed where i thought it was needed.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/haywagon200/16591804250/in/album-72157647886394224...

same lenses used for the externals as well, again 17mm seems to be the most used

https://www.flickr.com/photos/haywagon200/32669191792/in/album-72157671166059192...

hope this will help with your choice. used to own a 16-45 and always thought it a very good lens and only got rid of it to move to primes which i found did not suit me so back to variable lenses

There's a Sigma 10-20 going in the Classifeds for 200 spot...

link

Take a long hard look at the new Irix 15mm and even newer 11mm (which would be awesome on a crop body)
Relatively inexpensive and built with care and attention to detail.

Just yesterday I received in the post a Pentax SMC 28mm f/3.5 shift lens which should prove ideal for architecture photography. Possibly its not normally wide enough for APS-C though.
Having said that, are you aware of the shift feature of the sensor when using liveview which can be used with any lens? It doesn't give the scope of a dedicated shift lens but does provide a useful amount of shift when straightening out tall buildings.
The shift lens came with its original receipt dated 1982 and I paid more or less what it originally cost back then. A web based inflation calculator shows that its value new now would be around £950. Makes you think.

Thanks for the responses so far, they are all gratefully received.

Attached you will find an image that I took with my 16-45mm lens recently which got me thinking of buying a new lens. The image has been reduced in size. The arches in the centre of the image are crisp and clear. However, the towers are the top of the image are out of focus and not sharp. The image was taken at f7.

I wondered about a Shift lens at one point. I looked a few years back and did see one or two but they were priced around £600-£800 used so didn't think of buying one. I use Paint Shop Pro X9 for my Image processing. That has a rather handy Perspective adjustment feature which has worked wonders so far. A Shift lens would be an ideal addition to my kit bag, but wonder if I would use it enough to warrant the expense?

Here is a cropped view of the Image after having used the Perspective control feature in paint Shop Pro X9.