Need digital camera for architecture w/shift wide-angle

[Sandy Sorlien]

Thanks everyone -- it sounds like my ideal situation does not quite exist, except possibly the DSC - does anyone else think I should avoid Kodak? Oyvind is quite right, taking two pictures side-by-side is an option to get more wide angle, except I am trying to avoid a lot of post-upload correction and compositing time. Speed speed speed! How anti-LF, sorry.... I already have a small view camera and could get a digital back, but there is no way I can do this kind of work with a tripod. Well, I'll try to track down a DSC to rent or borrow. One thing that worries me is it's a big beast and I have small hands.

Cheers, Sandy

[Ellis Vener]

The poor quality reports on the 14N were based on early versions of the camera and firmware-- both of which have been vastly improved since last Spring., and the price has dropped to boot. the camera still isn't great at ISO settings of over 200 -- good to fair as you increase ISO settings above 200. kodak is offering a free rental day coupon as a current promotional special

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Sandy, you should have a look at this article on the French MF/LF web site

http://www.galerie-photo.com/test-gaud.html

The author, Henri Gaud (http://www.editionsgaud.com), is an uncompromising French professional LF architecture photographer, but he praises what he can get with a 24mm Canon T+S lens.

In the article he presents in parallel different images of the same subject (Fontevraud Abbey) taken with the Canon 24mm T+S lens, a 55 Rodenstock apo-Grandagon on an Alpa 12-shift, and a Fuji 50mm on a 6x8 Fuji GX680 camera.

The apo-grandagon wins, no surprise, but Canon engineers made an incredible good job with the 24mm T+S. The idea is that from a MF slide you always have a slight loss by digitizing the image, wheread a direct digital capture although of much lesser theoretical quality in 35mm (even "full-frame 24x36" like on the Canon 1DS) may be more than acceptable for many publications.

[David Kaplan]

First, I have to say that I am associated with ALPA. I spent several days demonstrating in their booth at the last Photokina and was an ALPA rep in the New York City area.

ALPA's precision and workmanship is in a class by itself, as compared to every other MF camera that I have used. Check out their web site at www.alpa.ch which is in English.

I can be reached directly at dp_kaplan@yahoo.com for a more detailed description of the ALPA system.

[Rainer]

as i listened the nikon 28mm shift doesnt work together with the kodak 14n. the kodak is too big and you cannot use the knob for shifting the lense up..................... maybee the schneider sa- pc28 works, but i dont know this.

[Lloyd_3846]

Here is a rather radical approach. If you do not need high resolution images (over 10 meg files - after cropping) get a Nikon 5000 or 5400 with 19mm adapter. The extra coverage (19mm vs 28mm) will allow you to shoot with your camera level/no convergence and then you crop the extra from the bottom and sides to fill the frame. This would be an inexpensive and fast system. The 19mm has some barrel distortion but can be removed in one step with an action available from the Nikon E Book CDs or your own custom action. You could shoot pix, apply corrective action to the entire project folder, and then crop to your desired composition and image size for Powerpoint presentation. That is the fastest solution I can think of.

[Sandy Sorlien]

Thanks Lloyd, that would work great as long as those cameras are full-frame sensors -- are they? If they are the usual 1.5 factor, then that 19mm lens is really a 28 and I would not have the luxury of cropping the foreground and sides and still have a 28-equivalent angle of view. The camera I have now (Olympus 2020) can be used this way (well, any camera can) but it just isn't wide enough (about 38mm).

Many good ideas in this thread, thanks everyone.

Sandy

[Bill_1856]

Don't forget that your PC Nikkor lenses will fit on a Canon EOS with an easily available and inexpensive adapter.