D3000 -Reccomend a wide angle lens

DeeElleAych

New member
Hi!
I work in Real Estate and own a D3000.
I'm in the market for a wide angled lens suitable for photographing my homes for sale.
Price isn't too much of an issue, after doing some research I was looking into the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 HSM, is this suitable for the D3000?
Any help you can give me would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Deb

P.S recommend* oops! :)
 
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Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Hi Deb;

The Sigma 10-20mm f/4 EX DC HSM is a very good lens and would be fine on your D3000.

Another suggestion would be the Tokina 12-28mm f/4 PRO DX. Either would serve you well.

Edit: I think it might be a good idea to point out that, when shooting in the 10-12mm range on a DX forma camera, there *IS* going to be distortion that is going to need to be corrected for if you're wanting these shots to look their best, regardless of your lens choice. I've done some real-estate shooting using an 11-16mm and the distortion is noticeable. To correct for this you'll need access to something like Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop. I don't know if Adobe Photoshop Elements will do lens corrections or not, but I think it will. You can download a free 30-day trial of any of these applications, though, and try them out for yourself.

Just thought this not-so-little detail should be pointed out....
 
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sonicbuffalo_RIP

Senior Member
Hi Deb and welcome to Nikonites....I agree with what Horoscope Fish stated. I will say though that you'll likely get better results with FX gear as it allows you to get wider shots with Full Frame, If you're serious about Real Estate Photography I would recommend a D610 camera and a 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens.
 

aroy

Senior Member
Hi!
I work in Real Estate and own a D3000.
I'm in the market for a wide angled lens suitable for photographing my homes for sale.
Price isn't too much of an issue, after doing some research I was looking into the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 HSM, is this suitable for the D3000?
Any help you can give me would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Deb

P.S recommend* oops! :)

Good wide angles are expensive, ones with low distortion even more. If you are going to be in real estate business for a long time, then you should think of upgrading your system. The quality of images you want, will determine the lenses.

1. Level 1. Here you can use your kit 18-55 lense, especially for the exteriors. If you find that 18mm is not wide enough, you can stitch two or more shots to go wider. For interiors you will need to stitch even with 10mm if you want to shoot a small to medium room. So learn how to stitch multiple images to over come the limitation of the lenses. You will always get situation where barring fish eye no lense can take in the whole interior in one shot.

2. Level 2. At this stage you will want better images, so external flash and lights will be of more value. Learn how to use external lighting to jazz up your shots.

3. Level 3. Move over to full frame, say D610. Now you have a plethora of lenses which would be wide enough. A 20mm lense in FF will have more FOV than a 14mm in DX. Similarly a 14mm in FX has more FOV than a 10mm in DX. You also have a lot of older AIS wide angle lenses as well as "D" lenses to choose from. Many older lenses are quite good and are very reasonably priced.

4. Level 4. If you want to get perspective correction in the camera it self, then add PC lenses. PC lenses are used quite a lot by Architects.

Finally higher MP sensors give you a lot of scope for cropping your shots. A D3000 sensor has about 3,900 pixels on the long end. The 24MP sensor has 6,000. That is 50% more pixels to play around with. If you crop 50% all around you will still have more pixels than in the D3000.
 

skene

Senior Member
Tokina 11-16 F2.8 ATX DXII
Nikon 12-24 F4

Me personally I've shot the Tokina and it is amazing, but if you are unfamiliar with something so wide, it would be best to go to your local camera store to see them in person.
 

Felisek

Senior Member
I used Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 AT-X Pro DX II to take a few pictures of our office space. It has an advantage of being fast (f2.8), so you can take pictures in low light. When you use an ultra-wide angle lens for interior photography, make sure that you point your camera straight ahead, i.e., do not point it down or up. Otherwise, you will end up with distorted converging lines that are difficult to correct.

Here are a few pictures taken with this lens. I kept the camera horizontal each time and corrected any remaining distortion in Photoshop.


1MG_1834a.jpg

1MG_1843b.jpg

1MG_1860a.jpg
 

DeeElleAych

New member
Hi Deb and welcome to Nikonites....I agree with what Horoscope Fish stated. I will say though that you'll likely get better results with FX gear as it allows you to get wider shots with Full Frame, If you're serious about Real Estate Photography I would recommend a D610 camera and a 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens.

Any reason you suggest the D610 in particular?
 

sonicbuffalo_RIP

Senior Member
Any reason you suggest the D610 in particular?

Well Deb,

I recommend it mainly because it's an entry level Full Frame camera and will give you, with the right lens, a wide angle shot which is ideal for shooting interiors and exteriors. I have the 14-24 f/2.8, which is great in low light. I think full frame is the way to go when shooting real estate. The D610 is very adequate for that. Hope that helps explain. The APS-C sensor is like the D7100, D5100, D5300, etc. and will give you a narrower field of view.
 

DeeElleAych

New member
Thanks sb..

Looks like I'll be having a work kit and a play kit.. I can handle that :)

Well Deb,

I recommend it mainly because it's an entry level Full Frame camera and will give you, with the right lens, a wide angle shot which is ideal for shooting interiors and exteriors. I have the 14-24 f/2.8, which is great in low light. I think full frame is the way to go when shooting real estate. The D610 is very adequate for that. Hope that helps explain. The APS-C sensor is like the D7100, D5100, D5300, etc. and will give you a narrower field of view.
 
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