Hi!

Depends on how Giga your Gigapixel is supposed to become of course :-)
Instead of a zoom i suggest an 85mm. The Canon 1,8/85mm is said to be an excellent lens and it´s cheap nevertheless.
Another very fine lens is the 2,8/100mm Macro - razorsharp, non ditortions . . very, very good. And also cheap.

Both are great lenses for your purpose.

The only real good zoom which imho is comparable to prime lenses is a rather expensive Nikon zoom.
You go crazy having to compensate CAs on 300 images . . .

I myself use an old manual Nikon 1,4/85mm from 1983 for highres-panos of not too much Gigapixels. Excellent lens - no CA, no distortions, fast. Superb sharpness. Use it on a D3x and on a 5D2 (with Novoflex-adapter ring).

see it here: http://www.s341703522.online.de/Index.html 5D2, 4 Gigapixel (some blurry parts because we stood on a slightly vibrating bridge).
and here - shot with a 20D (1,6 crop) several years ago - spherical projection:
www.klausesser.de/5_5_ganz.jpg
www.klausesser.de/5_5_100.jpg
www.klausesser.de/5_5_100_2.jpg

85mm and 100mm are excellent for shooting architecture outdoors.

best, Klaus

Hi Klaus ,

first of all compliment for http://www.s341703522.online.de/Index.html gigapixel panorama, I wish i could reach this result !
second of all thank you very much for your advices !

As a beginner and enthusiastic photographer , if you don't mind I ask you the difference bertween 2,8/100mm Macro and 1,8/85mm , that because I like to do macro pictures ...So if you said that are almost the same for architecture outdoors I will buy the second one .

Thank You and have a good day.

Lorenzo

lorenzzz wrote:

As a beginner and enthusiastic photographer , if you don't mind I ask you the difference bertween 2,8/100mm Macro and 1,8/85mm , that because I like to do macro pictures ...So if you said that are almost the same for architecture outdoors I will buy the second one .

The 85mm is a very good lens at a reasonable price. I´ts as good as the very expensive 1.2 - but if you need the speed . . The 100mm Macro also is very fine - not just for the price.
Basically they´re both very good for architecture - if you don´t need the higher pixel-amount with a 105mm take the 85. If you want to do macos also, take the 100mm Macro - it´s very fine for non-macro also. And it´s a good lens for closeup portraits with blurred backgrounds.
My personal strategy is to use manual Nikon lenses wherever i can. They´re fantastic - no distortions, no visible CA. And no EXIFs . .
For architectural stitches i prefer to use a Nikon 2,8/35mm Ais - razorsharp @f8/11, no CAs, no distortions. Perfect lens for stitching with fullframes - DX anyway - and you never get in trouble with DOF.
But: no EXIFs (i don´t need them anyway, APG does very fine without).

best, Klaus

wjh31 wrote:

IF i may butt in for a moment, Klaus can i ask how you handled focus for that 4 gigapixel 360 degree image. 85mm is starting to get quite long, so did you stop right down or adjust the focus as the panorama progressed?

Hi!

I used hyperfocal setting for f8.
Used live view for precise focusing.

Best, Klaus

P. S.: i rendered without sky and ground -
because of the data-size. This way the image is
about 9GB in Photoshop - otherwise it's about
37GB.

Last edited by klausesser (2011-04-20 18:12:38)

Congrats Klausesser i like your quality of your work, by the way. Which hardware for shooting the pictures you use? Merlin, epicpro, roundshoot. I´m want to shoot one with a 100macro from Zeiss, but i didn´t had enough time to do it !!!! . Basically i´ve got almost the same set up you used, but with the zeiss. Thanks in advanced and again congrats.

Many thanks gkaefer, it´s only for curiosity i own one but i´m seriously considering to buy one roundshot.  I would try to do one with the macro and see how are the results . Again thanks, i´m new on Kolors forums!!!.