Well, we got our Canon 17mm tilt/shift lens (TS-E 17mm), and so I decided to run a field of view test for my three primary lenses.  We take our real estate photos with a 24mm tilt/shift lens, a  14mm lens, and now a 17mm tilt/shift lens.  Because the 17 and 24 can be shifted, this gives us a total of 5 field of views.  Here's the largest of the images (the 17mm shifted image), with boxes showing the approximate field of view of the various options that we have.

As you can see, the next largest image is the 14mm, followed by the 17mm non-shifted and the 24mm shifted with the 24mm non-shifted being the smallest.

We bought the 14mm lens a year ago with the explicit intention of using it on the new 5D Mark II to speed our HDR processing by avoiding the use of the shifted 24mm.  Unfortunately, we didn't buy the Mark II body until last week, and since sharpness mattered more than processing, we continued to take pictures with the 24mm lens, shifting it to take 3 photos and blend the 3 together.  This resulted in a 20megapixel image.  With the new Mark II body, we can take a 20 megapixel image with the 14mm lens, and that makes the 24 mm lens less important.  The one advantage that the 24mm lens retains is that it is super-sharp.

Canon just released its 17mm tilt-shift lens.  This now allows us to take super-wide images by shifting the lens (it's probably around a 10mm lens), and these images are 40 megapixels!  The other thing that we really like about these images is that they are more of an 8x10 look (actually a 6x8), and gives a great look to brochures.  If we just used the 14mm, we would likely have to crop some of the image to make it less rectangular, but with the 17mm, we can shoot full-frame.

Note: We are guessing that Canon released the 17mm lens in part for people with a Rebel or 50d that are not full-frame sensors.  Using this lens on one of those bodies gives nearly the same field of view as the 24mm shift lens on the 5d, and those cameras are a lot less expensive.  So, if you have one of those camera bodies and want to go even wider and get more of an 8x10 look, the 17mm shift lens might be a good choice.

Anyway, I haven't tested the 17mm shift lens for sharpness yet; I hope it compares to the 24mm in this regard, though I have some concern about it because there are so many elements in the lens.  We'll try to write a review and let you know what we think after taking some real photos with it.

PLEASE NOTE: The photo above was taken to show field of view.  It also illustrates the point made elsewhere that super-wide shots can sometimes not be the best image.  Of all of those images, I think the size framing for this room is the 8x10 look of the 24mm shift, but I would reposition the camera to the right to get the piece of furniture to the far left out of the photo as it is a distraction.  Super-wide can be great when used correctly; the nice thing about a good wide angle lens is that you can always crop it tighter. 

Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

http://www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

We're thinking about buying Canon's new addition to the tilt/shift lens category.  They now have a 17mm tilt/shift lens.  This means that we could take near-panoramic, 40 megapixel images in our real estate photography using our new Canon 5D Mark II camera body.    We've used the TS-E 24mm lens for years, and love the low amount of distortion and super-sharp images that it gives.  We bought their 14mm f2.8 lens last year in an effort to avoid using the shift lens for every image.  Then lens is good and sharp and low distortion, but 14mm tends to start making stuff look weird out at the edges. 

If you've had a chance to test the TS-E 17mm lens, please let me know.  Our local rental department hasn't even gotten a copy of the lens yet, and it's available at only some of the online stores.  The online reviews have been good, but I would be curious to hear from some folks that are not in the photography business.

Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

We finally got our Canon 5D Mark II camera body.  I'm sure that it will be a great camera as we love our Canon 5D, original version.  This one is 21 megapixels.

The feature that is really great is the video-related features.  Yes, you can actually take HD video with the camera.  But that's not the feature that has promise.  If you plug the video out plug into the camera, it disables the LCD display on the back of the camera and instead outputs it to the wire.  This means that you can plug the wire into a TV....or a portable TV or a portable DVD player with an A/V in.  THAT opens up the great opportunity for get a small (5-7 inch) flat panel TV and drop a wire from the pole that we use to take our pole pictures.  Thus, when you click on the remote trigger, the output will go directly to the portable TV and you can see the image that you just took!

There are still tests that we need to run like making sure the signal holds up over 20 feet of cable, and we need to get an inexpensive flat panel TV and use velcro to attach it to the pole.  But that very simply output feature is going to provide immediate live viewing of the images that we're taking, and so that will be great.  We COULD do this with the original 5D, but the only way to do it is to use a laptop and control the camera with the laptop, and we have never wanted to get that complicated.

Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate

The NAR conference is in San Diego next week, and we thought we would touch base to see if anyone from the photography group was headed out here.  My husband John and I live about 25 minutes north of downtown San Diego, and we plan to attend.

John said he was willing to demo his pole camera rig or other camera setup if anyone had an interest.

Let us know if you're coming!  We'd be glad to meet up with some of the other people interested in photography (HDR, pole/aerial, etc.) or marketing.

Margaret Hokkanen

Encinitas Real Estate

Here's our recent listing in Encinitas Highlands in Encinitas, California.  It is a super-cute beach home near the downtown, and it's a quick walk to the beach.  It's also just a quick walk to restaurants, the movie theatre, and the brand new Encinitas library.  We sent out about 15,000 brochures, so most people in Encinitas know about the home.  I'm posting it here just in case someone from out of town has an interest.

Address: 627 Cornish Ave., Encinitas, CA 92024

Particulars: 3 beds, 1 bath, 1284 sq. ft., lot is over 9500 sq. ft.

The photos say it all.

Call me if you have any questions.

Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate

www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

Our practice has been hectic here in San Diego which is why I haven't posted for a while.  Anyway, I wanted to share some of our latest pole photography and high dynamic range blending photos.  The home is a little beach cottage across from the library, and not far from the ocean.  However, it doesn't have ocean view.  So, it was important that we show how close the home was to the water (walk to beach).  We also need to present the home in a nice way since it is an Encinitas beach cottage.

First, the front view of the home.  We put our Canon 5d with 24mm tilt/shift lens on our pole rig, and it was up about 12 ft off the ground. But the street was also a few feet higher than the front door, so the camera was actually up a bit higher.  This is a nice pole shot because it leads into the back yard photo (later in the brochure) of the large back yard.  For this photo, it's just important to see the trees and the depth behind the house of where the trees are.  Also, this is the cover of the brochure.  I wanted to show you the cover so that you could see the fun little map that I created so that we could present how close the home was to all the action and the water. 

As we turn to the interior, we have a blended HDR photo of the living room.  Two sets of images were taken to create this photo.  A color-balanced strobe image which gave a great backdrop, and an HDR image with some local contrast and saturation amped up to really make the picture pop and give it a 3d effect.

Next we have another interior shot (I picked one of the kid's bedrooms).  The technique is similar to the living room.

Finally, I wanted to show another pole photo.  This is the library just a few doors away.  The back patio of the library has ocean view, and I really cranked up the camera pretty high (25 ft) to get this photo.  But, it really does show you how close you are to the ocean.

Anyway, I hope those are some fun photos.  Feel free to post any questions and I will try to reply quickly.

Margaret, Encinitas/Carlsbad Real Estate

www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

I mentioned in my blog about the barrel distortion that occurred with the Canon 16-35mm lens at 16mm.  I thought I would share an actual comparison photo.  I don't want to suggest that the 16 is bad.  But I would apply correcting software on any of the images as it makes them look truer and better.

So, if you can't "see" the distortion, here's an overlay.  I've put a black outline of the CORRECTED PHOTO on top of the uncorrected photo.  The red arrow shows where I lined everything up, and you'll notice that the verticals from the two photos differ as you move out from the center of that red arrow point.

It becomes really apparent in a mouseover example, but I don't think I can do that on AR.  If you look at the vertical lines around the fireplace in the first photo, you'll see that the fireplace looks more oval than rectangular.  I realize that I may be being picky, but I guess I look at photos a lot.

For correction software, I used the PTLENS photoshop filter which seems to do a good job.

Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

I've used a handheld remote trigger (with a wire) for a long time on my Canon 5d.  However, I am planning on buying the new Canon 5D back, and so I gave some thought to whether I might use my existing 5D back on my pole.  (Getting scary!)

I was VERY pleased to find that there are a number of 3rd party companies manufacturing radio/wireless triggers for Canon cameras.  Instead of paying $500 for the Canon unit, I got a simple two-stage trigger for $89 at Adorama, and the instructions say it will work up to 100 ft.

We still have not yet implemented any remote viewing capability on our camera, but I don't think we will need it as we've been doing it the "blind" method for years.  With the remote trigger, I'll be able to set the 5d on bracketed images and just push the trigger and can take 3 bracketed images so that I can do high dynamic range pole photos!

Once I take some images, I'll try to post them.  I've also make some changes to the pole to make things a lot safer for the expensive camera body, and I'll try to take a picture and show those too.

Here's the most recent pole photo with the cheapo camera that we use.  I can't wait to see what my old 5d with some high dynamic images will take!

Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

The day Canon announced the upcoming release of the Canon 5d Mark II camera body (the new 5d body), we decided to purchase the Canon 14mm lens.  We love our 28mm tilt/shift lens, but the processing time for doing high dynamic range photos was simply too much.  By moving to the 14mm lens, there is 1/3 of the work because there are fewer images. 

Here's an example from the 14mm lens on the current 5d back.  This is a blended strobe/high dynamic range photo.  As we have continued to do this, our understanding of how to create these images has gotten better and better.

What I like about this lens is that the lines are kept straight - VERY little distortion.  Quite amazing, really.  However, I've read comparisons with the Nikon 12-24, and that lens is apparently brighter and more vivid.  This is less of a concern for us since we are doing overlays with a highly saturated high dynamic range image.  Plus, with the new 5D back, I could keep all of my old lenses and get a big jump in resolution. Overall, I think the image makes the living room look pretty nice.

The week before I found out about the new 5D and bought the lens I rented Canon's 16-35mm lens for a photo shoot.  Here's a photo at 16mm.  This was a nice lens, but, here's a word of CAUTION.  There is a LOT of barrel distortion going on with this lens.  We HAD to use our correcting software (Ptlens) to remove the barrel distortion as that improved the images a LOT.

How about those reflections in the granite!  That's what the HDR blending will give you.

Finally, I should note WHY the new 5D back was the decision to change.  The new 5D is 22 megapixels.  That means that we will get the same 20 megapixel image with the 14mm lens that we've been getting with the tilt/shift lens, and we have about 1/3 of the post-processing work.  So, for us, it was worth the $2100 that we spent. 

I'm not getting rid of the tilt/shift lens.  I plan to use it when I need to create a giant-sized image (which we sometimes create as posters inside listings).  With the new 5d back and the tilt/shift lens, I'll be able to create a 40 megapixel image, which is in the range of the current generation of Hasselblad cameras.  Again, the post-processing time will increase, but that's OK as long as I'm not doing it with every single image.

All the best.

Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas and Carlsbad Real Estate

Our team has a new horse property in Bonsall that is FABULOUS.  Here are the photos:

Aerial view showing paddock, corral, home, pool, etc.

Living Room with lodgelike fireplace.

Interested in seeing the home?  Call Heather Foster, the listing agent for this home, at 619-665-2782.  The home has 3 bedrooms plus an office.  The home is offered at $1,100,000 to $1,200,000.  For more details, plus the virtual tour, see our Bonsall/Fallbrook web site at http://www.FallbrookTeam.com.

Margaret Hokkanen

Casa Bella Realty and Mortgage