I work for an architectural firm and we often take massive building/landscape/concstruction etc shots. I am getting ready to buy a digital camera and wanted to know about digital camera capabilities for shots of this size.

-- Lis Chambers (mbclis@aol.com), September 03, 1999

Answers

Most digicams w/optical zoom go to 33-40mm equivalent at the wide end. Some have attachments that will go to about 28mm, like the nikon 950 and oly 2000. The minolta 1500 comes in a wide version, I think it also is about 28mm equivalent. I haven't seen much wider than that, except for fisheye, which won't cut it for your purpose. Probably there is something at the pro end if you're willing to spend big money for wider.

For my film camera I love 24mm lens for wide angle shots.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), September 03, 1999.

The adapter for the Nikon CP950 is actually the same as a 24mm lens when compared to the 35mm format. Not to be too nit picky, but every mm helps.

-- Steve (tuna-boat-captain@ibm.net), September 03, 1999.

The Canon A50 equivalent zoom lens is 28mm-70mm and at a reasonable price.

-- ohle (jankh@usa.net), September 05, 1999.

Another approach is to use a more-normal lens and stitch several images together. QuickStitch from Enroute software (www.enroute.com) is a really awesome program for doing this. More work than one shot with a super-wide lens, but it can get you pics you flat out can't do with regular optics. Enroute is about to come out with version 2.0, and as soon as it does, we have a talented reader waiting in the wings to write a review for us...

-- Dave Etchells (detchells@imaging-resource.com), September 12, 1999.

I use and can recommend the Canon A50 with the 28mm equivalent zoom. It also has a built-in Photo-Stitch capability that lets you line up your sequence of shots on the lcd as you take them. They're under $500 but you should also get the rechargeable NiMh kit ($79 at Cameraworld.com)

- Dennis

-- Dennis Pereira (dpereira@ultranet.com), September 17, 1999.