Nikon FA with Nikkor 20mm AIS for interior real estate shots ?

I need to take photos of office interiors and I realized my digital cameras do not do wide angle
then I remembered that I had some nice equipment that I purchased in the mid 1990s and
dug out my Nikon FA with 20mm F 3.5 I have not used this equipment for 15 years so
I put fresh batteries in the FA and the meter seems to work ! So I may just try this project
with 35mm film instead of buying new digital camera. I cannot remember ever using the
20mm lens and I hope it will not have a fisheye effect. My plan is to set the camera on a tripod
and set the mode to "Aperature" and start with F16 then F8 and let the meter determine how
long the shutter speed should be. I do not want to use the flash and I will experiment with
turning the interior lights on and off and take several shots. Then I will take a few shots
with + exposure compensation. Does this seem like a good plan? Suggestions would be
appreciated. BTW, just playing around with the camera without film, I am getting from 8
to 15 seconds shutter time with the F8 and F16 appertures inside my bedroom with daylight
coming in through the window and overhead light off.

Sounds good. Better f8, f16 is on the edge for diffraction limit. How big the prints/scans will be?

Edit: I had nikkor 20mm - not a fish eye, very good lens. Your 20mm is nikkor, not third party lens?

I used my X570 with a 20mm f/2.8 when I listed my condo and it worked great. The only issue I had was filtering (or the walgreen's scans that I used to get it done quick...) for rooms with cream walls and incandescent lights.

With a 20mm making sure the camera is level will be very important.
Mixing light sources can frustrating. If I remember right Reala is pretty good for that.

I use my 20mm f/2.8 lens at f/22. It's OK as I can't see the problem.

Chan Tran said:

I use my 20mm f/2.8 lens at f/22. It's OK as I can't see the problem.

Click to expand...

Well, I never go over f11, when I absolutely must I go f16 on 35mm. Even on medium format I avoid to go on f22. How big do you print? For small print maybe it does not make a difference, but when printing big (30x40 cm or bigger) - I think diffraction should be taken in consideration.

preventec47 said:

I need to take photos of office interiors and I realized my digital cameras do not do wide angle
then I remembered that I had some nice equipment that I purchased in the mid 1990s and
dug out my Nikon FA with 20mm F 3.5 I have not used this equipment for 15 years so
I put fresh batteries in the FA and the meter seems to work ! So I may just try this project
with 35mm film instead of buying new digital camera. I cannot remember ever using the
20mm lens and I hope it will not have a fisheye effect. My plan is to set the camera on a tripod
and set the mode to "Aperature" and start with F16 then F8 and let the meter determine how
long the shutter speed should be. I do not want to use the flash and I will experiment with
turning the interior lights on and off and take several shots. Then I will take a few shots
with + exposure compensation. Does this seem like a good plan? Suggestions would be
appreciated. BTW, just playing around with the camera without film, I am getting from 8
to 15 seconds shutter time with the F8 and F16 appertures inside my bedroom with daylight
coming in through the window and overhead light off.

Click to expand...

that's a great lens and best at f/11.f/16 has too much diffraction.should work fine with a soft wide-angle flash.

darkosaric said:

Well, I never go over f11, when I absolutely must I go f16 on 35mm. Even on medium format I avoid to go on f22. How big do you print? For small print maybe it does not make a difference, but when printing big (30x40 cm or bigger) - I think diffraction should be taken in consideration.

Click to expand...

I just looked at the DOF scale on a 19 mm lens. At f/11, setting the focus ring at 3 feet results in a DOF of 2 feet to infinity, according to the scale, and I don't think the 20 mm lens will differ by a large amount from this range at this aperture. How much DOF do you need for the interiors you're shooting?

Color or b&w? If color, you might consider trying tungsten film.

Don't worry about diffraction for this purpose, but with a lens that wide and shooting on a tripod, you probably don't need more than f:16 anyway.

The main issue with a 20mm for interiors--if you want the image to be realistic--is that it tends to make the space look larger than it really is. Sometimes, it's your only choice, because the space is too cramped, and you don't have anywhere to stand. I try not to go wider than 24mm (with the 35mm format) for interiors. Experiment and see how it looks to you.

About lighting--are you shooting in color? If you are, mixed lighting can be a problem. You might have mixed incandescent, fluorescents of different colors, and window lighting. Then if you want to balance indoor and outdoor lighting, that's another issue. If you want to show the view out a window, for instance, you want it to be about one stop overexposed, so that it "looks like the outdoors" with the indoor scene exposed properly, but in reality, the outdoor scene will be about four stops brighter than indoors in full sun. The options are not to shoot during full sun and/or light the indoor scene and then you usually want everything to have the same color balance. Another question is whether the indoor lighting is something you actually want to show--maybe it's important to the architecture. If it isn't, then just turn it off. If you want to get fancy, you can gel everything to the same color temperature, but the easiest approach is usually to turn off the indoor lighting and light the interior with strobes that will balance the daylight from outdoors.

For an introduction to all the issues, take a look at Norman McGrath's Photographing Buildings Inside and Out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/08...de=as2&tag=davagol-20&linkId=J27Q2KIE7QJCRO6J

I did this for a living for many years. The WA of a 20mm will distort the scale of the space, as David said. I would stitch the photo's together. Shoot on a tripod & rotate the camera. Use either a 35mm lens.