How about this nutty idea...

So I've been really enjoying the Widelux look (or the poor man's version that I have - the Horizon Perfekt). There's something about the Widelux's quirkyness that I prefer over the Xpan. It is beautifully panoramic, has deep depth of field, and iis wiiiiide, and that slightly warped composition gives each shot a unique character.

I've been wondering how I can reproduce this on digital, that wide warped look is a little like a fisheye look but not as extreme. And then I remembered that I'd sort of seen this effect on a digital camera before a few years ago.

I was showing my neighbour a digital camera that had a super 16mm sensor in it, and he was showing me his new 12mm fisheye lens. We put them together and ended up with an equivalent 30-35mm crop factor and a look that wasn't immediately obvious that it was a fisheye lens, but just a tiny bit warped nonetheless.

Maybe that's what I need:

a small sensor camera + a really wide fisheye lens to account for the crop factor + panoramic crop in post = the closest thing to a Widelux look but in digital

What say ye, be I a nut?
 
I have just the thing for you if you're considering cropping anyway. But I'm not sure if you're a :mu43: shooter or not ...

Anyway, put either the Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 (a fish-eye, but a very well behaved one) or the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 on a :mu43: body (I really liked the Samyang on the Olympus E-PL7, but YMMV - you can use just about everything, but I'd recommend a 16MP (or up) sensor), shoot and crop to 1:3, 1:4 or 1:5 and enjoy. Both lenses are very sharp at f/5.6 (they're already good wide open), the file will still have enough MP to look decent at least at web sizes ... The Samyang can be spectacular, the Laowa is astonishingly well corrected in most respects.

I really have to do a "Single in" with the Laowa ...

M.
 
OK, so I honestly had no idea what Widelux was. Looked it up and checked out some sample images on Flickr.

I quite like the aesthetic, but I'm into "lo-fi' kinda stuff. I've got the digital Holga as well as the Yashica Y35 and actual love them for what they are. I've got a few Instax cameras and prefer the ones from Lomography and recently picked up an SX-70. All this to say that you'll get no argument from me on you being a "nut".

With all that being said, my thoughts:

The fisheye lens may be the way to go if you are looking to not deal with the distorted lens effect in post. I will say that Lightroom and other software with lens distortion correction tools should be able to mimic the bulbous look.
The other parts are how the "film" looks. For this, I have been learning and experimenting with film simulations in my Fuji cameras. If in camera film looks are not your thing, I've recently gotten the DxO FilmPack5 software and really like the way it works and the interface.


So, can it be done? For sure! it's just a matter of how you'd like to go about it. I for one would love to see the results of what you come up with.
 
I have just the thing for you if you're considering cropping anyway. But I'm not sure if you're a :mu43: shooter or not ...

Anyway, put either the Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 (a fish-eye, but a very well behaved one) or the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 on a :mu43: body (I really liked the Samyang on the Olympus E-PL7, but YMMV - you can use just about everything, but I'd recommend a 16MP (or up) sensor), shoot and crop to 1:3, 1:4 or 1:5 and enjoy. Both lenses are very sharp at f/5.6 (they're already good wide open), the file will still have enough MP to look decent at least at web sizes ... The Samyang can be spectacular, the Laowa is astonishingly well corrected in most respects.

I really have to do a "Single in" with the Laowa ...

M.

Could you post some photos from that fisheye/olympus combo if possible? I want to see if it has that look that I'm after. A 7.5mm on a m43 would be a perfect 15mm equivalent but a fisheyeat 7.5mm would make it so distorted to I think.

What does "single in" mean?
 
So, can it be done? For sure! it's just a matter of how you'd like to go about it. I for one would love to see the results of what you come up with.

The difficulty is that the Widelux isn't distorted due to the lens itself, the effect is caused by the swinging lens which creates a very unique look which is not fisheye-like but is the closest thing to a mild fisheye as far as I can figure. It's not really a bulbous look.

The way the film looks is fine with me, it's probably the easiest aspect that I can whip up in post.
 
Could you post some photos from that fisheye/olympus combo if possible? I want to see if it has that look that I'm after. A 7.5mm on a m43 would be a perfect 15mm equivalent but a fisheyeat 7.5mm would make it so distorted to I think.

What does "single in" mean?
I don't have that combo anymore, but I can post and/or shoot images with a different body and the Samyang (the E-M10 I used to own had the same sensor as the E-PL7). What would you prefer?

Just be warned: I'm not after a lo-fi look myself. But I think it's easy to get there with either lens via pp.

"Single in" challenges are one-month-long daily challenges for which gear restrictions (one camera, one lens) are mandatory (or at least strongly favoured). I've participated regularily in the past - and am now organising them. A less restrictive version is running right now: the April 2020 Challenge ...

Doing one of those challenges with a super-wide would be a very hard, but also a very interesting thing to do. I'm a bit too clumsy when it comes to shooting with the fish-eye

M.
 
I don't have that combo anymore, but I can post and/or shoot images with a different body and the Samyang (the E-M10 I used to own had the same sensor as the E-PL7). What would you prefer?

Just be warned: I'm not after a lo-fi look myself. But I think it's easy to get there with either lens via pp.

Any m43 sensor with that lens would be perfect!

I just realised what gryphon1911 was talking about - I'm not exactly trying to get a lo-fi look, it's more the wide panorama with the Widelux character that I'm after. I'm not talking about non-sharp blurry-ness or light leaks or typical stuff associated with lomography.
 
I think this calls for specifig measures ;)

I'll take the GX9 and both the Laowa and the Samyang out on a walk - if not today, then I'll do it tomorrow. You can have the RAW files and play around with them.

N.B. These are trying times, loads of things to juggle - should I forget to post these, just prod me ...

M.
 
I'll post SOOC JPEGs for the comparison shots then ;) You'll find more in other threads as well later on, I hope, but I'll do pp on those, and that also means culling.

Both shot at f/5.6 (due to the very, very bright and harsh light). Not a scene I'd shoot usually - too hazy, for one thing.

The rectilinear Laowa:
PGX90798.JPG
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It's actually looking like kind of a hard sell - it almost looks "normal"; the Laowa is a really astonishingly well-behaved lens.

The fish-eye Samyang, from the exact same position:
PGX90799.JPG
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180 degrees diagonal angle, loads more in the frame, including the sun. It's not too hard to de-fish, but I don't do that (because I have the Laowa ...).

Now, just cut to size and check. If you'd like higher resolution versions, just say the word.

M.
 
Short answer: rectilinear vs. fish-eye (full field curvature).

I like both - though for general shooting I oviously prefer the Laowa. But the Samyang has something quite meaty about its images, a richness I truely like.

M.
 
I'm going to have to read up on this rectilinear thing.
It just means corrected for distortion :)

This correction is something all lenses have to undergo if we want to see an image that appear(!) natural because our brain constantly corrects for the mediocre optical quality of our single-element gummy lens. This - and constant image stacking, a rough 24 a second - make for our perceived brillantly accurate view of the world. The wider a lens (in principle), the more it tends to distort - since it has to translate quite a few very different distance into one plain to make the image appear sharp. Thus, a "flat field" is what most lens makers are aiming for in lens construction. But some lenses that have a real following use field curvature to their advantage - it can enhance subject isolation, for instance.

M.
 
Alright, so all this talk about rectilinear, a fisheye can sort of be rectilinear as long as the camera is held horizontal, right? Sort of? I've been using my fisheye a lot in the past couple of weeks and I'm learning a lot about its quirks. Here are two shots, one that another photographer friend of mine didn't even notice was a fisheye shot and another where it's clearly a fisheye. Plus a bonus shallow 50mm shot.

49792416771_8434bc6437_b.jpg


49817281317_d7f05cb59f_b.jpg


49791867638_f82dc98f56_b.jpg
 
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