topic Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II in EF & RF Lenses

nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

limvo05 — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 06:22:29 GMT

Hi All,

Instead of buying all kind of gears for pano photography, I was wondering if there's a published Nodal Point chart for all Canon EF lenses?

If there isn't one, what pano gear would you recommend?

Thank you,

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Waddizzle — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 09:25:34 GMT

Huh? Do you understand how nodal points work? If you mount that lens on a camera, then how do you adjust the camera mount to the nodal point? The mounting plate on the bottom of a camera is fixed, and the lens lacks a tripod foot. ???

Bite the bullet, and invest in a nodal rail. I recommend the Kirk LRP-1. Find the nodal point on the scale, and document it.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

ebiggs1 — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 14:42:37 GMT

It is actually not as much of a necessity as it used to be. Current editing programs like Photoshop and others do a very good job stitching panos. Some image editing programs might not stitch all of the images perfectly. Because portions of the stitched areas don't precisely line up. The result because of parallax errors. It depends on what you end goal is. Keep in mind it is more of a factor with shorter FL lenses.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Mitsubishiman — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 11:09:26 GMT

I have stitched many photographs together merely using lightroom, up to 14, all shot with a tripod, checking the level bubble on each shot, generally at 16mm or 24mm, portrait and landscape, Ernie is correct, it has become so easy that I have even pulled off a few off hand shots and stitched them with remarkable success.
Experimentation will lead to desirable outcomes.

Maybe not spectacular, however 6 shots handheld, Canon 5DsR, Canon 16-35 II

https://500px.com/photo/1010947465/memorial-amphitheater-arlington-national-cemetery-by-paul-herold

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Waddizzle — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 21:28:11 GMT

@Mitsubishiman wrote:
I have stitched many photographs together merely using lightroom, up to 14, all shot with a tripod, checking the level bubble on each shot, generally at 16mm or 24mm, portrait and landscape, Ernie is correct, it has become so easy that I have even pulled off a few off hand shots and stitched them with remarkable success.
Experimentation will lead to desirable outcomes.

Correcting for the nodal point really helps when you are capturing a multiple row panorama.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Peter — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 18:05:14 GMT

Panotools has some Canon lens data. Check it out. Normally I take panorama photos with tele, 200-600mm, so it is not that important for me to know the nodal point. I use Hugin to stich panorama images and it uses a lot of RAM. Sadely it is only able to use one GPU.

Here a sample from 180 images. Find the three WW2 bunkers ^^

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Waddizzle — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 08:14:15 GMT

"Keep in mind it is more of a factor with shorter FL lenses."

I would think that a 24-70mm lens probably falls within that category.

"Normaly I take panorama photos with tele, 200-600mm..."

That is pretty long. I use my 70-200 a lot, 100-400 on occasion, but never anything as long as 600mm.

-----------------------------------------------

If you are not capturing any closeup foregrround details in your panorama, then nodal points are not important. This is what creates the parallax errors. It has nothing to do with the focal length in use. It is all about image content. It is just a coincidence that shorter FL lenses are more likely to capture foreground details than a longer lens.

If you parked your tripod on the edge of a cliff, like the Grand Canyon, and used a 24mm lens to capture a panoram, you're most likely not going to capture much stuff in the foreground. Nodal points with a short FL lens is not important in that case.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Peter — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 10:55:05 GMT

@Waddizzle wrote:

If you are not capturing any closeup foregrround details in your panorama, then nodal points are not important.

Thanks for this input!

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

ebiggs1 — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 14:17:08 GMT

" Keep in mind it is more of a factor with shorter FL lenses."

It doesn't really matter if it is a characteristic of the FL or how the FL is used if the aberration is present. It tends to be more of a problem when using short FL lenses. However like I said I never am concerned about it and let PS or some other good stitching software deal with it.

BTW, Darktable can't handle panorama stitching itself like Lightroom can. Try Hugin.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

limvo05 — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 15:20:56 GMT

Thank you for responding to my question.

I have used both Lightroom and Photoshop. Strangely, I've noticed a time when LR works better than PS, and other times it's the reverse, not sure why. Generally speaking, I have good experience with both, however, I was wondering if there's anything I can do to help the software with, other words, improve on my technique, and reducing less computational need on the software.

I have not taken any pano shot with my 70-200mm lens and definitely would try that the next time.

In my recent outing, I took a 10 shot pano of the Grand Teton mountain range, final product is pretty impressive, however, I am running into one technical issue. When I try to save the photo, PS is telling me that the file is bigger than 4GB, or something along that line. Wondering anyone here ran into this same issue, and how did you fix it?

Thanks!

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

ebiggs1 — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:21:12 GMT

Yes there is a limit in PS to file size. It has to do with saving it. This also depends on which version of PS you have and what OS yu are runnung.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

Waddizzle — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:28:45 GMT

@limvo05 wrote:
Thank you for responding to my question.

In my recent outing, I took a 10 shot pano of the Grand Teton mountain range, final product is pretty impressive, however, I am running into one technical issue. When I try to save the photo, PS is telling me that the file is bigger than 4GB, or something along that line. Wondering anyone here ran into this same issue, and how did you fix it?

Thanks!

You have asked that question before. The answer has not changed. It is not a PS/LR error. You are running up against the max file size limit of Windows.

Re: nodal point for Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II

ebiggs1 — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 16:35:59 GMT

"You are running up against the max file size limit of Windows."

Yes, sorta, sometime ago Adobe came out with a PSB (not PSD) file extension. It allows for a much larger file. I am still on CS6 so I have not and do not have a reason to investigate it. You may want to.