Tilt & shift for video.

[Cunha]

Hello,

I´ve been shooting (video) landscape/houses with a 5DMIII. Using an L zoom like EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM to make a panoramic shot rotating my camera slowly with my tripod/video head, Its certain that distortion is present in my footage. Especially with buildings, using the more wide range (16-24mm) of that lens. You know what I mean. Vertical lines moving while the camera rotates.

A friend of mine made the same footage with the EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM and at the 24mm range the distortion is also present while the camera moves.

Now, if I use a tilt & shift lens like the TS-E24mm f/3.5L II will I be able to correct perspective first and start doing my video panoramic keeping the perspective correction? Or this feature is just ok for still photography?

I guess this problem is less evident while shooting landscape from a distance and very present shooting houses/cities from closer points of view (here is my real problem). But I need to register both.

Any help will be very appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Regards.

[Skirball · Accepted solution]

You could use a tilt shift lens for shooting a pano video, the same as you would with your zoom.  However, depending on the subject you could get odd results.  The 'shift' that you would use to correct perspective could change depending on how your subject changes based on your perspective and/or distance.  I can't say for sure without going out and doing it, but I'd guess that if you keep your camera in one spot and rotate it (as opposed to moving your camera around the subject), that the shift you use for something like a building is going to have a similar distortion effect as it comes in view on one side of the lens and moves to the other. 

[Cunha]

Thank you very much Skirball. Very useful perspective.
Regards.

[JonKline]

A T/S lens is not what you want for this.  You want a lens with low distortion (no barrel, pincushion, or mustache distortion). 

If you're compositing multiple shots together, you don't need to start with a wide lens. A lens like the Canon 50mm f/2.5 macro has very little geometric distortion, so it's great for taking photos that will be stitched together.

If you're just looking for a lens that won't bend lines as you pan, find an older Canon 20-35mm f/2.8L lens and set it to about 28mm. It's almost perfect at that point.

[Cunha]

Thank you very much JonKline. .-)