Comparing Focal Lengths and Panoramic Stitching

Posted by Marc on June 28, 2009. Categories: Panoramic Photography Photography

Why do I shoot in the panoramic format? There are a two main reasons:

  1. Increased resolution to support larger prints
  2. Wider field of view with normal lenses
In order to better understand the relationship between field of view, focal length, and stitching, I set out to make an equivalent panoramic field of view (horizontally) using lenses at focal length ranges from 10mm to 70mm. I made seven versions that ranged from one row of two images through two rows of twenty images--yes, it takes more than forty images at 70mm to cover the same field of view as two 10mm images.
Here are the raw panoramic images put together (ignore the minor differences in color and contrast). assembled-no-crop-web.jpg
After making the individual panoramic images, I cropped the images so that you are seeing the equivalent horizontal field of view. What is instructive is that the images are, more or less, identical. The panoramic stitch perfectly simulates a wide angle lens. The only real difference was the very distorted foreground that the 10mm lens provided. Rest assured that if I had shot that area with the 70m lens, it would have distorted to appear identical. These results suggest to me that I don't really need, or want, an ultra-wide angle lens. These lenses provide too much distorted foreground that is hard to control. assembled-cropped-web.jpg

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