Best SLR for Architecture-related Photography?

[iShakey]

I've been putting off buying a new DSLR camera for a few months, mainly as I'm not quite sure of what I want to buy. I'm trying to avoid spending $1500-2000 on a camera that won't quite capture the shots I wish to take. The Nikon range of cameras look very flash, and have been recommended by several friends.

Having been on holiday to Europe, I bought a little Coolpix thing before I went to shoot a few photos of my travels. In 10 weeks I'd racked up 5800 shots on it (and yes, it still works...somehow), mostly or the various cities and towns along the way, and a few night shots as well.

Something I noticed at about shot number 2000 was the way certain buildings started to 'bend in', or get distored at the edges, more often than not in close-up shots rather than when taken from further away. With a large part of the photos I took being of both new and old architechure, this distortion can be seen in most of the shots.

Reading through various posts, and doing a little google searching, I'm still mystified as to what I really need - is it a case of getting the right lens / camera combination to eliminate this distortion, or is it more a case of shelling out more $ to upgrade my old PC and get software (Adobe CS for example) to manualy manipulate each image?

Can anyone shed any light on this, as to what is recommended? Or are there any online articles / reviews that deal directly with this type of enquiry?

Cheers

[methd]

for architecure, i'm assuming u need to shoot wide photos

ultimately for wide stuff u want a FF so the lenses have a wider fov.

secondly the lenses are extremeley important for architectural things and if u want to do it serious, u may need to look at tilt-shift (canon) or PC (nikon) lenses. otherwise something like the 14-24 is getting rave reviews for UW lenses atm (but comes at a $2k + price tag)

if you arent that serious, then something like a 12-24 or similar will suffice on a crop body at a fair price.

[Antsl]

This distortion you are mentioning is a fact of life with almost any camera you care to mention. The only way to correct it is to use either a large format camera (very expensive to operate) or to get yourself a full-frame camera along with a shift lens. It is the process keeping the camera body level and moving the lens upwards (hence shift lens) that enables photographers to correct this distortion but it is no guarantee that you are going to achieve your desired result. Shift lenses are not really suited to the DX format ... to get the most out of them you really need to use a full-frame camera like the Nikon D3 or the Canon 5D. As an option though you could buy a shift lens and put it onto a film camera.... saw this option that might suit.... Nikon F80 with a shift lens

The other option is to use the lens correction tool in Photoshop CS3 to adjust the image in post production. Whatever way you look at doing it, getting perfect architectural images is going to cost you money.

[the foto fanatic]

Something I noticed at about shot number 2000 was the way certain buildings started to 'bend in', or get distored at the edges, more often than not in close-up shots rather than when taken from further away. With a large part of the photos I took being of both new and old architechure, this distortion can be seen in most of the shots.

Cheers

Here's the "no cost" solution:

The distortion occurs when the back of the camera is not parallel to the face of the building. This happens when you are close to the building and tilt the camera back to get the whole building in the shot. If you move back, or find a higher vantage point, so that you can keep the film plane of the camera parallel to the building, you'll lose the perspective distortion.

[moz]

You can get some of the same effect in software with perspective correction. It's not quite as good as a proper lens but of course you'll be buying the software anyway...

[gstark]

It's not quite as good as a proper lens

Gross Understatement Alert!

Gross Understatement Alert!

Gross Understatement Alert!

[moz]

Gross Understatement Alert!

Well no, but for under $2000 what do you want... a D3H with a 24mm f/1.4 PC lens? Better to spend the money on PhotoShop or something and use software to fix a cheap camera than dream that a 350D with a Lensbaby can produce anything other than pretty rainbow effects.

[AndyL]

Sounds like two different things are being discussed here.

Barrel and pincushion type distortion, which is what I thought iShakey was referring to. Many lenses will exhibit this to some degree (speaking from limited experience). Fix it in software or buy better lenses.

The other is perspective which seems to be what most others are talking about. It can be fixed in PS, but a more appropriate solution for architectural shots (particularly if getting paid for them) is to start with the right gear. FF and tilt-shift.

Cheers

[gstark]

Moz,

Gross Understatement Alert!

Well no, but for under $2000 what do you want...

I thought that by now you'd know better than to ask me a silly question like this.