Best Canon lens for stitching panos?

Some things we know. It's tougher to stitch really good panos from multiple images if the lens used is prone to vignetting or distortion. I'm in the process of trading my 17-40 for a 10-22 for several reasons, namely that I'm using largely 1.6 crop Canon bodies for most of my work, and if I get a full frame body one of these months I'll still keep a 1.6 crop body as a backup, so with the 10-22 I'll be able to do ultrawide stuff.

Now, the 17-40 is subject to its share of barrel distortion, and trying to correct for that on as many as 20 images before stitching and getting each correction just right is pretty tough. I just shot a series today at 28mm that looked good on the camera back but showed a bit of distortion during the stitching process. Reviews of the 10-22 say barrel distortion is much better controlled than the 17-40, although I know the 10-22 has some vignetting issues. I also do pano stitches sometimes with longer lenses like the 100, 200 and 400 when appropriate, and then never seem to have trouble with distortion or vignetting, but mostly it's the wider angle I use.

I simply use the pano stitch software that Canon provides with its cameras, and when everything is done right at capture it does a splendid job. Haven't bothered learning stitching with CS2, and upgrading from CS2 isn't in the cards right now.

OK, nuff background. My question is this. And I'm asking people who do this regularly and use Canon gear. Which lens have you found to be the best for multiple images to be stitched. By that, I mean which lens has the least barrel distortion or vignetting? I'm hoping for direct experiences, but informed speculation will do fine, too, as long as it's informed. Remember I'm shooting 1.6 crop bodies, though full frame is in my future.

Let's assume just for the sake of giddy optimism that cost is not an issue.

Steve,
I like single legnth lenses bet but I have used my 17-40L with good success. I am using a 5D and the wide angle lenses can be more of a challenge to me. My favorite for pans is my 24mm Canon tilt/shift lens, it's nice for a perfect three image comp without moving the camrea or tripod head but I also a panhead setup adjusted for the 24mm on the 5D. I have a few pans here http://jameshersey.zenfolio.com/p148621651
I let Bridge to photoshop CS3 photomerge do my panos

Thanks, Jim. I just tried Bridge in CS2 and it did a much better job than Canon's PhotoStitch software.

I have used my 17-40 on both a 20D and now 5D for all my panos. I batch process all the pano images with DxO Optics to remove the distortion and vignetting prior to processing and stitching. You could also use PTLens instead of DxO.

Thanks Randall. I'll look into those and see if they have Mac versions.

Steve, if you like the CS2 stitching, you'll REALLY like CS4. If you do a lot of stitching the upgrade is worth the effort.

I shoot full frame and don't really have a "favorite" Canon lens. I use whatever focal length is appropriate and find that 3 to 4 images usually gives me the FOV and resolution that I need. For wide angle, I find the 24mm TS lens is the easiest. The CS4 autostitch is always flawless. (Note there are rumors that Canon is about to release a new TS-24mm)

Steve, if you like the CS2 stitching, you'll REALLY like CS4. If you do a lot of stitching the upgrade is worth the effort.

To upgrade to CS4 I'd need to upgrade to Mac OS 10.4 or 10.5. To upgrade to a new OS I need a new computer. If I get a new computer, I'll need a new monitor. You know, $1,000 here and $1,000 there and pretty soon you're talking some real money. But I looked around and downloaded a trial version of PTMac, which is PTLens' version for older OSX systems, and it looks really good. DxO looks even better but golly they want a bit of coin for the best version, and it only runs on OS 10.5 anyway.

OK, let me modify that to, "it's worth the upgrade, if you don't need to buy a new computer." I feel your pain.

autopano pro wins hands down to photoshop cs4 when it comes to big pano's 10+ shots,
so you might want to look in to that also.
PTlens for correcting distortion is really nice and it doesn't cost to much also !

Wim

Have you considered the Tokina 12-24 as an alternative of the Canon 10-22? I had once the opportunity to test the Canon 10-22 against my Tokina and found that Tokina beats Canon at almost every respect, it's certainly sharper and vignetting is never an issue. Ok, perhaps the Canon sample I had for the test was not perfect, nevertheless the Tokina 12-24 is just a great piece of kit for any APS-C camera. I use it for about 70% of all my images and totally happy with it.
Sure, you have those 2mm of focal length missing, which at this kind of ultra-wide end makes a difference, but if you're planning to use the lens mostly for stitching verticals into horizontal panos you won't miss it.
Distortion is pretty well controlled in the Tokina 12-24, it's something you will never notice unless your subject is full of straight lines. And, even in that case, correcting distortion is usually an easy task. The only real weak point of the Tokina 12-24 is CAs, quite noticeable at borders in highly contrasted areas. But also this aspect is not really an issue, as you can easily remove CAs while Raw-processing.
Of course the software is the most important tool for succeeding in stitching panos. I currently use PS CS3, but I did panos with the CS2 too, with good results. CS2 is certainly better than Canon photostitching software.
Here you can find some of my panos, all made with Eos 400D, Tokina ATX-Pro 12-24 and Photoshop CS3.

http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=vp&pr=76827&pi=PAOLODEFAVERI&CGISESSID=25a4d23eeb7bc0838379a99fb09abc38&u=29621
http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=vp&pr=82175&pi=PAOLODEFAVERI&CGISESSID=25a4d23eeb7bc0838379a99fb09abc38&u=29621
http://www.photoportfolios.net/portfolio/pf.cgi?a=vp&pr=82178&pi=PAOLODEFAVERI&CGISESSID=25a4d23eeb7bc0838379a99fb09abc38&u=29621

Cheers,
Paolo

Paolo, I've definitely looked at a lot of reviews of the 12-24 and think it would be a great lens. I was offered an even-up trade for a 10-22 so I took it. But the 10-22 is not necessarily the end, though it might be the means to an end. Trading the new 10-22 for a 12-24 is an option I've been considering. Your hands-on recommendation helps. Think I'll want to shoot the new lens first a bit though.

The 12-24's weakness seems to be chromatic aberration. Can you comment on your experiences with the lens in high-contrast situations?

Yes Steve, CAs can be pretty strong with the 12-24, particularly at borders and with high contrast. However, that's not an issue as you can easily remove chromatic aberrations when you process your RAW. I've found that the raw-processing software doing the best job at removing CAs is the one provided by Canon with your camera, Canon digital photo professional. My version is the 3.5.0 and it should be the newest one. It came along with the 50D I purchased last October. You can download it from Canon website in the case yours is not updated.

Cheers,
Paolo

Thanks. I hadn't thought about using CA reduction in DPP instead of Photoshop.

The latest version of DPP is just perfect for that task, Steve. Try it and you'll see. Most of the time you'll be able to completely remove CAs. In a few cases where contrast is very very high (i.e. a dark tree against snow) you'll have in any case CAs strongly reduced to an acceptable level.

Re: Tokina 12-24: It's very prone to flare and ghosting. That alone would make me choose the Canon if I were a Canon shooter (it made me choose the Nikon because I'm a Nikon shooter ).

BG

my favorite pano focal length is 35mm and anything longer than 70mm. I've having great fun using 35mm SHIFT Olympus lens.