Go wide

Test shot with new wider angle lens

I picked up a new wide-angle lens today. It is a Canon RF15-30mm lens. It replaces the former RF18-150mm R series lens that I got with my Canon R-7. The RF18-150mm was a very useful lens. It was great for model railroad photography due to its ability to focus really close. However, there were many times when shooting model railroad photos, I wished it had a bit wider angle. This problem stems from the fact that the Canon has a 1.6x crop factor. So, the 18-150 is equivalent to a 28.8-240mm lens on a full frame camera. 

Unfortunately, I managed to break the RF18-150mm and it could not be repaired. So, I replaced it with a wider-angle lens RF15-30mm lens.  This one has just 3 more millimeters on the wide end, but it makes a big difference. At 15mm the lens is approaching fish-eye lens territory. The front piece of glass has a fish-eye concave appearance. It also focusses very close - about 1 inch from the front of the lens. When set to the 30mm setting, its minimum aperture is f32. That is the same as my dedicated EF55mm Macro lens. I almost never use that lens anymore as the RF18-150 and the new RF15-30 are almost as good as macro lenses and more useful due to the zoom.

 I think the new RF15-30 will be a good lens for model railroad photography.  The wide angle can create some dramatic shots such as making trains seem longer than they are. However, it also will accentuate any vertical perspective if the lens is tilted up. Trees and vertical objects will appear tilted in shots where the camera is looking away from horizontal. 

Another test shot. I had to correct the perspective in this image in Photoshop
 as this lens will accentuate any vertical perspective if the camera is tilted up.