A 12mm Experiment

Gentle Reader,

I have a 12mm Sigma very wide angle lens in "T" mount. Largest aperture is f8. It stops down to f16. I have been thinking of mounting it on my M39mount Bessa R 35mm rangefinder camera, shown below with a Soviet 35mm lens:
Then mounting it on a sturdy tripod, vertically, and moving it at 30 degree increments taking a shot each time. Since it is a rangefinder and thus has no mirror to slap up and down, plus being mounted on said tripod, a flash will not be needed. That, plus I have some Kodak Max 800 speed film.

I tested fitted the lens on my Nikon N90S film SLR. Very wide view, of course. Then on my Nikon D70S digital SLR. The view is equal to 18mm on a 35mm film camera. NOTE: The "18mm" on a standard 18-55mm lens for a digital SLR is equal to 27mm to 82.5mm on a film camera.

So, the view with this 12mm lens is a true 18mm field of view. I was trying to get the camera to fire with a flash, it would not do so. Experimenting, I tried sans-flash with various shutter speeds and found 1/4 second doable. Below, see the results, hand-held at 1/4 second shooting in a rough circle.
Now, imagine if you will, these pictures with 25% more visible on each side, with the walls and ceiling showing even more curvature. That is what this lens shows on 35mm film.

I'm hoping, but haven't checked yet, that my version of Photoshop Elements has a stitching program so that I can create a 360 degree image.

Thanks for looking!

Scott