Lens recommendations for photographing art work

Hi. In the past I tried several of my Nikon lenses and found that the AF-S 85/1.8 on D810 provided best results for photographing artwork such as paintings.

Those paintings were relatively smaller, and I had sufficient working distance. Now I want to photograph few large paintings and don't have much working distance. I know that wide-angle lenses can have some distortions. My idea is that a macro lens does the job well.

My questions:

If photographing with a Nikon D810 or D7200, what is the shortest focal length you would recommend beyond which the distortions would not be acceptable? Any specific lens to consider? I have an AF-D 50mm f/1.4 and Tamron 17-35mm zoom.

If borrowing another camera like a Sony A7R3/4, or a Fuji medium format, what lenses would you recommend?

For example, I found a Tamron 35mm 1:2 macro lens and a Zeiss 40mm macro lens for Sony EF mount.

I think even 50mm on FF is difficult to cover the image with the working distance I have. The idea is to borrow or rent, not for buying or long-term use.

Thanks!
Satya

GF 45.

Hard to advise anything without knowing the approximate size of the paintings and about how much working distance you have.

With the available space in the room, using a full-frame camera for comparison, I can fill the frame between 30 and 40mm focal lengths. Beyond 40mm would work for some paintings but not for wider ones. This is considering the room where they will be placed with adequate lighting.

Then the GF 45 should work well for you. Distortion not bad at all. Field is fairly flat. You can use focus bracketing if it's not flat enough for you.

If you enjoy experimenting with fully manual lenses and adapters (you'd need at least an M39 adapter + helicoid/extension rings), you could look for a Osawa Tominon EL 40 mm, or Rodenstock Rodagon WA 40 mm enlarging lens or a Zeiss Dokumar 38 mm f/8 - all of those should do a pretty good job at that distance and be very well corrected I assume.

I would have liked to give you some exact numbers, if you had answered my question.

I have a Sigma 24mm f/3.5 lens which has very little distortion. Normally I use the 55mm Micro-Nikkor (the old manual focus model) for artwork, but that Sigma is good if you have large paintings and small space.

Don Cox

Many prefer macro lenses as they are sharp and distortion from corner to corner is almost non-existent. The only negative of wider macro lenses if you are into bugs is their very short distance from the end of the lens to the bug. My Sigma 150 macro gives me good working distances when shooting butterflies for example, and even better working distance when I use the same lens on a crop camera.

I would use your Tamron zoom to figure out a sweet spot focal length then go look for something comprable in a fixed macro lens.