Wide angle lens, do I need one or is there another option?

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jrsteeve

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Hi!

I'm currently on the look out for a camera (as previously mentioned on here) but wanted to check exactly what I'd need to take wide angle shots. Do I need a full blown lens such as the Sigma 10-20 or is there a another option? I've seen lots of fish eye/wide angle lenses, but are these stand alone or do they work in conjunction with the lens being used on the camera?

Sorry if its an obvious question, i'm a DSLR noob and google isn't all that helpful. I'm using it mostly for interior property shots if that helps. Any help appreciated :thumbs:
 
Snownation said:
Wide angle will work better with full frame cameras. Which DSLR do you have?
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Don't have it just yet but am looking at a Canon 40d ideally. Pentax and other options are on the table but just depends what I can get for my hard earned £££
 
40d is a great choice, lens options are vast, fish eye i find are a bit of a novelty which soon wears off, check out the lens reviews at www.fredmiranda.com
some of the Tokina wides get good reviews.
 
I have the 40d and decided to go with the Sigma 10-20mm. I'm more than happy with it.

At it's widest (10mm end) it's about the equiv of using a 16mm lens on a full frame or 35mm Body.

If it was going to be your only lens you may find it a bit frustrating. Something like a 17-85 range would give you a certain degree of width and more length.
 
dinners said:
I have the 40d and decided to go with the Sigma 10-20mm. I'm more than happy with it.

At it's widest (10mm end) it's about the equiv of using a 16mm lens on a full frame or 35mm Body.

If it was going to be your only lens you may find it a bit frustrating. Something like a 17-85 range would give you a certain degree of width and more length.
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Cheers. I'm hoping to start with a 17-55 or 18-55 kit lens so have something to play with, but one of the reasons for my upgrade from point and shoot is for wider angle shots than my 25mm Panasonic can offer.
 
jrsteeve said:
Cheers. I'm hoping to start with a 17-55 or 18-55 kit lens so have something to play with, but one of the reasons for my upgrade from point and shoot is for wider angle shots than my 25mm Panasonic can offer.
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17mm x 1.5/6 = 25.5/27.2mm so it won't really be wider....
 
aligibbs said:
17mm x 1.5/6 = 25.5/27.2mm so it won't really be wider....
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Nope thats why i'm looking for a wide angle option already. Must admit I didn't know the measurements were different for SLRs until yesterday though!
 
Something starting at 10mm or 12mm will give you the wide angle on a cropped sensor DSLR.

You will notice a huge amount of difference in terms of what you can capture with the 10-20 compared to the wider end of say, a 17-55 or 17-85
 
Hi I have a Sigma 10-20 and never used it, until recently, and now it has become my favorite lens, if you have the time the picture on my home page was taken last week with the 10-20mm
 
jrsteeve said:
Hi!

I'm currently on the look out for a camera (as previously mentioned on here) but wanted to check exactly what I'd need to take wide angle shots. Do I need a full blown lens such as the Sigma 10-20 or is there a another option? I've seen lots of fish eye/wide angle lenses, but are these stand alone or do they work in conjunction with the lens being used on the camera?

Sorry if its an obvious question, i'm a DSLR noob and google isn't all that helpful. I'm using it mostly for interior property shots if that helps. Any help appreciated :thumbs:
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For interior property shots your best option is 'Ultra Wide Angle' on a crop sensor such as a Canon 40D. The choices include but not limited to the Sigma 10-20 or the Canon 10-22. Both are good quality lenses and there is plenty of discussion on this forum as to which is better. The Sigma is the cheaper option for sure.

If you are concentrating on interior shots this is the best option. If your camera was full frame you'd be looking at a ~17mm wide angle option. Fisheye is as discussed a novelty effect. It depends what you want to do with your interior images?

There are some other cheaper options. You could just get the kit lens for example. If you look in the back of magazines you may be able to buy a cheap converter that screws onto the front of the lens to convert a kit lens to a wider angle. This option is of very debatable quality but may be good enough depending on what you want to do.

HTH

Mark F
 
Are there any fixed lens options? I.e. a lens fixed at 10mm or 12mm - if that makes sense? Sorry if that sounds daft, but even on the compact I rarely touch the zoom so doubt i'd need to adjust it often.
 
The Sigma 10-20mm is a great lens thats a look at this taken on my old 300D
3598560573_52394dd0e6_o.jpg

3566402843_b66825f3df_o.jpg
 
if you go Canon, and a single lens to start , consider the 17-85 IS. cracking lens with plenty of range for general photography,
and the IS is incredibly useful.
When canon EVENTUALY get the parts to repair my hard used 17-85, it will go back on my 30D, andit is my preferred wedding lens.
i am currently running an 18-50 f2.8 sigma, which has amazing low light performance, for its price.
 
Cheers once again guys, looks like i'm going to be parting with another few hundred quid but hopefully it'll be worth it!
 
Again if you go with a single starter lens I can highly recommend the Canon 18-200mm IS lens. If you are looking at a range of lenses then I would go for the Sigma 12-24mm over the 10-20mm any day, it is a far better lens, this would give you the options then to have a 24-70mm and maybe a 70-200mm.

Your profile doesnt say where you are jrsteeve, I am sure you will find a member near you that will have kit that you can try/handle so that if gives you some idea of what you want.

Remember if you go with a single lens like the 18-200mm then a small camera bag will hold camera, lens, flash and a few filters and will be fairly light, once you opt for a camera, a range of 3 lenses to cover the same range (ish), flash and filters etc you will be into a larger bag and it will weigh a lot more. My wifes kit is the 20D, 18-200mm, 580EX and a few other bits and comes in at 3.5Kg, mine is 50D, 12-24mm, 24-70mm L, 70-200mm L, 580EX, plus filters and extenders etc and weighs in at over 8Kg

If you are just starting out I would opt for the lighter simpler kit, buy second hand where you can and save yourself some money for later upgrades to your lenses if you find that photography is your thing and you are finding the limits of the single lens, ie you find you need the lower aperture that you can get with the better glass.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Karl
 
I think the good advice is go 17-85IS as your standard lens-buy it as a kit with the 40D you will get a low price. Then add the Sigma 10-20 which is a cracking wide angle lens-a lot of people rate it higher than the Canon at around half the price!!
 
Paul Philpott said:
I think the good advice is go 17-85IS as your standard lens-buy it as a kit with the 40D you will get a low price. Then add the Sigma 10-20 which is a cracking wide angle lens-a lot of people rate it higher than the Canon at around half the price!!
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I've never seen it rated higher than the Canon. The Canon 10-22 is one of the best non 'L' lenses Canon make. Of the two, the Canon 10-22 is better built, as is sharper than the Sigma. A lot of Sigma copies have been returned to Sigma due to being soft or mis aligned. But its a lot cheaper than the Canon.
 
The 17-85mm IS probably won't be wide enough for interiors, unless you're talking about very large spaces, and it distorts very badly at the wide end. This is pretty easy to correct using software, but it's a nuisance. The Canon 10 -22 or the Sigma 10 - 20 would be better, or you could look at the Tokina or Sigma 12 -24. The Tokina is pretty solid, and the Sigma gets very good reviews. The difference at the wide end between 10 and 12 is more than the numbers suggest though, and I'd suggest you try them before deciding.
 
odd jim said:
I've never seen it rated higher than the Canon. The Canon 10-22 is one of the best non 'L' lenses Canon make. Of the two, the Canon 10-22 is better built, as is sharper than the Sigma. A lot of Sigma copies have been returned to Sigma due to being soft or mis aligned. But its a lot cheaper than the Canon.
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Just ask the team at Park Cameras!! Also see the Photo Plus Wide Angle group test might change your mind!!
 
My mind is already well and truely made up! I've used both the Sigma and the Canon, the Canon was better than the Sigma in IQ, build, Af speed and noise, and is just so much neater with a far less protruding front element, but the overall better sharpenss across the range of the Canon was what made it for me (I found the Sigma soft in the corners across the range).

Hense buying the Canon over the Sigma! Its what I found to be better for me and I was prepared to pay the extra for what I considered to be the best UWA I could get for my camera.

If you look at pretty much any group test, the Canon comes out on top, though they are both very good
 
The widest I have for my 40d is the 17-55 f2.8
wider than that I make panoramic shots, which I rarely make wider than 180 degrees.
I am not a fan of super wide angle lenses.
 
I will jump in and wave the flag for the Tokina 11-16.
f/2.8 (the largest aperture of the alternative UWA's) which will come in handy, solidly built and cheaper than the Canon 10-22.
My example is gorgeous, sharp with great colour.
Finding them can be the hard part :|
 
I think given what you will be doing, fish-eye is definitely out.

You can hire the Canon 10-22 relatively cheaply from lensesforhire.co.uk
No hassle from them when I hired mine. At 10mm, it is wider than 90 degrees, which can distort what your pictures. I believe I have seen before that estate agents cannot accept personal pictures of property, just in case they are not true to life.
Do a quick search on here for the sigma, and the canon. I think that you will see that there have been several people who have had to return multiple sigma wide angle lenses before they managed to get one where it was not distorting or out of focus on one side of the lens and not the other. That said, when you get a good one, they are meant to be almost as good as the Canon, at a fraction of the price
 
I bought a Sigma 10-20mm for my 40D not too long back, I used it to photograph a complete house renovation and shoot somebodys private villa for their website.
It is superb, watch out though, you usually see my feet/torso on the unedited photos because it is that wide! :D
 
From what you have said, an ultra-wide is probably the best/easiest option. Quality is obviously important, so I would go with the Canon 10-22 as it is the pick of the bunch, plus you can use Canon's DPP software that has custom corrections for distortion, CA and vignetting - all of which will be obvious in interior shots. All lenses suffer these problems, although the Canon 10-22 less than most, but only Canon has the easy custom one-click software solution.

Cheap wide adaptors are best avoided.

Using panorama style technique will give you superb results, even from your current camera. But will only work with static subjects and shooting panoramas of interiors with relatively close objects is much more difficult than landscapes (you'll probably need a Nodal Ninja or similar pivoting/alignment device). Plus the extra time in post processing of course.
 
Also got the siggy 10 - 20 and I love it. Also others who have also had a play with it seem to like it straight away as well. Most of my photography is done around the Yorkshire moors / dales and it never seems to be off my camera.
 
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