Wide angle lens, unsure which one

MattBaigent

MattBaigent

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Hi everyone, I am new to the forum. I have been into photography for the past few years and even more so over the last year since purchasing a 700d. I am loving the 50mm 1.8 and am now looking for a new wide angle lens. I did have the canon 10-18mm but I found the low light performance rather poor which is the reason why I have sold it and now looking for a new one. I am going to Norway to (hopefully) view the northern lights so I am looking for a one with good low light performance. I was close to purchasing the Tokina 11-20mm 2.8 but have seen that the build quality and the auto/manual focus switch very awkward. I am now looking towards the canon 10-22mm 3.5-4.5.

Is this lens good in low light or should I be looking elsewhere?

Thank you,

Matt
 
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Have a look at a new lens on the market, I have one and it seems ok.
IRIX lens, look them up.
 
Ah yes sorry, I got the 15mm,11mm is just out.
 
Low light performance is driven by the maximum aperture the lens can achieve.

The Canon 10-18mm is f/4.5-5.6: f/4.5 at the wide end and f/5.6 at the not-so-wide end.
The Irix 11mm is f/4.
The Canon 10-22mm is f/3.5-4.5: f/3.5 at the wide and and f/4.5 at the not-so-wide end.
The Irix 15mm is f/2.4.

If you want to shoot at around 11mm, the Canon 10-22mm (f/3.5 at 11mm) has a ½-stop advantage over the Irix 11mm (f/4), which has a 2/3-stop advantage over the Canon 11-18mm (f/5 at 11mm).
If you want to shoot at around 15mm, the Irix 15mm (f/2.4) has a 1½-stop advantage over the Canon 10-22mm (f/4 at 15mm), which has whole stop advantage over the Canon 10-18mm (f/5.6 at 15mm).

If you want some zoom capability, the Canon 10-22mm has a decent aperture advantage over the Canon 10-18mm, throghout the zoom range.

Another lens you might want to look at is the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5.
 
And is the sigma a good lens. Everywhere I look I always see bad reviews. Is the tokina any good, I like that it has a f2.8
 
Have you considered the Samyang 14mm f2.8? Fully manual lens and on your crop sensor will be a 22mm (ish) equivalent lens. Its a beast for night shooting and sharp as a tack.
 
That does look like an option. I quite like the option of a zoom but that lens does seem to provide fantastic images.
 
Ideally, for Northern Lights you want as fast a lens as possible, this means f/2.8 or faster, the classic answer is the Tokina 11-16 which has very good IQ and build quality, albeit limited focal range.
 
What's the 11-20 tokina like? I do like the larger zoom and the f2.8 but is it shard at 2.8 or do you need to stop down to get sharpness
 
There's another way to look at this.
You have a 700D, did you get it with the kit 18-55mm lens? If so, why not replace that lens with a better f2.8 lens?
There are 3 main options; Canon 17-55mm f2.8 IS, Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 DC OS HSM or the Tamron 17-50mm.
Part-ex your kit lens with the money you would have spent on the wide angle and you should manage to get at least the Sigma or Tamron.

All of these will give you a wide f2.8 aperture at 17mm (all the way to 50/55mm) which is good and will work well for the Northern Lights. I used the older version of that Sigma f2.8 lens for shooting the Northern Lights last time I was in Norway.
Taking this approach would actually give you a very good general purpose lens as well as something good for low light.

I bought a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 wide angle before going to Norway, I hardly used it. It was almost a waste of space on that trip where I had real baggage limitations. And when you're trekking around in the Norwegian snow covered countryside (esp in the dark) you don't want to be carrying more than you need to.
The other thing to consider is whether the perspective of a wide angle lens will make the Northern Lights appear smaller in the shots than you might want, but it does depend on your view; what's the terrain like, are you high up or are their hills towering over you? etc.
The Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 is a decent lens, but even the f3.5 version isn't that great in low light.
The Tokina 11-20mm f2.8 is meant to be a good replacement for the older 11-16mm
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, older but still very good and if you look at example images on Flickr, you'll find plenty of low light shots showing it's abilities. Prices should be quite good secondhand.
Samyang has 2 options:
14mm f2.8 and 16mm f2.0 - both fully manual but both meant to be good.


From experience, it can be hard to catch the Northern Lights, just finding/waiting for them is tough. If you can use an app like Aurora Watch, it'll give you an alert when visibility is likely to be best and a general area. If you happen to have some local knowledge or have scouted a location in the daytime, that will make it easier to get a good shot.
I'm heading back to Norway in August, but I'm not sure that will be the best time to see the Northern Lights... can only hope.

Enjoy your trip.
 
My girlfriend got the trip for me for my 30th as it's something I have always wanted to do. We are only there for 3 days so hopefully we will catch it. I unfortunately have the 18-135mm lens but I did purchase the 10-18mm which I sold and have purchased the tokina 11-20mm. Even if I don't use the wide angle for the northern lights, it will be nice for landscape shots during the day there and elsewhere.

https://explorecams.com/photos/pair...-x-11-20-f2-8-pro-dx-aspherical-11-20mm-f-2-8

Very handy website. Type in the camera and the lens and it will show you all photos taken with the same set up.
 
The question is - do you want ultrawide, or just wide, then you can seriously narrow it down.

FWIW, I have the Canon 10-22 that I kept for my crop bodies, its one of my favourite lenses, I just wish I could also use it on my FF bodies! For my FF cameras I use the Samyang 14mm, which offers an even wider field of view on FF that the 10-22 does on the cropped bodies :)

If you want ultrawide on a crop Canon, I don't think the 10-22 can be beaten. Its better than the 10-18 in every area, but of course the 10-18 has that supurb value for money factor and will still get you all that 10mm loveliness. For the northern lights though, I'd look at the Tokina f/2.8 lenses where you lose 1mm but gain that extra light.

EDIT - didnt see the last post, I see you've bought the Tokina - that will serve you very well.
 
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odd jim said:
The question is - do you want ultrawide, or just wide, then you can seriously narrow it down.

FWIW, I have the Canon 10-22 that I kept for my crop bodies, its one of my favourite lenses, I just wish I could also use it on my FF bodies! For my FF cameras I use the Samyang 14mm, which offers an even wider field of view on FF that the 10-22 does on the cropped bodies :)

If you want ultrawide on a crop Canon, I don't think the 10-22 can be beaten. Its better than the 10-18 in every area, but of course the 10-18 has that supurb value for money factor and will still get you all that 10mm loveliness. For the northern lights though, I'd look at the Tokina f/2.8 lenses where you lose 1mm but gain that extra light.

EDIT - didnt see the last post, I see you've bought the Tokina - that will serve you very well.
Click to expand...

Haha yes, hopefully it'll work wonders. I was look at the canon 10-22 but the f2.8 is what really sold it for me.
 
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