Canon Wide-Angle for wedding???

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jckfrd

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Hi there,

I've been asked to do a friends wedding in September. I've had my Canon 450d for a month or so now, and i'm still getting used to it.

I'm looking for a wide-angle lens for the wedding and have no more than £250-£300 to spend. I know it's not an awful lot, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend any lens that would be suitable.

The only one I seem to have found within the price range is the Canon EF 35mm f2.0 Lens - http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/12888/show.html

Does anyone have any better ideas or advice? Please help. I want to do as good a job as I possibly can for my friends wedding.
 
jckfrd said:
Hi there,

I've been asked to do a friends wedding in September. I've had my Canon 450d for a month or so now, and i'm still getting used to it.

I'm looking for a wide-angle lens for the wedding and have no more than £250-£300 to spend. I know it's not an awful lot, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend any lens that would be suitable.

The only one I seem to have found within the price range is the Canon EF 35mm f2.0 Lens - http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/12888/show.html

Does anyone have any better ideas or advice? Please help. I want to do as good a job as I possibly can for my friends wedding.
Click to expand...

A 35mm f2.0 won't be very wide on a 450d, it will be around 56mm.

I would suggest a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8, and a big flash.

:):)
 
I agree with Simon. With your crop body a 35mm lens will have a field of view equal to 35 x 1.6 = 56mm, which is not wide at all.

A zoom lens will be ideal, especially one with fast (f/2.8) optics. For your budget that pretty much means the Tamron is the one to go for. Right now it is £329 at Jessops, but you could get about £10 in cash back off that price with TopCashBack.

If you don't have an external flash you may struggle indoors and later in the day (evening).
 
The Tamron 17-50 2.8 is a cracking lens. You can pick them up 2nd hand on the forum for about £240ish.

P.s. if you've only had your camera for a month (assuming you're new to dslrs), get practising!! :D
 
If you actually mean a wide angle (or I've got my terminology wrong) then the best thing in that price range is the Sigma 10-20mm second hand. The canon 10-22mm is better but more expensive, even second hand.

Andrew.
 
Before going out splashing the cash make sure you need a wide angle lens first. I went to the rehersal of a friends wedding the other day, I have already bought a wide angle (canon 10-22mm) but because I wanted one for other things and I have discovered I don't actually need to use it during the ceremony and I probably don't need it for any group shots because I have a fair bit of space. I thought a wide shot in the church from the back would have needed it but 24mm is plenty wide enough for the shot I want. I may have a play with it for a few more creative shots but it doesn't seem to have a place at this venue, but hey all venues are different so go try out what you have. I would second the f2.8 lens and the tamron 17-50 is a popular choice if your on a strict budget.
 
A 10-20/22 lens would be regarded as ultra wide angle and might be of use for creating shots with unusual perspective or when really having to work in a tight space, but such a lens would not be a "bread and butter" type lens for a wedding.

In the full frame world it's probably fair to say that 24-70/28 is the daddy of wedding zooms, and for the croppers it would be the 17-55/2.8, whether shooting Canon or Nikon. FWIW I've shot weddings at everything from 17-200 mm on a crop body and never felt the need for wider than 17, but venues and needs do vary.
 
Thanks so much for all your replies guys.

The Tamron looks an attractive option, as I can get it from Amazon, new, for £280. What I don't particularly understand fully yet is why the Tamron can achieve a wider shot than the 35mm wide-angle. I don't doubt you're knowledge, obviously, I'm just trying to learn why.

The sigma 10-20mm super-wide-angle also seems like a very attractive option...what do you think? I'd need to find that somewhere second hand though to be able to afford it.

Thanks again for all your help.

P.s. I've had a Sony Alpha 230 for the past 2 years, so have been practising a lot with that, but obviously felt I needed to upgrade to Canon if I was going to take this a bit more seriously.
Current lenses I have are just the standard 18-55mm kit lens, and the 75-300mm kit lens.
 
you have a crop sensor, so all focal lengths are multiplied by 1.6. Therefore, your 35mm is actually 56mm. Same with the 17-55mm- it will actually be 27-88mm, not actually that wide- but wide enough for a wedding :)
 
I f you have an 18 - 55, this is widr than the 35 mm.

I think you are confused with something here. A wide angle lens increases what you actually see from left to right (or up and down if held in portrait). The smaller the mm number the wider the field of vision is.
 
I see, it makes a whole lot more sense now you guys have explained it, rather than attempting to research it on the internet. I got you. So really, the Tamrom 17-50mm will only be a fraction wider than the 18-55mm that I've already got? Would you suggest still getting the Tamrom as it has a wider aperture and generally a better lens?
 
A 35mm lens would be regarded as a wide angle lens on a full frame camera. With your crop body the angle of view is reduced and so the lens does not operate as a wide angle lens.

The Tamron zoom, with 17mm available at the short end will give you about twice the field of view of a 35mm lens - i.e. get twice as much into the frame across the width and top to bottom.

However, as you already have an 18-55mm lens you already should have a very good feel for the zoom range of the Tamron. If you set your lens to 35mm you will be able to exactly replicate the field of view of a 35mm fixed prime lens. Then you can easily compare how 35mm looks compared to shorter focal legths.

So really you already have a nice focal length range covered, but the Tamron will give you better IQ and at f/2.8 will allow higher shutter speeds and/or lower ISOs, both of which should improve your results. I don't know whether you shoot with manual exposure, or aspire to, but you will find that having a fixed maximum aperture, which the Tamron offers, will be a huge blessing compared to the slow and variable max aperture of your existing lens.

When I shot my first wedding, for friends, as a guest, I had a 17-85mm f/4-5.6 lens. The focal length range was great, as was the IS, but the slow and variable maximum aperture was a major handicap. Now, unless there is no option, I only buy f/2.8 zooms, and I have the whole focal length range from 16mm to 200mm covered at f/2.8. For weddings and many other things, f/2.8 is the way to go for your zoom lenses. IMHO. :)
 
Why not see if you can hire a 10-22 for the day, if you really think you would like one? Much cheaper than buying.
 
jckfrd said:
I see, it makes a whole lot more sense now you guys have explained it, rather than attempting to research it on the internet. I got you. So really, the Tamrom 17-50mm will only be a fraction wider than the 18-55mm that I've already got? Would you suggest still getting the Tamrom as it has a wider aperture and generally a better lens?
Click to expand...

what else do you have in your kit bag? I wouldnt go with anything wider than the tamron as its luxury rather than a necessity. Do you have any zoom lens beyond 50mm?
 
Thanks guys, really appreciate the help. Hope it's not too frustrating attempting to teach someone what is probably the very basics of lenses.

The wedding is not till September, so i'm going to play around with my 18-55mm a bit more, and then perhaps go for the Tamrom 10-24mm in a month or so's time.
 
If you don't have a flash I would strongly recommend getting one before worrying about an ultra-wide.
 
With the wedding, you mean? I live in Greenwich, London. But the wedding is in Abergavenny, Wales.
 
I'm normally one of the people on here who encourages people to have a go when a situation like this arises but having read this thread are you really sure you are ready for a wedding shoot? You don't seem to have a grasp on some of the very basic elements of camera equipment or what you will need in a wedding environment.
 
Re: a1ex2001. Appreciate your concern here. Mine was initially the same. It's actually a friends wedding, and I've already voiced my own personal concern and inexperience within this particular field. My friends want me to do it, because as artists of sorts themselves they'd like to give me a break and give me the chance to do it.

Thanks.

http://www.jckfrdphotography.com
 
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