Lens Choice

mousemat

mousemat

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Ian
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Hi

Im off to the Black Isles week after next and am looking at shooting some landscapes.

Not bought a new lens for several years and looking for a nice wide angle for landscape work.

I have a Canon and obviously, the L Series are supposed to be brilliants, but, what are your suggestions. Budget wise, up to £400 which is just short of a Canon 17mm-40mm L series.
 
You seem to have an APS-C camera and therefore I'd pick a quality 17-50mm f2.8 zoom every time over a 17-40mm f4. That lens was designed to be a full frame wide angle lens but on APS-C it's rather pedestrian IMVHO, so why not go for a quality 17-50mm f2.8?
 
Alan

Thanks for that.

Any recommendations? I have heard good things about Sigma, but any advice would be welcomed
 
I have a Tamron 17-50mm (non IS) on a D300 (cropped sensor) and i love it, sadly i haven't used any other lens of similar quality to compare it to, but for the price it is a cracking lens

From what i read i don't think there is much between the Tamron and Sigma offerings, but don't take that as gospel
 
mousemat said:
Alan

Thanks for that.

Any recommendations? I have heard good things about Sigma, but any advice would be welcomed
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As far as I know you'll have a choice of three...

Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.
Sigma 18-50mm f2.8.
Canon 17-55mm f2.8 IS, USM.

I'm pretty sure that the Sigma and Tamron are available with IS but best check.

Back when I had a 20D I went for the Tamron which in those days didn't have IS. Back then the Tamron and Sigma were said to be very close but some reviewers gave the nod to the Tamron. The Canon may be better but it's also bigger and heavier and dearer and I don't know how close you'd need to look to see the betterness.
 
Well the 17-50mm mentioned is a good lens yes but wideangle was mentioned, in which case look no further than Tokina 11-16mm f2.8.
 
+1 for Tokina wide lenses. I have a Tokina 12-24 F4, its solid in built and produces images of little distortion (apart from distortion that comes from being very wide)

various lens of similar wide range like the tokina 12-28, 16-24, 11-16 can be had new from DigitalRev for 330-400 iirc, worth taking a look
 
Thanks for the information. I will have to check them out and see where I go from here
 
A lot of the lens seem to be outside of your range price wise.
Also whilst I wouldn't suggest the 17-40L for an APS-C the other lens IQ wise are not going to be massively different are they? On a crop the 17-40 would show less vignetting and be sharper as you aren't getting the edges so much. But as Alan said none of them are particularly wide on a crop.

Canon 10-20 seems to get consistently good reviews and is under £400.
 
strangely enough, I keep coming back to Sigma lenses. Yes L series is all very good, but as you, there are others
 
LeeRatters said:
I wouldn't class 17 or 18mm WIDE for landscape work in all honesty.

I'd be looking at something that is 10-12mm at the wide end - Canon, Sigma, Tokina.....
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17 or 18mm is wide angle on aps-c where as 10 or 12mm is ultra wide angle.
You will be surprised how 17/18 works quite well for landscapes.
With the ultra wides due care is needed when composing scenes as things can get lost in the shot. Normally you need a strong foreground to make the most of them.
 
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I didn't say 18mm wasn't wide on crop. I also didn't say 18mm wouldn't work well for landscapes. The point I'm making is that typically a 18-**mm zoom is a standard zoom not something that is considered a dedicated landscape zoom.

I'm guessing the OP already has a 'standard' zoom in which case either use what you got or go WIDE for a dedicated landscape lens. There's not much point in getting a

Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.
Sigma 18-50mm f2.8.
Canon 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM

for dedicated landscapes if the OP already has a 18-55IS
 
Not been online for a while, thanks for all the responses, still considering what to go for though.

I do have an 17-135mm but looking for a wider angle for landscapes.

Time is running out though as I leave for Inverness Saturday 14th!!!
 
The already mentioned Tonika 11 - 16mm f2.8 would be my choice, in fact I am ordering it today ready for my trip to Scotland in a few weeks time gets very good reviews.
 
Wide angle lenses can be perhaps the most challenging to use well and personally I think that wide angle landscape has been pretty much done to death. There seems to be an assumption that you have to use a wide angle for landscape.

Anyway... When I had an APS-C DSLR I initially went for the Canon 10-22mm but soon moved to a Sigma 12-24mm which I still have and use on my 5D. The 12-24mm seems to be a very good lens and is worth considering.
 
woof woof said:
Wide angle lenses can be perhaps the most challenging to use well and personally I think that wide angle landscape has been pretty much done to death. There seems to be an assumption that you have to use a wide angle for landscape.

Anyway... When I had an APS-C DSLR I initially went for the Canon 10-22mm but soon moved to a Sigma 12-24mm which I still have and use on my 5D. The 12-24mm seems to be a very good lens and is worth considering.
Click to expand...

the Sigma 12-24 mentioned here is the widest one can go on FF without going fisheye :thumbs: it has good reviews, from the reviews i read, if you use it on a crop sensor it is extremely sharp throughout the frames because it is designed for a FF sensor but you are only taking the central bit by shooting it on crop, and it has very low distortion because of the same reason :)

it can be had for £500 iirc off digitalrev but its been a while since i looked. i would have gone for one of these (Mk 2) which go for about £400 second hand off ebay apart from i found a good deal and bought a Tokina 12-24 f4 instead :p:D
 
Spoony said:
The already mentioned Tonika 11 - 16mm f2.8 would be my choice, in fact I am ordering it today ready for my trip to Scotland in a few weeks time gets very good reviews.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. Given your budget, this lens represents the best image quality for a super wide lens and the extra speed of f2.8 is a bonus.
 
Just ordered the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, should arrive later this week.
 
Spoony, are you thinking about fitting any kind of filter to the front for protection etc?
 
Your right about the hood, yes its very solid and i dont theres much need for a filter on the front to protect the lens, but since i ordered one too, i may aswell use it!
 
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