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Wide-angle primes for 1.6x bodies?

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A 30mm or so lens on a 1.6x body like my XT or a 20D/30D comes out to around a 50mm FOV - more of a "normal" lens than a wide angle. That said, I already have a Canon 35 f/2. Great little lens :-)

Nate
 
Well,

i just went through this and I've settled on the Sigma 20mm f/1.8. I just ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive. As I understand it, if you get a good copy of it then it is a nice lens. Also it seems that the Sigma 30 f/1.4 is a fine lens if you're ok with an APS-C only lens. Don't mean to push Sigma, but that's what I've been finding lately :-).

Ian
--
bughunter
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'The will to disbelieve is the strongest deterrent to wider horizons.' -Hans Holzer
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bughunter said:
Well,

i just went through this and I've settled on the Sigma 20mm f/1.8.
I just ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive. As I understand
it, if you get a good copy of it then it is a nice lens. Also it
seems that the Sigma 30 f/1.4 is a fine lens if you're ok with an
APS-C only lens. Don't mean to push Sigma, but that's what I've
been finding lately :-).

Ian
Click to expand...
The Sigma 20mm is one that I had in mind, too.

Nate
 
NTB said:
The Tokina 17mm might be another option too, now that I think about
it.
Click to expand...
Nate,

I think you'd be better off with the 17-40L if that is the case. You only loose a third of a stop and I think the IQ is at least as good. Then there's the versatility of the zoom. I own it, but I'm looking for a WA with SPEED! I use a WA primarily for indoor, low light shots and f/4 is just way too slow (so is f/3.5 for that matter).

Ian

--
bughunter
Pbase supporter
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Gear in profile

'The will to disbelieve is the strongest deterrent to wider horizons.' -Hans Holzer
'It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got.' -Sheryl Crow

 
bughunter said:
Nate,
I think you'd be better off with the 17-40L if that is the case.
You only loose a third of a stop and I think the IQ is at least as
good. Then there's the versatility of the zoom. I own it, but I'm
looking for a WA with SPEED! I use a WA primarily for indoor, low
light shots and f/4 is just way too slow (so is f/3.5 for that
matter).

Ian
Click to expand...
I just recently purchased a 17-85 IS, which works beatifully, aside from the barrel distortion at 17mm. I was thinking more of using the wide angle for landscape-type shots; I do a lot of camping and hiking. I've got the 35 f/2 and a 430EX flash for indoor stuff.

Nate
 
Another vote for the canon 35 1.4 L - if you can aford it, it is an awesome, somewhat wide on a 1.6x crop camera, prime lens.

Pfuller88
 
Don't under estimate the Sigma 15f2.8FE. It is one slick lens. It gives an equivalent of a 12mm rectilinear when de-fished. You have the option of de-fishing, but it keep most my photos as it is. The fish-eye effect is mild on 1.6X DSLRs and rather pleasant. It is one sharp, fast, ulta wide angle lens.

Here is a reference on the relative image size and quality of the lens compare to other UWA zooms: http://canon-20d.com/wide-angle-lens-compare.php
 
Homl said:
Don't under estimate the Sigma 15f2.8FE. It is one slick lens. It
gives an equivalent of a 12mm rectilinear when de-fished.
Click to expand...
I am actually probably going to get this at some point as well. I got the Zenitar a couple years back, but it needs f5.6 to erase the gauze, so indoors it is severely compromised. Being able to shoot f2.8 with close focus and almost everything hyperfocal - now that is a lowlight wide angle lens! Plus there are a lot of times when defishing is really not even necessary, especially when doing group shots with people near the edges of the frame.

--
-CW
 
Homl said:
Don't under estimate the Sigma 15f2.8FE. It is one slick lens. It
gives an equivalent of a 12mm rectilinear when de-fished. You have
the option of de-fishing, but it keep most my photos as it is. The
fish-eye effect is mild on 1.6X DSLRs and rather pleasant. It is
one sharp, fast, ulta wide angle lens.
Here is a reference on the relative image size and quality of the
lens compare to other UWA zooms:
http://canon-20d.com/wide-angle-lens-compare.php
Click to expand...
Do you have any pics with the fisheye online that I could see? If I could straighten the FE effect out and still get a good shot, I might consider it.

Nate
 
I know it's not a prime, but check out the Tokina 12-24 f/4 (e.g. see test at photozone.de). The CA can be as bad as the review suggests, but if you shoot RAW it's nothing a few minutes of testing and making some presets won't take care of. It's wider than any rectilinear prime available in EOS mount, and though not as wide as it's competition, the excellent build quality, fixed maximum aperture (BIG plus for me; I find forced aperture changes when zooming extremely annoying), optical quality, weight, and price easily sold me on it.

In EOS land there just aren't that many light, affordable wide primes that perform well. I'd taken to using a 28mm f/2.8 Zeiss Distagon (180 eur) with a Bob Shell adapter as my 'normal' lens for this reason, though the max aperture was a bit slow for the low-light stuff I do so I picked up a 50mm f/1.4 Planar (130 eur) as well. Granted, stop-down metering and manaual focus is not so hot in many situations but once you get used to it, when these things hit, THEY HIT. I had the opportunity to use the Distagon on a friend's 1DS next to the 24-70L and was very impressed.

The Zeiss 21 and 18 are pretty pricey, and given their max apertures you're likely better off with the 17-40L if you're on a 1.6x Canon body as all current cameras in that format probably won't outresolve the L, though the Zeiss glass may be somewhat sharper in the corners wide open.

-Blake
 
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