need a fast, ultra wide, full frame lens. something under 20mm.

solomonshv wrote:

i currently have a canon 16-35 f/2.8L II. while i like the lens mostly, sometimes the images are softer than i would like them to be. and the distortion is just ridiculous at smaller focal lengths.

i'm looking to upgrade to something better. don't care if it is prime or zoom, auto focus or full manual. i just need the best image possible with a 5D Mark III and i need it to be under 20mm.

i looked at the Carl Zeiss 15mm Distagon T* f/2.8 ZE. i'm thinking that may be my best option. but before i plunk down such a stupid amount of money for what is nothing more than hobby, i want to know if it is worth it.

are there any other suggestions that i may have missed?

thanks

Zeiss 15 is definitely one option, but a pricey one. Another good one is the Zeiss 21mm, well, not under 20mm but close enough, it's my all time favorite landscape lens.Talking about Zeiss, I would stay away from Zeiss 18 though, not in the same league as their 21mm.

Another good one is the TSE-17, I actually use this lens even more than my Zeiss 21, the T/S is really really handy when you want to control your foreground/background focusing, also for interior and tall buildings, very versatile lens, but of course it's not a point and shoot lens, it takes time and effort to get the most out of it, but if you do spend the time to learn the lens and use it right you will get result you simply can't with other lenses, to me this lens is optically as great as the Zeiss 21 even without T/S, and it's absolutely SHARP edge to edge, even with maximum tilt, it still have better edge than the 16-35L F2.8.

Another option is the Samyang 14mm, a dirt cheap option actually, I love mine and use it a lot even I have the Zeiss and TSE, I mainly use it for night photo, shooting MilkyWay, it beats all my other lens in this specific application, because it has very very low Coma Aberration, very important for night photography, very sharp lens even wide open, it has more distortion than the other two mentioned, but for this specific application, distortion is none issue, I don't even need to do any distortion correction.

One more option is the newer 16-35 F4 IS, seems to be day and night sharper lens than the 16-35 F2.8 II, by the way I owned that 16-35L 2.8 II and the 17-40L at one point as well but sold that long time ago and never missed them, I will also give this 16-35 F4 IS a try myself, seems to be a winner if you don't need fast aperture.

And if you do need great optic quality and fast aperture, there is a Nikon 14-24 F2.8G, you can use it on Canon with adapter, I used mine this way for years before the D800E came out, I was really please with it, a fast zoom with a quality of a high quality prime, actually better than a lot of primes, at least is quite a bit better than the 14L II I tries.

Again if large aperture is one of your concern, since you said you are fine with MF, the new Nikon 20 F1.8 they just announced last night may fit your bill, it's pretty cheap for a 20mm 1.8 lens (if optic quality is good), under $800 USD. I have it pre-Ordered already, I am really looking for a FAST WIDE lens for astrophotography, and I don't use tracker, so faster the better wider the better, the Samyang 14 is wide but not as fast, and this new 20mm is faster but not as wide, so compromise again.