Advice on a wide angle lens

Morris0 wrote:

I first got the Rokinon 10mm and loved the output of this lens. It is long and heavy which I found strange for a wide angle lens and the weight frustrated me so I decided to get the Rokinon 12mm. I feel it's a big step down in image quality as well as build quality though it is nice and light and a typical size for a wide angle lens. Eventually I got the Fuji 10-24 and I find it super versatile, sharp and to have great contrast and snap. For me 16mm is not wide enough for a lot of my landscape work. I don't see why you could not use the 10-24 for street photography or travel though it's f4 aperture would require higher ISO indoors and at night.

Morris

I'm a little surprised by your comment on the Rok 12.  I don't own that lens, so no personal experience to share here, but it is widely regarded as pretty well the best astro lens (for starscapes) available for Fujifilm cameras.  Wide field astro is arguably one of the most demanding usages for any lens, with respect to IQ, and will very quickly highlight most any optical issues that the lens might have.  So, I'm a bit curious as to what the IQ issues you experienced might have been.

Concerning the 10-24, I had one in my kit for many years... more recently replaced by the 8-16.  I found it to be terrific for interiors, but find the wider FOV and aperture of the 8-16 to be a real game changer for photographing large, dark interiors like cathedrals.  So far, at least, I'm not really missing the 10-24 much.

As far as your recommendation for using the 10-24 for street photography... it would seem to be awfully wide and impractical for photographing people (except in groups perhaps), regardless.  Unless I'm off base in terms of what is generally defined as "street photography," I'm struggling to see how that would be a really good choice for that.  Perhaps you can set me straight if I misunderstood your comment.