Advice wanted.... Wide Angle Lense

[finnyuk]

Ok guys Im a Canon man myself and im after a good wide angle lense. Can anyone offer any suggestions to a certain one? i want it for shooting cars mainly but so when you take a shot from the front corner you can get the whole car in but the nearest point of the car is bulging out at you.

I have been looking at the Canon 17-40 F4L USM lense and cheapest I have found it is about £400 at the minute and not to sure if this will do the job?

[marctwo]

Depends what you mean by wide.

If you have a digital SLR then you'll need to multiply the lens angles by 1.6 to get the equivalent so 17-40mm becomes 27.2-64mm. This would make a pretty good walk around lens but if you really want that exaggerated wide angle look then I suggest a super wide. Canon do a very nice 10-22mm but it's quite pricey. I have the Sigma 10-20mm which I am very happy with and it is much cheaper than the Canon. Tokina also make a 12-24mm. Search google for reviews.

[350Wedge]

I use the Canon 17-40L that you mention and its really a cracking lens and pin sharp on quality. You pay the extra for the quality and at £400 you cant go wrong. Is that a new or s/hand price? Normally s/hand they fetch about £450ish or there abouts.

Which Canon do you have? like the previous poster mentioned you need to take into account sensor magnification. At most you'll need to multiply 17 x 1.6 for a worst case scenario. Even on my 400D which has a 1.6x crop i dont struggle too much with car photo's at close range down at the bumper. I've had the luxury of a 1DS II which being full frame is awesome with this lens due to having no multiplication factor at all.

A mate of mine recently had a similar dilemma and had been to try stuff like sigma's 15-30 and 12-24 etc but as soon as he had a go with my 17-40, he just went straight out and bought one! Build quality with it is better IMHO than the sigma/tokina equvilents plus you get Canons L series glass.

[poah]

I'd consider the 17-55 f2.8 IS over the 17-40.

[hawkaye]

I have the 17-40 too, cracking all round lens, very crisp and great build quality. As Poah says, the 17-55 would be nice but at more than double the price?

[RobDickinson]

Wide or ultra wide.

17mm on a canon crop body is 28mm equivelant, at the narrow end of wide.

17-55IS (or tokina 18-50 f2.8 etc) are good walkabout lenses, a 10-20 or 10-22 is a better UWA/wide.

[lowdrag]

The Tokina 12/24 is a cracking lens at the price and is a true wide angle. Might be worth a look.

[Byker28i]

Again depends on Camera, but I have the EF-S 10-22 which is really good as a wide angle lens. It almost fisheyes at 10mm

[finnyuk]

My camera at the minute is only a 350D and maybe in the future goin to a 5D but that wont be for a while.

[finnyuk]

has anyone got any example pics they could show, stating the camera and lens they used?

[toastboy]

OK here's a few taken with a Canon 300D and 10-22mm lens







You do have to get unfeasibly close to something to take a picture at 10mm. It takes a while to get used to.

[nick_bbb]

I just saw they have the Sigma 15-30mm F3.5-4.5 EX DG in Jessops for £192.00 to clear if that's any good to you.

[crmcatee]

Canon 20D - 10-22mm Both shot at 10mm

Probably about a foot away from the front.



Mounted on the headrest hoops.

[Byker28i]

Canon 300d with EF-S10-22

[Thunderace]

I've had a 17-40 for about 3 years and it's my most used lens, added a Sigma 12-24 earlier this year as 17mm didn't seem wide enough on a 1.6 crop camera. The 12mm end can be very dramatic used on a full-frame camera.

12mm @ F5.6, EOS400 :-

[cannedheat]

I have a 17-40 for my 350d and it's plenty wide enough for me.

Cracking lens too, very well built, nice size.

[finnyuk]

Do you have any example shots on the 17-40 to show the true wide angle.

I've managed to get to try a 16-35 F2.8L at the weekend so will see what that is like too.

[beano500]

Hey! You Canonites have a sumptuous new 14mm coming out soon? Must be the one for the job, Shirley?

[RobDickinson]

Thats a rev II tho and theres a lot of difference between 10 and 14mm IMO esp on a crop camera (16 vs 22.5mm).