Landscape (wide angle) lens [on a budget]

Fallensurvivorz

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Hi, my favorite type of photography is landscape photography, with that said I am currently only using my canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens that came with my camera. I am using a Canon rebel xsi, my question is what lens should I get for my camera? My budget sadly is only at max about $250 maybe $300.

-Thank you for the help
 
There are plenty of 'wide angle adapters' that would screw into the front of your lens like a filter. For example Neewer 58mm Wide Angle Lens 0.45X For Canon Rebel EOS 18-55mm: Amazon.ca: Electronics
The problem is that they most likely won't give you the same image quality that you're getting with just your lens currently.

You might look for a used lens, something like the Sigma 10-20mm. http://www.keh.com/camera/Sigma-Digital-Zoom-Lenses/1/sku-SD07999084855J?r=FE

Another option would be to take multiple photos and stitch them together.
 
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I'm fine with a used lens, also can you explain what you mean by it screws into the "lens" like a filter? I don't understand how this works, does this allow a lens like a 50mm become a wide angle? That doesn't make sense to me but I could be completely misunderstanding what your saying.
 
I'm fine with a used lens, also can you explain what you mean by it screws into the "lens" like a filter? I don't understand how this works, does this allow a lens like a 50mm become a wide angle? That doesn't make sense to me but I could be completely misunderstanding what your saying.


It's basically another lens that you screw on to your existing lens like a filter.

Think of it this way.... your eye has a lens. You can change the FOV of your eye by using a telescope or binoculars, right? What Big Mike is suggesting is doing the same thing to your camera lens, only increase the FOV, not decrease it.

That said, the vast majority of those optics are cheap and poorly made.
 
Take a look at the Rokinon 14mm
 
I'm very curious in your opinion! What doesn't your current lens do for you? or What is it that you need the new lens to do? I feel if you could honestly answer those questions then choosing your next lens will be easier when knowing what it is your looking for.
 
I'm very curious in your opinion! What doesn't your current lens do for you? or What is it that you need the new lens to do? I feel if you could honestly answer those questions then choosing your next lens will be easier when knowing what it is your looking for.

What I want from a new lens is basically a wider view than my 18-55mm lens offers me. I could do this with panoramic but sometimes I need the speed of the wide angle that panoramic doesn't offer, for example one of the issues i've had was when taking photos a forest when i'm up on a high point and there happens to be animals or something in the view that I want to capture. If I use panoramic I might miss my shot also, also I can't tell them everything to stay still while I take a panoramic photo. With that in mind I hope that answers your question, if not please let me know.
 
Take a look at the Rokinon 14mm

One big downside to this one: Way too much compound distortion, at least for me.

I played around with one, and was able to come up with a way to correct it, but I ended up losing so much of the image I ended up with the FOV of a 16mm..... which is durned close to my 17mm. However, the OP having a crop sensor, may not need to correct for it.
 
I'm fine with a used lens, also can you explain what you mean by it screws into the "lens" like a filter? I don't understand how this works, does this allow a lens like a 50mm become a wide angle? That doesn't make sense to me but I could be completely misunderstanding what your saying.


It's basically another lens that you screw on to your existing lens like a filter.

Think of it this way.... your eye has a lens. You can change the FOV of your eye by using a telescope or binoculars, right? What Big Mike is suggesting is doing the same thing to your camera lens, only increase the FOV, not decrease it.

That said, the vast majority of those optics are cheap and poorly made.

It's not always just that they are cheap. It's also that they can't be customized to one lens. When Canon or Nikon or whoever make a 50mm lens, they counterbalance all the optical flaws so that right by the time it gets to the sensor, it's all zeroed out as much as they can manage, for THAT lens and its particular foibles.

If you're manufacturing a wide angle adapter, though, you have no idea what lens people will put it on. Changing one thing will optimize it better for lens A but make it worse for lens B that had the opposite bias. Thus making it almost impossible to make something like this that doesn't degrade image quality on almost everything you put it on. Notice that even the major companies, when they make 1.4x or 2x teleconverters, still can't avoid fairly noticeable optical flaws, and they're making it for their own lenses at huge price points with top notch glass.

I suspect that this is one of the reasons Canon, for instance, tries so hard to stop people from using teleconverters on anything but a small whitelist of lenses that they intend it for, because they probably designed those with teleconverters in mind and made the whole system actually work in a way that no third party or post hoc solution could ever do. But then if you use them on anything else, the flaws will pile up more rapidly. Their excuse of "the autofocus won't work below f/5.6 etc." certainly isn't the real reason, because that's BS. The autofocus on my 6D works at the equivalent of f/325 or something (f/4 + 11 stop ND filter + 2 stop polarizing filter) in broad daylight. Not WELL, but come on.
 
There are plenty of 'wide angle adapters' that would screw into the front of your lens like a filter. For example Neewer 58mm Wide Angle Lens 0.45X For Canon Rebel EOS 18-55mm: Amazon.ca: Electronics
The problem is that they most likely won't give you the same image quality that you're getting with just your lens currently.

You might look for a used lens, something like the Sigma 10-20mm. http://www.keh.com/camera/Sigma-Digital-Zoom-Lenses/1/sku-SD07999084855J?r=FE

Another option would be to take multiple photos and stitch them together.

The 10-20 is a great lens for landscape. I used one for quite a while... it's sharp and well built. The only issue I had with it was some "mustache" distortion (straight lines can become slightly wavy). It was otherwise good, and the IQ was nearly as good as any wide-angle I've used (most wide angle zooms from tokina, canon and nikon and some primes... it's actually better than some primes).
 
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Watch Craigs List for a Tokina 11-16mm, Sigma 10-20mm or Tamron 10-24.
I bet one of those eventually show up in your budget.
 
The 11-16 seems a bit higher than OP's budget, but the old 12-24's are pretty good and cheap. I had one for a couple of years, and the only issue was CA, which is now super easy to correct.
 

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