Wide angle lens recommendation

[tubbys4]

Hi there,

I am relatively new to the photography game and am thoroughly enjoying myself so far!
I am interested in buying a wide angle lens to use for landscape and large party/group shots.
I currently own a Canon 550D with Canon 50mm, 18-55mm and 55-250mm lenses.
At the moment I am looking at a Canon 10-22mm wide angle zoom lens or a 20mm prime lens.
I was wondering if anyone has experienced these lenses and which they would recommend.
Would you recommend a wide angle zoom lens over a prime one. Is there any other lenses that you would suggest?

Thanks for your help,

Sally

 

[Dubaiian]

Hi there,

I am relatively new to the photography game and am thoroughly enjoying myself so far!
I am interested in buying a wide angle lens to use for landscape and large party/group shots.
I currently own a Canon 550D with Canon 50mm, 18-55mm and 55-250mm lenses.
At the moment I am looking at a Canon 10-22mm wide angle zoom lens or a 20mm prime lens.
I was wondering if anyone has experienced these lenses and which they would recommend.
Would you recommend a wide angle zoom lens over a prime one. Is there any other lenses that you would suggest?

Thanks for your help,

Sally

I own the EF10-22 which was my first additional lens for my 550d and I really love the lens. It is fantastic for big vistas down at the 10mm end but also very useful for group and architecural shots at 22mm. It should fill the gap nicely from very wide angle up to your 18-55. As its an EF lens its a step up in quality from what you have and I have read some web reviews calling it "almost an L series without the L".

I am at work at the moment, but once home will try and find some example shots that I took with the 10-22/550d combination.

Hope it helps.

 

[lonewolfsx]

My brother used to have the 10-22, and it's one of the best lenses I've used. Great sharpness across the frame, 3.5-4.5 isn't "fast" like the prime lens, but it's definitely not bad either. Autofocus is pretty much immediate, and don't worry about the lack of a stabilizer as at wide focal lengths like that you pretty much will never need it.
The price is pretty stiff on them these days now that everyone has caught on, we paid $450 for a used copy a few years ago and now I doubt you'd ever find one that low that wasn't beat to crap.

A few notes: it is an APS-C only EF-S lens (not EF as the poster above said), so you can not use it on a film or full frame camera body. If you are thinking about full frame in the future, I'd avoid the 10-22 and instead go with the Sigma 12-24mm HSM. The Sigma is just as good optically, but is almost a full stop slower aperture wise (but it does cover the full 35mm frame).

Also it' s not the nicest build quality, not weather sealed or anything like that so take care of it. I should say though that our copy has been to ridiculous places (wyoming, hawaii, costa rica, ireland etc.) which are pretty harsh environments with regards to dust and moisture and it still works and performs perfectly.

Oh and if you find the price too high on the Canon 10-22 and are sticking with APS-C sized camera bodies, I can also recommend the Sigma 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6. It's also a bit slower aperture wise, but those are only $479 new and perform very well.


If you'd like some examples taken with the Canon 10-22, here is my set on flickr (kind of old): Canon 10-22mm UWA - a set on Flickr

 

[Dubaiian]

My apologies, I just got home and checked and it is indeed an EF-S lense so will not go on a FF camera.

I stand by the fact that it is an awesome lens though

 

[tubbys4]

Thanks very much for your replies.
I will have a look at the Sigma lenses as well.
Would you all recommend a wide angle zoom over a prime?
At the moment I have no plans to upgrade to a full frame camera so am leaning towards the canon 10-22. I am traveling to the flinders ranges in a couple of months and want to be able to get some good scenery shots.
The photos taken with the 10-22 look great.

Thanks again,
Sally

 

[TheBiles]

Thanks very much for your replies.
I will have a look at the Sigma lenses as well.
Would you all recommend a wide angle zoom over a prime?
At the moment I have no plans to upgrade to a full frame camera so am leaning towards the canon 10-22. I am traveling to the flinders ranges in a couple of months and want to be able to get some good scenery shots.
The photos taken with the 10-22 look great.

Thanks again,
Sally

There aren't really any "ultra-wide" primes for crop bodies. The Canon 14mm L is the widest non-fisheye prime that I know of, and even that is only equivalent to about 22mm on a crop body. The zooms are the way to go. Sigma has a great 8-16 and 10-20s, and the Canon 10-22 is very solid.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[pgriz]

I have the Canon 10-22 EF-S lens and the image quality is very good. At the wide side, the extreme edges (right and left) show some chromatic abberation if you pixel-peep, and the resolution is perceptually a little bit below the "L" level lenses, but it will give you shots that would be difficult to get otherwise without stitching together a bunch of images. It's a specialty lens, and used appropriately, it gives fantastic results. BUT. Yes, there is a "but". It takes some practice to learn how to use it effectively, and to know when the perspective distortion that is inherent in such a lens is a useful tool.

 

[tubbys4]

Thanks for your replies everyone.
I have been researching some more and came across the canon ef-s 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 lens.
I know it's not ultra wide angle like the 10-22mm but was wondering if anyone has had experience with this type of lens?
Also has anyone used the tokina 12-24mm f4 lens an how does that compare to the canon 10-22?
Sorry for all the questions, there are just so many choices!

Sally

 

[jaomul]

Without even getting into specific lenses the difference in field of view between 15mm and 10mm is massive. So the 10-22 lens will fit way more in than 15-85. Even the difference between the 10-22 and the 12-24 will be very big. As the focal lengths increase the few mm at the Tele end isn't as noticeable as the few mms on the wide end. If its a wide angle you want I think you should aim to be staring at the 10mm type ones to get the most out of them

 

[thestereoeffect]

I'm selling my nearly-new Sigma 8-16 as I just upgraded to a 5D mk 3..