What's a good wide lens to buy?

[gail]

I know this has probably been ask many times before. But what's a good wide angle lens to buy for my digital rebel? I have the canon 75-300
canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II. and canon EF 35-80mm 1:4-5 II.

But I'm needed a wide lens to get things in that I can't with these lenses.
I have tried getting a picture of my husbands shop he's building and can't get the whole shop in view. with out having to back way up away from it.

I don't really have much money to spend for one but I need one. So what would you all recommend? for a poor lady. ha.....That would be fairly decent. And I also what to buy a remote for like night time shots with camera on tripod to be able to snap it without having to use the timer.
either way would do remote cord are cordless it doesn't matter to me.

So what you all recommend? I've seen sites to where you can build one your self made out of accessory of things. So are they pretty good and are they hard to operate... and make? :roll:

[DocFrankenstein]

The cheapest way I imagine, would be to get the russian 16 mm prime. Or 8 mm...

And m42/eos adapter. Check www.rugift.com

Mind that I never bought stuff from them and I'd be really careful. My IMO though.

[Quinn Porter]

You list the 18-55 kit lens in your sig line. Is this not wide enough? If not, you are looking at a minimum of $500 for something wider with any quality. If you no longer have the kit lens, you should buy a used one on ebay.

[gail]

You list the 18-55 kit lens in your sig line. Is this not wide enough? If not, you are looking at a minimum of $500 for something wider with any quality. If you no longer have the kit lens, you should buy a used one on ebay.

No I don't have the 18-55 sorry I took it out of my sig. I will look into ebay about a used one thanks. :D

[Olegis]

I'm very happy with my Sigma AF 15-30 3.5-4.5 EX (http://www.deltainternational.com/store/Item_SGL15%2D30C.htm), it's pretty good optically and goes quite wide, 24mm on 1.6 crop body.
You can see a few pictures made with this les here - http://www.pbase.com/olegis/streets_ta&page=all
http://www.pbase.com/olegis/gay_parade__tel_aviv_2004&page=all

[gail]

Very nice galleries, you have there. And seems like the lens does a great job. But I don't quit have that kind of money to spend at this time.
But maybe later down the road it would be a great lens to own.
Thanks. :D

[montyl]

I know that there are some people that are going to argue on this one, however. I have the Sigma 12-24, and i can pretty much assure you that if it does not go wide enough for you, your only option will be a fish-eye lense. At 12mm it has a field of view of 122 degrees. To give you a better idea of what that means: at a depth of 31 inches your area of coverage is a little over 105 inches across.

[gail]

Thanks Montyl that is really wide I don't think I need anything that wide. I just mainly needing it for like family get togethers and such. I think maybe this 35-80 will work but I'm not for sure. I will just probably see if I can pick one of the kits lens up from Ebay. But thanks for the help.
Best Regards Gail, :)

[montyl]

Gail,

Here is what I learned after the fact. By using a simple CAD program I drew out an arc 122 degrees and then I measured the depth and width. I think it is probably the easiest way to find out if a lense is going to cover what you are after.

[RichardtheSane]

You can do a lot worse than the kit lens.

Would you want a zoom or a prime?

[gail]

You can do a lot worse than the kit lens.

Would you want a zoom or a prime?

Yes I was thinking maybe of going with another zoom
witch one do you recommend?

[DocFrankenstein]

17-40 L seems to be the winner. It's rumored to be discontinued though. :cry:

Nothing cheap :twisted:

[ron chappel]

Go for the kit lens off EPAY or there are some cheapish sigma allternatives for close to that same price

The kit lens is a sensible,safe choice.
I'm abit too fussy to use mine much but i can say it will definitely outperform the 35-80 you have so it can't be all bad!

[leehal]

17-40 L seems to be the winner. It's rumored to be discontinued though. :cry:

Nothing cheap :twisted:

I have the 17-40mm lens and it still amazes me how much you can get in a shot :shock:

[jgbeam]

I have the 18-55 kit lens and the Sigma 12-24. For your purposes, the $100 kit lens is a no brainer. Even if it doesn't work in every situation, you still have a good, versatile, LIGHTWEIGHT! lens.

Jim

[aam1234]

I saw a test whereby the kit lens at f8 gave similar results as the 17-40 L.

[Roy NN7DX]

Try f8 or even f11 (in good light) ... Remember ISO 400 is our friend...

You can find a good used one for $80 to $120... There will be better WA lenses for our 300D's but this one was actually made to be the inexpensive first lens for our cameras...

[DocFrankenstein]

I saw a test whereby the kit lens at f8 gave similar results as the 17-40 L.
Was it the one where the pics have been downsired to 2*2 ? :twisted: