wide angle lens noob help

i'm new and I know you will all laugh but my missus wants a "wide angle" lens we have an eos 450d with 18-55 IS and a 55-250 IS

do canon make a wide angle lens for the 450d and whats it called?

i think wide angle lenses are for landscapes etc??

EF-S 10-22mm

thanks

£400 quid plus !!!! flippin eck she can have a new hair dryer instead

The 10-22 is a great lens for a crop camera. Very sharp edge to edge.

"wide angle" just means a short focal length. Generally anything shorter than 50mm (on 35mm) is considered wide as 50mm is a close approximation of what the human eye sees.

Your 18mm-55mm is a wide angle at the 18mm end but Canon and third party manufacturers go wider than that, try the Canon 10mm-22mm or Sigma 10-20mm. Wider than that and you'll be in fisheye territory.

The "Big 3" UWA for crop cameras are the Canon 10-22, Sigma 10-20 and Tokina 12-24. They all have their fans, but, in general, you can't go wrong with any of them. The recently introduced Tokina 11-16 has also received good reviews and has a wider, constant f/2.8 aperture.

am i right in thinking that you would use one to get the whole of a building in without being miles away or to get most of a view from the top of a hill for example?

The 18mm setting of your 18-55mm gives a 74 degree (diagonal) field of view, which is a legitimate 'wide angle' lens on any format! If your wife wants wider, she is venturing into the 'very wide' (15mm) or 'super wide' (13mm) or 'ultra wide' (10-12mm) realm. Personally I would not travel to Europe and its narrow streets with any less than the 15mm AOV available to me and perhaps 12-13mm AOV occasionally (and having gone to Europe countless times on business and pleasure, I know that works for me)