16-35, 17-40, 10-22, or ????

so i planned on ordering a 11-16 today from B&H. when i got home from work they had sold out ;( i called my local shop and they said i would be first on their waiting list for there shipment in less than a week. i asked how much.
he said to expect to pay over $1000 canadian!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i hung up the phone.

i needed it for a family tea/dinner in the coming weeks. so i must choose a different route and i was hopping you wonderful people could help me.

i whipped out the good ol 17-55 kit lens to find that 17mm( on a 1.6 crop) was alot wider than i suspected. i only wanted a UWA for this event so i think i could probably do with out a lens under 16-17mm.

so now the decision comes to buy either the 17-40 or the 16-35, or would the 10-22 be incredibly necessary. or could you suggest better?

what do you think?

i know u will ask these so here;

What do you shoot?
i dont know! i want to get into sports and nature but would be doing a few family/social events

What gear do you have?
well i should make over 8000 this summer, all of which will go into photo gear. but the wide angle will be my first purchase because i need it for the famiy tea thing.
by september i should have: 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8 IS, 400 5.6, 1.4TC, maybe a sigma 30 1.4, a wide angle and a 40D.

thanks for your help and sorry for such a long post.

If you're shooting a crop body, in my opinion it's gotta be the Sigma 10-20. Even if it's one event, you'll use it more. 16 and 17 isn't really wide on a crop, the tokina 12-24 is another good option, so is the tokina 11-16 if you can wait for it. Personally, unless it's a used copy, I think the Canon 10-22 is overpriced.

Then Canon is higher priced but you get what you pay for. Keep the packaging and you can sell it on ebay for what you paid for it. (or close to what you paid for it)

I am assuming you have a crop camera with the EF-S 18-55 3.5-5.6 kit lens. Is your camera a crop or FF? If crop, get the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 (I LOVE mine), or if you have more to spend, the Canon 17-55 IS.

If you have a FF, there are many options for a good wide-zoom.

For sports and nature you may want a telephoto like the 55-250 or 70-200L.

17mm is about the same as 28mm on a FF camera- which is wide but not ultra wide. Standard zoom I suppose.

I gave up my 17-85 in favor of my Sigma 24-60 (for better sharpness and f/2.8 aperture) but the lens suits my needs. I'm sure I'd love an ultra-wide, but I've learned to cope with 24mm on a crop and it does the job for me.

EF 17-40 or the EF 16-35 can be used on FF cameras for ultra wide, cause you can't use a EF-S10-22 on a FF camera. I'm not sure why people use either of those lenses on a crop body when you can use a 17-55 2.8 IS or Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 which has more uses.


If you want to shoot primarily sports/nature you should get a good telephoto (such as 70-200 f/2.8 IS) a good standard zoom 17-24 to -55/60mm range will cover social events just fine.

Mr. Clean wrote in post #5894696
If you're shooting a crop body, in my opinion it's gotta be the Sigma 10-20. Even if it's one event, you'll use it more. 16 and 17 isn't really wide on a crop, the tokina 12-24 is another good option, so is the tokina 11-16 if you can wait for it. Personally, unless it's a used copy, I think the Canon 10-22 is overpriced.

ya it will be on a 1.6 crop

Kronie wrote in post #5894714
Then Canon is higher priced but you get what you pay for. Keep the packaging and you can sell it on ebay for what you paid for it. (or close to what you paid for it)

i guess i always have that option

sbddude wrote in post #5894719
I am assuming you have a crop camera with the EF-S 18-55 3.5-5.6 kit lens. Is your camera a crop or FF? If crop, get the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 (I LOVE mine), or if you have more to spend, the Canon 17-55 IS.

If you have a FF, there are many options for a good wide-zoom.

For sports and nature you may want a telephoto like the 55-250 or 70-200L.

ya like i mentioned i have a 1.6 crop. and sports wise/nature see the bottom part of my first post


ugh! i just cant seam to decide.
i want the 10-22 for being able to catch really wide stuff but i dont know how much it will get used.
and i want the 17-40/16-35 cus i use that range alot on my kit lens right know!!!!
i wish i just had more money haha

Have you considered the Sigma 10-20mm? Very nice lens.