Wideangle zoom: persuade me not to buy Sigma 8-16 :-)

Andrew_McP

Andrew_McP

Andrew_McP

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I've neglected the wideangle end of my imagination for too long, but visiting a few Cathedrals last year made me realise there are times when nothing else will do.

I started out looking at the Samyang 8mm, because IME (according to analysis of my photos anyway) a zoom always ends up getting most of its use at the extreme end, and the Samyang has a halfway decent reputation. As a hobbyist lens, obviously... no Pro's going to use it, but then I'm no Pro. :-)

The Sigma is considerably more expensive, but offers considerably more flexibility, and almost overlaps with my kit lens, which is tempting.

But then you start looking at things like the Tokina 11-16, with its equally tempting f2.8, and wondering if the extra light grab might be more useful for internal shots than the 8mm. At that end 3mm is a huge margin though, even allowing for correction in Lightroom, which means a little cropping.

Decisions, decisions. Still, it stops me wondering whether to order a 70D from Digital Rev for £850 and play the import duty lottery. :-)
 
The Tokina is a very good lens and also very sharp. I find the 11mm end a little too wide for my liking, but I still use it for squeezing in that extra epicness I want in a vast, open landscape. Besides landscapes, it is also good for indoor architecture, due to the extra lighting of f2.8.
 
Thanks guys; that's useful feedback. Just to confuse myself even more, I've spotted a Sigma 10-20 now at a very good price. I can see I'm just going to end up going round in circles until -- as usual -- I get cheesed off with my indecision and just buy the first thing under my mouse pointer. :-)
 
I had the 8-16. At 8mm it's a very dark image and slow aperture to boot. I returned it and got the Canon 10-22.
 
10-22mm gets my vote if you want something with a nice usable range since it's an equivalent of 16-35mm

Just need to prioritise whether you want F2.8 or a more scope to frame shots how you want.
 
Although I haven't looked in detail I believe the sigma 8-16mm is the sharpest UWA out there and if I was to replace my Sigma 10-20mm (purchased at a time where there was not much choice and the Nikon 12-24 was far more expensive) the sigma 8-16 is top of my list.

It complements good glass like the Nikon16-85 ((or Canon 15-85) perfectly. It becomes a dedicated tool but all UWA lenses are very specialized. The 10-22/10-24mm lenses allow more flexibility obviously but if you are on a single camera you will still be swapping lenses all the time.

The way I see it if you have 2 camera bodies and you wanted to minimize lens changes then a 10-24 on one body and a 70-200mm on another is perfect landscape setup, change the 70-200mm to something nearer 400mm and you get a nature setup for wildlife and landscape.
But on a single body you are going to be swapping out lenses frequently anyway so an 8-16mm doesn't feel anymore restrictive.


Also depends if you like wide, and have the ability to get convincing compositions. Any UWA is extremely hard to work with, by far the hardest lens there is, going for an 8-16mm makes that even harder.
 
Lots of useful food for thought there guys, thanks. I think my final decision may well depend on which of the Ebay auctions I'm watching stays at reasonable prices. Though reasonable prices and Ebay seldom go together. :-)

One thing which helps me though is that I'm not really interested in the 'normal' lens range. My walkabout lens has been the 100-400L for a long time, and I enjoy identifying and isolating small windows onto the world, rather than taking standard views.

With a wideangle I'm definitely looking to go as far the other way as I can without entering nasty fisheye territory. So range and light gathering is probably less important than getting as wide as possible without losing quality. So I think 10 is about as high as I'm prepared to go at this stage... though bargain hunting may make me more flexible.

In theory my future setup will be 70D with 100-400L, and 40D with the wideangle. But at the moment that's pretty theoretical.
 
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