Wide angle lens advice..

[[wingnut]]

Had what started out as a great days shooting.. Some commisioned, then some free play UE work, but more of that in another thread. Then disater struck.. My much loved Sigma 17-35mm wide angle lens gave up the ghost. Some of aperture blades inside the lens have stopped working. Phoned Sigma and although very helpful quoted me a price of 100 notes plus, been looking online tonight and found i can replace the lens brand new for 200 pounds, but got me thinking..

Can anyone recomend any other decent wide angle lenses????

[muttleymacclad]

Hi wingnut

Sorry to hear about this. I'd highly recommend my Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC macro. Are you looking for something that zooms to 70 mm though?

It's a smashing lens, ok perhaps not exactly what your looking for with the extra reach up to 70mm but still as wide as your old sigma. It's really well built and AF is very quick. At middle aperture settings the IQ is really impressive.

My only negative comment is that at 17mm, with a wide-open aperture the extreme borders of a shot are a little soft and vignetting is noticeable but certainly no worse than others I looked at in this range.

MML

[[wingnut]]

I currently have a 28-70mm sigma lens in my bag, so focal length upto 30ish is pretty well covered, did a shed load of reasearch last night and have made my choice..

A Canon 30D. Sorry brought that as well, but go one of these. Tokina AT-X 12-24 f/4 AF Pro DX, is has some of the best review for wide angle lenses I read about. Hopefully be ok. Got it for a snip of £300 from Warehouseexpress.
And yes i also splashed out and got a new 30D, was going to wait for the 40D but the prices were so go on the 30D and the reviews for it were outstanding so took the plunge.. Hopefully it will all arrive tomorrow and new shot after the weekend... Very excited....

Thanks for the advice though mate.

[muttleymacclad]

a 30D...very nice, is it a FF?. What did you have before?

That tokina does look good too. hoya glass in it.

MML

[[wingnut]]

It was the hoya glass that swung it for as well as the cracking reviews...

I am upgrading from a 350D, so no real gain in MP, but at present it's enough for me.. Just a much better camera alround. It isn't full frame, that will be the 5d and upwards, sadly my budget won't stretch to that yet.. When it does I will be jumping straight to the new 1D.. Dribble.....