which wide angle for the 5d
 

Hi all,

Im a huge fan of wide angle, i have the sigma 10 - 20 which i adore, but have now invested in the canon 5d and am looking for a good quality wide angle lenses, im considering either the 12 - 24mm sigma or the 15 - 30 mm sigma, can anyone advise which out of the 2 they think is the best? im looking for as crisp as possible, my main use will be in low light situations in live music and club events and for crazy portfolio shoots.

any advice will be GREATLY RECIVED!

www.h-pinkness.com

Haven't a clue..sorry..but had to post as just looked at your site..WOW..impressed..
Al.

Thank you :)

if you're wanting the sharpest crispest results, a 17mm prime will be sharper than both of these zoom lenses.
If you desparately need that wider 12mm end than the 12-24 option seems the logical choice. Which other lenses do you have for the 5D? If you have the 24-105 kit lens, than this choice would seem even more logical.
Otherwise (if you don't have the 24-105), I'd personally go for the 15-30 if you had to choose between just the two lenses.

If you're really unsure, why not take your camera and memory card into a shop and try both?....Or, go to hire from somewhere like Calumet..you might not be able to hire those specific lenses, but you could hire one that covers those wide angles...which would help you decide whether you really need or want to go as wide as 12mm wide.
P>S 12mm full frame is massively wider than 10mm on APS-C.

hope this helps?

Got to agree with Joe in respect of hiring as the first step. I do not know the Canon range of lenses but to equal the 10-20 that you like on APS-C then you are looking at 14/15mm in full frame. For low light situations then aperture is everything. You really need to be looking at f2.8 for that.

Don

To equal the 10-22 on a crop body, with the 5D you need the 16-35. Exact equivalent length. But very expensive.

BTW, going from memory and I could be wrong, but I think the 15-30 is quite old and not all that well regarded, where the 12-24 is well respected, and although it's closer to 13mm it must be massively wide on full frame.

Impressive site Pinkness.
Though I would think black background would suite your site better as pink is rather too soft for the content, but then you would lose the title's theme.

I am sorry if I also have not much experiment with the Bigmas you are interest on, but wide angle being one of my personal loved fields of photography, may be I can share some thoughts with you, in respond to your request;

The main problem I see with your need is, or rather are 2; First the full frame 5D, then your need for high quality. Well I sincerely hope your wallet is fat enough:)

1) Your best budgetwise bet would be L 17-40mm F:4 or even better if money no obstacle, L 16-35mm F:2.8 that gives you additional F stop. I stay with Canon's product as I have tried them, very happily indeed and don't know much about wide Bigma though have heard a lot good about them especially the 10-20mm.

2) Sigma circular 8mm fisheye F 3.5 Check this LINK if not seen the specs before.

3) Here comes what I really want to suggest to you; Enjoy your 5D and save its large sensor form dust by less lens change so instead invest on a second body. Get a XTi or if too rich, 30D that opens the door to variety of EFs lenses, then adding an extra body adds that security, should things go wrong in an important photo session like battery, memory and less likely primary camera's failure, you always have the plan "B". If you go this far, my next suggestion is Canon's 10-22mm EFs that gives you the wanted quality at an unbelievable price. This is one keeper lens with warrantied fun.

3a) Now that you have the better versatile mount of XTi, you may want to try full 180 degree fisheye at a much cheaper price; So Peleng 8mm 3.5 LINK
LINK-2
A real real fun lens specially for kind of picture you have in mind.
Few things to remember, It won't fit your 5D (Mirror hits the back of lens so non operational)(Ah those days when mirror lock up and accessory visor on flash shoe was an option, talking of Nikon's Early Fisheye LINK)
Pros: Cheap. Very sharp. Comes from same manufacturer that used to make the Ex-other-superpower's military stuff.
Cons: Manual focus (I consider it a plus under low light situations, no un-necessary hunting for focus).
Then poor control of internal reflections due to poor quality of lens coating. So you may not like it when spot lights are pointed toward the lens, and let me tell you it is very difficult to get things you don't want, out of field of this lens as it seems to capture everything around it.

4) (In same like of an additional camera body);
If budget is a limitation, you may want to consider a good Add-on-lens to get your fisheye, like Nikon's FC-E8 that goes on several coolpix point and shots and gives you a true circular fisheye view, with full AF power and also TTL flash, and all electronics a modern camera is expected to provide you. The combined cost of lens and camera should be well under $500, Cheaper than any DSLR lens alone.
Quality not as good as DSLR but still very acceptable especially for web.
LINK

5) Buy one of Old Nikon gems LINK Or LINK-2 then get a Nikon to EOS adapter with AF chips that gives you "Focus confirmation" light (To make it more electronically fancy, not a big plus otherwise as you still should focus manually) LINK
You can do the same thing with Olympus 8mm lens too but I consider Nikon's glass a lot better than oly and almost similar to Canon and not any inferior. Also both give you F 2.8 that would be very handy in low light situations that you have in mind. LINK to Olympus.

Hope this was useful to you and gives you some new ideas and alternatives to achieve what you have in mind.

H-Pinkness requested this in the lens.....
which pretty much rules out the horrid Peleng and add-on lens options.

i have a 5d and have the 17 - 40 l lens .. to be honest i have heard great things about the 17 -40 from most people but i found it a disappointment .. not sharp enough and it gave a false effect, from what i can gather the best results come from old lenses like contax,zeiss olympus etc with adapters and use as manual and stop down ... http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-m...nses/#problems ... in my honest opinion the 5d is so good that most optics struggle ... apart from really expensive l prime wide angle lenses. i imagine for your line of work critical sharpness is not as important and the need for auto focus is etc , so maybe get a 17 - 40 ...maybe i just got a dud one.

Joe I don't know if you have worked with Peleng 8mm fisheye or not but I own one and can certify its crispy sharp quality fully. As I mentioned the main problem with Peleng is the internal reflections when pointed to a sourse of light. Of course if you don't like the rough typical russian make or the manufacturere, that is a different issue. But at that price, Peleng is a bang for buck and I am yet to see one unhappy owner of this lens.

I fully agree with Purpulbyron that after seeing Pinkness works, sharpness is not a really needed element especially in low light conditions where even added noise in pp can add as it is quite naturally expected.

I gave a full spectrum of options with merits and sacrifications of each that hopefully if read, will give an idea as to which direction one wants to go.

I take your points on board Sassan, and it is a very dedicated thing to offer the excellent information of options available, but I haven't made any assumptions that sharpness is not needed, particularly as it was requested, even after I looked through the excellent website of pinkness. Surely the website is of pictures taken, not of pictures wanted to be taken?
In low light conditions the Peleng 8mm, or even Peleng 12mm and Zenitar 16mm lenses aren't sharp if what you're use to is a 10-20mm Sigma, Canon or Nikon equivalents. Great lenses to try tho ;)

If I could just add. I tried out a work colleagues 8mm Peleng (I even owned a 16mm Zenitar for a while too)....I think I must not been lucky with the lenses. ;(
Something to point out to others is that the quality control with these lenses perhaps isn't the same as the big manufacturers...You got a good one Sassan! ;)

I use a 17-40 f4 with my 350D and 30D (both 1.6 x crop's so 27-64mm) and it is a cracking lens, pin sharp with great colour's and contrast. I have three 'L' lenses but this one is the sharpest. Would be a wide angle on the 5D I guess.

I use the 15-30 on a full frame... considering the demands from the sensor, it's a terrific lens. It has been put up in tests against some serious expensive competition and held it's own (surpassing some in certain areas).
Its AF is noisy...but that's not a serious issue with an UW lens. Biggest drawback is the inability to use filters on the front of it.

There's some distortion around the edges at 15mm but it is a very sharp lens. Bargain at £250

The 17-40 L has a varied reputation on the web... some love it, some think it's one of the poorest L's. The 16-35 L is the one to aspire to.

And thats what i have done, i have ordered the Canon 16 - 35mm mark 11, it has some great reviews. a little expensive but i think its the next best step.

Thanks eveyone for your advice, ill be posting some examples soon of pics on my new 16 - 35mm

www.h-pinkness.com