Sell me something wide...

dpm · 2014-01-10T08:22:44+0000

Assistance needed, chaps and chapesses. I feel the need for something wide, probably AF, and hopefully reasonably priced. I've currently got a Sigma 18-125DC and a 30/1.4. I bought the 30 last year expecting it to excite me and remind me of the good old 50s, but super lens that it is, I don't find it that useful. But I think replacing it with something a bit wider might give me a tool I'm missing. How much wider does one really need to go than 18mm- is a 16 noticeably different or do you need to be able to go the whole way to 10mm really? I guess I'm mostly thinking landscapes here but wides are always 'fun'. Advice, recommendations?

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Pentaxophile Pentaxophile

6794 posts
17 years
Nottingham

Posted 13/01/2014 - 20:29 Link

McGregNi wrote:
I clearly wasn't saying you can get an 8mm field of view with a 14mm ! It was a simple point about zoom vs prime pros & cons. I see many questions here about the various wide-angle zoom options for Pentax, and not so many about the primes - I just wanted to put the case for primes, and explain something about my own consierations when I decided.

Makes sense. But the edge performance of the 8-16mm is actually very good, and there is less barrel distortion than the Samyang (essentially none after 12mm - obviously it's going to struggle when you go wider than that).

The geometric distortion (uncomfortable corners) is, I think, simply a product of the extremely wide FOV on a rectilinear lens and goes away when you zoom in to, say, 12 or 14mm. But at least on a zoom, 8-10mm are available to you if the subject benefits from it.

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