wide angle lens advice required

The "widest" lens I have is a 18-55 and I am wondering what else is available from the older "a" or "m" series lenses that is wider than 18mm?
All I seem to find on sale sites as wide angles are 28 mm which does not help i assume.
Is it worth spending money on a good quality [I hope]Raynox wide angle to increase the field of view? I don't want a fisheye as that effect is not what I want at all.
I am trying more to attempt more landscapes with a decent field of view with out resorting to a couple of images stitched together.
Alistair

Wider than 18, non-fisheye, Pentax produced a 15mm 3.5 in the "K" and A series.

However these are rare beasts and you will have to pay more than a new DA15mm to own one ! Add to that the problem with flare you might encounter, I would suggest "old" is not better in this case.

You will do better to try and find a DA15mm or DA14mm. They will be better performers on a digital sensor.

The full benefit of the K/A series 15mm is wasted on the cropped sensor, as is the 28mm Shift lens.

So probably better with a newer model lens.

Regards

There was a K 17mm f4 fisheye too. Currently one is up for grabs on ebay, although it won't go cheap and has a reserve on it.

Taken with an istD and the 17mm FE.

Zallaq beach, Bahrain.




Regards

How does the FOV of the 17mm FE compare to the rectalinear lens?
the 17mm FE on APSC = ....mm rectalinear on APSC???

I'll shoot both, tomorrow on a K7 and post images. Same aperture and shutter speed. Haven't used the 15mm for some time.

Regards

Here is a shot taken using the K 15mm. I took this for the "evolution" competition but went with a different photo in the end. I have left it uncropped for comparative purposes. It isn't as sharp as the DA12-24mm lens but I cannot use the latter on my film bodies.

Best wishes, Kris.

I do not like fish eye. In my opinion nothing beats Sigma 10-20 for regular wide angle.

OK, two quick shots.

K7 set at ISO 100 and 1/60th sec. Manual.













Both lenses were set at f/8. Central focus point used until beep heard. Shutter cable released. Only adjustments (levels-minor black adjustment and sharpened to 100% @ 0.3). No colour adjustments.

Regards

The other point is that fisheyes designed for 35mm (ie all of them except the Pentax DA 10-17) will not give quite as dramatic a 'fisheye effect' since only the center, less distorted, part of the image circle is captured by APS-C DSLRs.