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Old 29-12-2013, 07:02 PM
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Wide angle for 6d ?

Hi, I am about to buy an EOS 6 with 24-105 f/4L kit ($2200 new in NL) and want to buy a wide angle with it.
The candidates:

* Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8
Bright lens (2.8) but heavy (nearly 1kg), $720

* Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 (second edition released 2011)
Really wide angle (112 deg over the long side) and nearly distortion free, but rather dim (4.5), also $720

Others are the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 (cheap, $350, but strange 'moustache distortion' and bad vignetting at 2.8) and the original Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L but price tag is not for me ($1250).

Uses: indoor photography, landscapes and Astrophotography. I have experiences with wide angles (long used a 17mm on a T90 film body and recently Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6). The Sigma 10-20 was a good lens (sold yesterday for a good price) for me but does not work on a FF body.

On the other hand, f/4 is not a bad idea on a FF as I can increase the ISO with 1 stop due to lower grain on a FF.

Does anybody have experiences ?
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Old 29-12-2013, 09:13 PM
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acropolite (Phil)
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I tried 2 copies of the Sigma 12-24' both were attrocious on my 5DII. Sharp in the centre but unacceptably soft on both sides , worse on the left of the frame. Apparently with ultrawides lens alignment is critical and even minute misalignment between the sensor and lens can cause soft edges, so a lens that's bad on one camera may be OK on another of the same model.

I have the 16-35 F2.8L it's a decent lens, if you pixel peep it's also a little soft on the edges but overall it's OK. One advantage of genuine lenses is that DPP has profiles to correct for flaws such as CA and vignetting.

I'd be tempted to go for the Samyang, the distortion can be easily tuned out as can the vignetting.
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Old 30-12-2013, 09:21 AM
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Is the price of a Canon 17-40 F/4L in your range? I have used one as my workhorse lens for 10 odd years. It's light, quite small, and built very well.

I can't think of other suggestions for your because so many are above $1000. Many people have seemed happy with the Samyang so I'm a little surprised it's off your list, but I haven't used it myself.
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Old 30-12-2013, 10:40 AM
mbaddah (Mo)
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Originally Posted by rogerg View Post
Is the price of a Canon 17-40 F/4L in your range? I have used one as my workhorse lens for 10 odd years. It's light, quite small, and built very well.

I can't think of other suggestions for your because so many are above $1000. Many people have seemed happy with the Samyang so I'm a little surprised it's off your list, but I haven't used it myself.
I agree. The Canon 17-40mm is absolutely fantastic on full frame and with the clean high iso output shooting at F4 isn't an issue.
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Old 04-01-2014, 11:28 AM
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Best widefield lenses:

Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 ED
Zeiss 21mm F2.8
Zeiss 15mm F2.8
Contax Zeiss 28mm F2.8 contax yashica mount
Probably Leica R Elmarit 28m F2.8 V2 About $650 used. Some of the most stunning shots I have seen with a Sony A7r are with this lens.
I don't know how it is for Astro work though. I plan to get a copy in a month or so.
Nikon 18-35mm F2.8
Samyang 24mm F1.4 is good if you get a good copy.
Samyang 14mm also has a cine version. Not sure if its the same. I read a post about a Version 111 of this lens that addressed the distortion issue. Not sure if its true or a rumour.

I have a Canon FD 20 F2.8 I am about to try out. A Minolta Rokkor 24mm F2.8 (a little soft in the corners but should be ok for nightscapes if chromatic aberration is OK, I'll test it tonight probably).

Contax g Zeiss 28mm F2.8 - a bit of chromatic aberration.
Fuji 14mm XF on a Fuji camera is superb although a touch of coma in the top corners fo the last 10% of the image.

Nikon 28mm F2.8 - not so good. CA.

Canon 17-40 hmm, haven't seen a hot shot from that without a Polarie, longer exposures and stopping down to F5.6 (true of many lenses). Soft in the corners. Might need stopping down to F5.6. I am talking about lenses good wide open which you need if you want an image in 30 seconds ISO3200/6400. Zooms generally are a bit weaker with exceptions.
Zeiss Contax 35-70 I hear is a superb zoom lens and cheap. I have a Zeiss Contax Yashica 28 -85 I am about to try once the adapter arrives.
Its F3.5 though. That just means a bit longer on the Polarie so no biggie.

Generally speaking manufacturers seem to struggle big time making an ultrawide angle lens with little CA and distortion that is a reasonable size, that is sharp wide open corner to corner. The Nikon 14-24, Zeiss 15 and 21mm are the only ones I am aware of in that category. The Fuji 14mm is too but its an APS Fuji short flange distance lens (ie. won't work on any other camera - bummer). Canon 24-70 Mk 2 may be the way to go there. Or if budget is tight the Contax Yashica. I can post test results within a week and a half of that and the Canon FD.

I read good reports about Canon nFD 20mm F2.8 being sharp corner to corner.
Also Olympus 21mm F3.5.

I am talking about full frame lenses here except the Fuji XF14mm.

Nightscapes - the largest lens you'd really want to go would be 24mm ideally but with a squeeze and some mosaic work a 35mm.

In which case the Sigma 35mm F1.4 art series is considered the best lens in that class.I did see one MW shot on this site with that lens which was very very impressive indeed.

Greg.
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Old 04-01-2014, 01:40 PM
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mithrandir (Andrew)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
Samyang 14mm also has a cine version. Not sure if its the same.
Greg, the cine versions do not have aperture click stops and have external gear rings for aperture and focus automation as used in the movie/TV industry. Managing that is the job of the focus puller/1st assistant camera.

They could be useful for astro photographers but they'd need motor drives for at least focus to take full advantage.
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Old 04-01-2014, 05:24 PM
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Originally Posted by mithrandir View Post
Greg, the cine versions do not have aperture click stops and have external gear rings for aperture and focus automation as used in the movie/TV industry. Managing that is the job of the focus puller/1st assistant camera.

They could be useful for astro photographers but they'd need motor drives for at least focus to take full advantage.
Yes I know that's how cine lenses usually go. I was wondering if there was a new version of this lens. Probably not and someone who posted it must have gotten the wrong idea from somewhere. The Samyang website does not say there is.

There is a specific emount version of this lens now.

Greg.
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Old 08-01-2014, 10:05 AM
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I thought I would post some findings on lenses tested here.
It turns out the Nikon 14-24 is unbeatable properly setup.
Minolta Rokkor 24mm showed some weak corners but not too bad. Probably ok at F5.6. Same with Samyang 24mm F1.4. If I were using the Nikon 14-24 on another brand camera (I used it on a Sony A7r) then I would not skimp on the adapter and go with Novoflex. It was hopeless on 2 other adapters - Metabones and Kipon. They were set at the wrong flange distance which is a bit inexcusable as its a known length.

One thing I am not sure of is 14mm type lenses tend to make landscapes seem far away and mountains/hills small and distant and not as impressive as they are in real life. So a good 21-24mm focal length lens may potentially give a better result if more work.

Nikon 24-70 at 24 is also pretty much perfect but again a large lens.

Zeiss 21mm F2.8 is quite good with some chromatic aberration but that is easily corrected.

Fuji 14mm APSc for Fuji is also unbeatable in most ways and is as good or better than the Nikon except for a small section of the corners is obviously where the correction ends as a small circular corner is coma prone.

One thing to keep in mind is if you are doing panoramas you are overlapping by at least 1/3rd anyway so the corner performance does not have to be perfect as that gets lost in the stitching anyway.

I have a Canon FD 20mm F2.8 I haven't tested yet as well as a Canon 70-200mm F4 L which is probably a bit long for this type of shot but mounted on a Polarie it might be fine.

Greg.
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Old 08-01-2014, 10:20 AM
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killswitch (Edison)
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The Tokina 16-28mm has a bit of coma when wide open, but otherwise good value for money.
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