Best starter wide angle lens for a Canon 60D

Hello Photo.net family!

 

I have been looking for a wide angle lens for my Canon 60D DSLR camera but I cannot decided which one to get. I

can't afford anything very expensive so I have narrowed it down to one of the following 3:

 

24 mm - F/2.8

28 mm - F/2.8

35 mm - F/2.0

 

Which one do you guys recommend and why? I've read good and bad reviews for all of these. I have a friend who

owns the 35mm and loves it but I don't want to only look at that one. Your valueable opinion counts! Please chime in!

=)

Neither one of those lenses is very

wide on an APS camera like the 60D.

They are pretty close to "normal" (i.e.

the FOV of a 50mm lens on a 35mm

camera).

<p>The 24 is about the same as a 35mm, on a 35mm piece of film, not what I would call very wide.</p>

<p>Really your only option if you want to get "really wide" is the 10-22 zoom lens that canon makes. (or you can look at other companies offerings from sigma or tamron etc.)</p>

<p>As Geoff & Erik indicate, . . . none of your indicated choices will be much of a wide angle on your 60D.<br>

IMHO for the money, image quality and versatility, the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 with or without VC is hard to beat!<br>

The non-VC (VC is Tamron's designation for Image Stabilization) is reported to produce sharper images than the VC version. I personally have owned my 17-50 for a couple of years now and have been very happy with it. Mine is the non-VC version.<br>

Worth checking into and doing some research before making your decision. I'm certain other's will chime in with appropriate recommendations as well.</p>

<p>Most will want to know what lenses you already have, and what they are not doing for you, as well as what kind of budget you have to work with.<br>

The Tamron can be had for around $400.00 US<br>

Best wishes,<br>

Jim j.</p>

<p>How 'wide' do you want to go? As the other have said, none of the lenses you've suggested are particularly wide on the crop.</p>

<p>In lieu of <em>any</em> of those for general purpose work, I'd go w/ a Tamron 17-50/2.8 which, while not an UWA by any means, is wide enough to be usable for 'wide angle' work. Frankly, the lenses out in last few years have come a long way, often exceeding the IQ of older primes WO. @f2.8 for example, the 17-50 is pretty darn good, while the 24/2.8 @f2.8 is pretty miserable. Plus - it zooms. Making it vastly more usable than any of the primes you've listed.</p>

<p>If you want to go 'ultra-wide' OTOH, and are on a budget, the tamron 10-24 is a pretty good deal. It's IQ is broadly similar to the Canon 10-22, but it's half the price. </p>

<p>Which lenses do you already own? (I'm no Canon expert by any stretch of imagination, but to me it seems very useful info to know before advicing another lens)</p>

<p>Your best wide-angle lens may be one of the zooms that covers a wide-angle range. Typically they go to 17mm on the wide end, which is a reasonably wide (though not extreme) field of view on the 60D's sensor. Canon's 17-55 is good but expensive, the 17-85 is cheaper, and there are many third party alternatives which have been discussed elsewhere on this site. Slightly less wide but still perhaps good enough, an 18-55 lens can be picked up cheaply from someone who got it bundled as part of a kit and then upgraded. (There are many different versions of the 18-55 and some are much better than others, so do some research.)</p>

<p>Unless you have tried 17mm or 18mm on a zoom lens and found it inadequate, I wouldn't buy anything more specialized. As others point out, a 24mm lens might be a wide angle for traditional 35mm film or full-frame digital, but it will not give you that on your 60D.</p>

<p>As mentioned, there aren't a lot of options for wide angle for a 1.6x format Canon DSLR. You get your "basic" wide-angle (by that I mean the 28mm and 35mm equivalents) by using one of the 18-XX lenses from Canon or a third party manufacturer. If you need wider, you get one of the 10/11/12-XX lenses from Canon or a third party manufacturer. Some folks may prefer to get the 15-85mm to serve the purpose of both standard zoom and wide angle, but they will have to live with 15mm (24mm equivalent) as the widest setting. <br>

I don't think that you should even be considering a prime lens for this purpose on a 1.6x format camera.</p>

Thank you all for your feedback! It definitely helps to see what other options I need to be looking at. Here is a list of the lenses that I currently own: Canon EF-S / 18-55mm / f 3.5 - 5.6 -

Canon EF / 75-300mm / f 4 - 5.6 -

Canon EF-S / IS / 18-135mm / f 3.5 - 5.6 -

Canon 50mm / f 1.4 -

 

I want to be able to get the widest possible view when I am indoors in tight spaces. That is my goal with whatever lens I purchase. I was looking at the reviews for the "Tamron 10-24/3.5-4.5 Di II". Have any of you used this lens? Would this be a viable option for me?

<p>Doreliz,<br>

the lenses you mentioned originally (24mm up to 35mm) are not wider than the lenses you already own - as those go down to 18mm. So clearly, you want something wider than 18mm.<br>

The Tamron does not have the best reputation of the available options really. I'd look at the Tokina 12-24 f/4 or Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6 first; if budget allows the Canon 10-22 (<em>note: the latter I have no experience with at all as a Nikon shooter, but all reviews show it to be worth its money</em>).</p>