I need a cheap wide angle lens. Recommendations?

[daktulus]

I need a wide angle lens that is wider than my 18-55mm zoom lens.
As far as I know the Canon wide angle lenses are pricey, is there a cheap one from a different manufacturer?
Any recommendations?

Sry, this should be in the glass section ... thx anyway.

[David W. Jones]

My go to wide would be the Tokina 11-16mm

[Chipgreen]

Rokinon/Bower makes pretty nice wide angle and fisheye lenses. They're all manual focus but I think you can add a focus confirmation chip.

[vision_filmz]

I need a wide angle lens that is wider than my 18-55mm zoom lens.
As far as I know the Canon wide angle lenses are pricey, is there a cheap one from a different manufacturer?
Any recommendations?

Sry, this should be in the glass section ... thx anyway.

Tokina 11-16mm cost $500-$700 (used-new)

Your other option is the Rokinon 14mm which people say is pretty good
http://www.amazon.com/Rokinon-FE14M-.../dp/B003VSGQPG


Other than that these Dslr Canon cameras weak point is shooting extreme wides, so be careful.

[ROCKMORE]

I need a wide angle lens that is wider than my 18-55mm zoom lens.
As far as I know the Canon wide angle lenses are pricey, is there a cheap one from a different manufacturer?
Any recommendations?

Sry, this should be in the glass section ... thx anyway.

The Tokina 11-16 is good but does distort round objects such as human heads to the outsides of the frame. Still a great lens.
I believe the 14mm Bower is a fisheye so it has other distortion characteristics to factor in and has no auto focus.
The 10-22 Canon is great but variable aperture and expensive.

What I'm getting at is all these lenses have vastly different distortion from one and other and they will all set you back plus or minus 500 bucks.

Another cheaper choice in the mean time is a wide adapter on the front of your canon 18-55 to experiment with until you have more cash and know which ultra wide lens will suit your style of shooting and subject. I have a Century Precession x.6 wide adapter I used on the Canon 18-55 and now on the Tamron 17-50 2.8 non vc. It does distort straight lines, but with organic shapes like heads they tend to look more normal than the Tokina, and I still have about an 12 mm field of view. Wide adapters do get soft on the edges but for the price a good learning experience.

The best money saving technique is take your Canon to a camera shop that will let you test everything in the store then take the camera card home and judge the results for yourself. 9 times out of 10 the results will be different than what you imagined.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=....c0.m270.l1313

[Samuel H]

I'd say the tokina has as little distortion as such a wide angle lens can have - the samyang 14mm is not a fisheye, but it does have a lot more distortion than the tokina - also, the 14mm works on fullframe, but with quite nasty mustache distortion - apart from this, that 14mm is a very nice lens, sharp and cheap - photozone has nice distortion tests for all these lenses http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff...8eosff?start=1 - http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/53...osapsc?start=1 - http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/66...f28eos?start=1

[Ted Ramasola]

11-16mm f2.8 Tokina

[maarek]

The Tokina 11-16 is good but does distort round objects such as human heads to the outsides of the frame. Still a great lens.

Tokina has very little distortion. Straight lines stay straight.

Every wideangle will "distort" stuff on the edges though, that's just completely normal. Don't put your face completely in front of the lens.

[ROCKMORE]

Tokina has very little distortion. Straight lines stay straight.

Every wideangle will "distort" stuff on the edges though, that's just completely normal. Don't put your face completely in front of the lens.

They all distort differently. If you plan to shoot Architecture, by all means use a Tokina 11-16 or a canon 10-22 but if you plan to shoot people close up in a wide shot they will have alien shaped heads. That's why I recommend going to a camera shop and shooting your own tests to see for yourself what the result will be before spending the cash and then being surprised.
This is a test I shot in a store and shows severe distortion on round objects like human heads from the center of the screen to the edges.
It's wise to understand what will happen with your lens distortion to avoid unwanted problems before they become problems.
Test and learn.

[Gary Huff]

Can you show the entire still instead of a cropped/blow-up portion of the frame?