Looking for wide angle prime recommendations for Canon

[feppe]

I'm looking for a prime in the 20-30mm range for landscape/cityscape work for a crop sensor camera. I would mostly use it in low light and night photography shooting cityscapes on a tripod, so a lens with low flare is necessary, while fast apertures are not - I usually shoot between f/4 and f/5.6.

I've read some reviews of Canon's own primes, and the slow lenses get very bad reviews, with complaints on vignetting and flare. But I'm not willing to shell a thousand euros more just to get a few stops of speed I never use.

Any recommendations, Canon or otherwise?

[AndrewKulin]

I'm looking for a prime in the 20-30mm range for landscape/cityscape work for a crop sensor camera. I would mostly use it in low light and night photography shooting cityscapes on a tripod, so a lens with low flare is necessary, while fast apertures are not - I usually shoot between f/4 and f/5.6.

I've read some reviews of Canon's own primes, and the slow lenses get very bad reviews, with complaints on vignetting and flare. But I'm not willing to shell a thousand euros more just to get a few stops of speed I never use.

Any recommendations, Canon or otherwise?

TS-E 24L mk II?  I picked one up a few weeks ago and it is one sweet lens.  I have a 40D.

Advantages - v. sharp, v. low CA, the shift feature would come in handy for cityscapes (if I correctly understood what you intend)
Disavantages - Expensive, 82 mm diameter (for filters) and manual focus (possibly, depending what you are shooting and how much time you need to focus)

Andrew

[sojournerphoto]

TS-E 24L mk II?  I picked one up a few weeks ago and it is one sweet lens.  I have a 40D.

Advantages - v. sharp, v. low CA, the shift feature would come in handy for cityscapes (if I correctly understood what you intend)
Disavantages - Expensive, 82 mm diameter (for filters) and manual focus (possibly, depending what you are shooting and how much time you need to focus)

Andrew

Check if it will fit (Pebbleplace?), and then try a good secondhand Zeiss Contax Distagon 28 f2.8 T* or I think there's also a 24 or 25 and, of course, the legendary (and very expensive) 21. The 28s and 35s are very reasonable and nice lenses.

You'll need an adaptor and it's manual focus and aperture. Live view is a good way to focus.

Mike

[DaveCurtis]

The Zeiss 21mm f2.8 Distagon ZE which started shipping a few days ago is your best choice if you don't need AF and can put up with a bit of wave distortion.

It will perform better than other wide angles from f2.8  - f5.6 due to it's flat field. e.g. better than the Canon 24mm f1.4 II which show reasonible field curvature at these aperature settings.

The Canon is still a greatl lens but has it's wavy quirks between f1.4 and f5.6.

I would love to own both but have settled for the Zeiss as first choice for landscape shooting.

The new 24mm TS-E is another good choice but it isn't really a walk about lens.

So, I would say if you need AF go with the 24mm f1.4 II, if you don't go with the Zeiss and the you require extreme depth of field or other TS-E features go with the TS-E. And of course if you can afford them all ...  

[feppe]

Thanks guys! I'm curious about the TS-E, I've never really considered it but it might be handy. Have to check out if the features would be useful for my shooting.

I don't care about AF since it's useless in low-light - so manual or live view. I believe live view gives an in-focus confirmation even on MF lenses.

The Zeiss 21mm looks and sounds mouth-watering, but isn't 21mm a bit too wide for full-frame usage? I used a 28mm on my film 35mm camera years ago, and that was pretty much the widest I needed. I've been considering moving to FF for a while - thinking of waiting for 5DIII. The Zeiss 25mm seem to be much cheaper as well - but it wouldn't be exactly wide angle on a crop sensor camera

[Frodo]

Have you tried the humble EF20/2.8?  There is a lot of mixed press about this lens.  I bought one and find that it outresolves my 5DMkI in the centre from f4 on, and the edges (which would be cropped out in your 40D) are not as bad as some make out.  Light fall-off is easily corrected in processing.  I am happy with mine - perhaps I have a good copy.

Cheers

[stever]

I don't think you'll be disappointed in buying a 5DII and not waiting.  A full frame camera provides more hiqh quality alternatives (and probably reduces the cost) in the 28 or 35mm range and opens up the possibility of high quality wide angle which just isn't available for crop frame.  The 5DII does not provide useful autofocus confirmation with manual focus lenses, but with live view and the 5 and 10x magnification on the high-res screen i don't find that to be an issue.

I use a 90 TS with the 5DII for macro (and based on recent experience will start using it more for landscape) with tilt to get more depth of focus.  Shift is more useful on wider angle lenses for perspective correction.  I don't find shift to be particularly useful for panos.  Live view turns the 5DII into a mini view camera (within the more limited capability of the TS lenses) and you can really compose - the TS lenses with a viewfinder are a bit of guesswork, particularly if you wear glasses.