Super Wide lens fo FX, any suggestions?

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Lee532

Senior Member
Having just gone full frame with a new D610 the DX lens I will really miss is the Sigma 10-20 I had on my D5100. Loving the effects that are possible with a super wide I have been looking around for an FX equivalent.
The Nikon 14-24 2.8 is well out of price range at the minute due to the D610 buy.
I have just found a used Sigma 12-24mm for a decent price so my question is has anybody got one and what do you think of it? The 4.5/5.6 will not be a problem as thats the same as the DX lens I was using.
If not the Sigma, is there anything else out there worth considering?
 
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480sparky

Senior Member
The Siggy is as wide as you're going to find.

Both Sigma and Nikon have OOP 14mm primes, and Nikon has made a 13mm. But both are very expensive.

Rokinon (sold under the brand names of Vivitar, Samyang, ProOptic, Bower, Opteka, Bell & Howell, Falcon and Walimex) has a 14mm as well, but the mustache distortion on it is horrendous.


The 12-24 Siggy is going to be your choice.
 
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480sparky

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
I love my 16-35mm f/4. Almost as sharp as the "trinity" lens with a little more throw. I also love my Sigma 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye. Not everyone is a fan of the fisheye, but the profile correction in Lightroom does a great job of turning it into a 15mm ultra-wide. Here's a link to my initial thoughts on it.

http://nikonites.com/wide-angle/18582-sigma-15mm-f2-8-fisheye-first-impressions.html#axzz33c8XNqhg
Click to expand...

The problem with defishing a fisheye is it 'stretches' the pixels at the edge of the corrected image so much it appears pixelated.
 
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gqtuazon

Gear Head
Lee532 said:
Having just gone full frame with a new D610 the DX lens I will really miss is the Sigma 10-20 I had on my D5100. Loving the effects that are possible with a super wide I have been looking around for an FX equivalent.
The Nikon 14-24 2.8 is well out of price range at the minute due to the D610 buy.
I have just found a used Sigma 12-24mm for a decent price so my question is has anybody got one and what do you think of it? The 4.5/5.6 will not be a problem as thats the same as the DX lens I was using.
If not the Sigma, is there anything else out there worth considering?
Click to expand...

That should be a suitable lens. You will be more likely to stop down a bit anyway for landscape shots.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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skene

Senior Member
Why not just switch over to crop mode and keep the lens on the 610 body. This way you can still use your current DX line up while you end up waiting to get a superwide FX lens.
 
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Lee532

Senior Member
Thanks for the suggestions, after spending hours on Google it is great to hear real life experiences of what's out there.
I suspect I will go for the Sigma but wanted to make sure I hadn't missed out any other options. @BackdoorHippie I love your work with the fish eye and remember reading that thread, have always fancied a play with fish eye.
 
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Lee532

Senior Member
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]
gqtuazon said:
That should be a suitable lens. You will be more likely to stop down a bit anyway for landscape shots.
Click to expand...
[/FONT]Thanks Glenn, I was thinking along the same lines as most of my shots with the DX lens where landscape
 
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Lee532

Senior Member
skene said:
Why not just switch over to crop mode and keep the lens on the 610 body. This way you can still use your current DX line up while you end up waiting to get a superwide FX lens.
Click to expand...
I had contemplated that but in my mind I payed for that bigger sensor and I want to use it all :) My lens line up as it stands is now Nikon 24-70 and 70-300 so I just need the super wide and I'm done, for now:)
 
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480sparky

Senior Member
skene said:
Why not just switch over to crop mode and keep the lens on the 610 body. This way you can still use your current DX line up while you end up waiting to get a superwide FX lens.
Click to expand...


The D600/610, in DX mode, end up being 10.2 mp. I thought I'd keep my DX 10.5 fisheye, but 10.2 mp just didn't cut it. I opted for the Siggy 15mm (based, in part, on backdoorhippie's recommendation) and have never been sorry for it.


FWIW, here's the results of my tests for defishing the Sigma 15mm:

I found out that in order to defish the lens enough to take out the curvature of the optics, I needed to crop the finished image down to 2788 x 4186 pixels (works out to 11 mp). This results in a staggering 144° FOV.... far wider than my current 17mms. So if I'm willing to toss out more than half my D600's pixels, I can really 'take it all in', so to speak.

If pixels are important, I can reduce the amount of defishing and get more pixels in the final image, but the more pixels that are included means more curvature to what should be straight lines.
 
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Lee532

Senior Member
It's been a while but I finally found a Sigma 12-24 used and pulled the trigger. Next day delivery so should be here in the morning, will let you know what I think.
I couldn't justify the money for the Nikon 14-24 as I want a Tamron 150-600 to make my lens collection complete, honest, totally complete, for now!
 
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