Wide Angles lens on a budget?

Hi,

I use my a200 mainly for family photos and scenic photos. For scenic photos I'd like to get a wide angle lens so I can get decent landscape pictures.

I'm just after a standard (but get decent results from) wide angle lens, but they seem very expensive. Any recommendations?

Thanks.

How wide? How much? I am guessing that the Sigma 10-20mm at £370 is out of your budget? I have it, it's great f8 to f16 or so. Anything good that is wider than the 18mm end of your 18-70mm lens is going to be expensive. Even a Minolta 20mm f2.8 prime lens is rare and expensive.

I also have the Sigma 24mm f2.8 prime lens and that's good. Got it from eBay between £60-100. Tends to be much cheaper than the Minolta 24mm f2.8 prime lens and is just as good. Neither of these are "wide" on your A200 though, I bought the Sigma 24mm for use inside without a flash, not landscape shots.

On a budget you'd be better off trying to live with the 18-70mm and see how it goes.

Hi,

Apologies, spot the SLR newbie... I pretty much set the camera to Auto and point and shoot! I have a compact camera as well but got the SLR as the quality was considerably better.

As for how wide, I take scenic pictues but find the 18-70 lens doesn't capture as much as I'd like. That probably doesn't help you does it, as I'm such a novice I was just looking for a lens that got that bit more in it.

It looks as though w ide angle lens a budget is not going to happen? What is the cheapest wide angle lens that will suffice (ie just capture more width on the scenic shots)?

If you want a "proper" lens then you have to pay a lot to get below 18mm. The Sigma 10-20mm is the one to get at £300+.

However, this might be worth a punt for a budget purchase. I have absolutely no idea how it performs, so don't blame me!

http://www.opteka.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=106

I've been looking at the sSigma lense - I won't be buying it just yet as I just bought the Beercan which is a nice addition I must say. Not really used the Beercan at all yet but I was on Holiday over the last two weeks and went around england and was using the kit lense alot - just need to get used to using it on the manual settings.

Is there any good website for the photography tutorial.

You can get variations of the Cosina AF 19-35mm which is a full fram lens. Not top shelf, but still no slouch. Ffordes currently have one for £49.99 and they come in silver and black, but if you're after a cropped sensor WA lens, then the Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro or Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 would suit much better than the kit lens. The alternative would be to go down the Minolta line of full frame lenses for something like a 24 or 28-135mm or 24-105mm (D). Just account for the 1.5x crop factor.

I always check the Onestop-Digital site first for price comparison, though I've used them twice and they are a first class outfit. Do buy the globally accepted Mack warranty they sell. Other than that, pop over to Dyxum.com which is the Sony/Minolta owners bible website, and they have plenty of desirable and/or affordable gear in their classifieds section. I've bought truck loads via Dyxum.