Wide-angle lens - advice needed.

jwb1 · 03-10-2004 7:21pm #1

I am a novice to photography but I know enough to know that I need to get myself a wide-angle lens because I like taking landscape shots. I have a Minolta Maxxum 5 SLR (known as Dynax 5) over here I think. I can get a Minolta 28-80mm wide-angle zoom lens for it on eBay for around $80. Can anyone advise on what to look for when buying a wide-angle lens like this?

Ta - JB, Cork :cool:

rob1891 · 03-10-2004 10:57pm

get a prime / non zoom 28mm lens. Should be smaller, lighter, sharper, faster & cheaper.

jwb1 · 04-10-2004 9:37pm

Interesting...why a non-zoom model? On Ebay, I saw non-zoom 28mm model and others with 28-100mm zoom capability. Intuitively, I'd go for the latter. Also, they're priced around 70 bucks....genuine Minolta models....but that sounds very cheap. Should I be sceptical?

JB

rob1891 · 05-10-2004 1:12am

I just lost the post where I explain why I think a zoom is almost always worse than a prime. It boiled down to prime is a lot easier to make so cheap ones are still good, where as zoom is hard to make so cheap ones are usually crap. (crap being not very sharp and not very bright/fast.) You should find lots of pages warning against cheap zooms on google ...

http://medfmt.8k.com/third/primes.html

If you look at minolta's lenses, there are a lot of zooms around 28-80, some cost 1000s with others just 100s. There is a reason for this difference, and while >1000 lenses are probably better than you need, the ~100 lenses are bad and not worth paying for (of course you are on ebay, so those prices are different, I'm just looking at the range on nycamera) But with primes, there are only two 28s and both of them are priced higher than the cheap zooms, there is a reason for this!

Rob

norma · 05-10-2004 2:15pm

In my opinion, a 28mm is still not wide enough for landscape photography. Get yourself something in the 18-22mm range - believe it or not, it does make a big difference. Get down low for amazing foreground detail that will lead your viewer into the picture.
Norma.

jwb1 · 05-10-2004 7:57pm

Guys - these replies are great help....thanks for saving me a bundle!

JB

Burago · 07-10-2004 6:50am

I have the 28-80, it's the kit lens that came with my Dynax 5. I think it's a pretty poor lens, not sharp at all. My next buy will be the 24-105 but that's a lore more expensive than the 28-80.

Wide-angle lens - advice needed.

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