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For small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, an ultra-wide angle lens is sometimes essential for capturing the bigger picture. This guide covers the world of wide angle lenses, highlighting their features, benefits, and the best options available for photography needs.
Introduction to Wide Angle Lenses
What are Wide Angle Lenses?
Wide angle lenses are designed to provide a broader view of a subject, capturing more in a frame. They have shorter focal lengths, usually between 14mm and 35mm, and offer a wider field of view compared to standard lenses. This makes them perfect for landscape photography, architecture shots, and capturing larger groups of people.
Importance and Benefits of Wide Angle Lenses in Photography
Wide angle lenses are essential for both amateur and professional photographers, offering a unique perspective and the ability to capture more than meets the eye. They create a sense of depth and scale, particularly ultra wide angle lenses with focal lengths shorter than 24mm, which accentuate the size of subjects in the foreground and contrast them with the background.
Different Types of Wide Angle Lenses
There are many different types of wide angle lenses available, including prime lenses with fixed focal lengths and zoom lenses with a variable focal length range. The most common are wide angle zoom lenses, which are perfect for various photography styles. Fisheye lenses, an ultra wide lens, offer an even wider field of view and produce unique and creative effects.
Understanding the Brands: Nikon vs Canon
Nikon Wide Angle Lenses: The Overview
Nikon wide angle lenses are renowned for their optical quality and durability. Their DSLR and mirrorless cameras lenses offer excellent selection, providing sharp images throughout the zoom range. For example, the 16-35mm f/4 is a popular Nikon lens that offers a constant maximum aperture, perfect for low-light conditions.
Canon Wide Angle Lenses: The Overview
Canon is also a well-known brand in the lens market, with exceptional performance and image stabilization in their wide angle lenses. Their lenses, such as the 24-70mm f/2.8, are maximum versatility, and image quality. Canon wide angle lenses offer reliable focusing and superior optical performance.
Nikon vs Canon: The Comparison
Choosing between Nikon and Canon wide angle lenses can be challenging as both brands offer high-quality products with similar features like image stabilization, autofocus, and varying focal lengths. While both have lens options for full frame and APS-C cameras, each lens mount is brand-specific, and personal preference plays a significant role in the choice.
Factors to Consider When Buying a Wide Angle Lens
Before purchasing a wide angle lens, several important considerations must be taken. Among them, lens compatibility with the camera, field of view, distortion level, aperture, lens construction, and quality.
Best Wide Angle Lens Options in 2023
Below are some of the best wide angle lens options available on Amazon. Our top picks include various brands, both auto and manual lenses, and even lenses for smartphones.
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Lens
Our top pick is a Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM lens designed to take Canon APS C cameras to new heights. The lens offers a 38mm full-frame camera’s equivalent field of view, and with manual focus adjustment in One Shot AF mode. It also boasts a seven-blade circular aperture that adds to its capability of creating softly blurred backgrounds, making it the most compact and lightest EF-S series member.
Nikon AF FX NIKKOR 28mm f/1.8G Compact Wide-angle Prime Lens
The Nikon AF FX NIKKOR 28mm f/1.8G lens is our runner-up, a compact wide-angle prime lens with auto-focus capability, specifically designed for Nikon DSLR Cameras. It offers superior performance with aspheric lens elements and Seven diaphragm blades, packed into a portable size.
Brightin Star Ultra Wide-Angle Fisheye Manual Focus Mirrorless Camera Lens
Our best value pick is a manual focus lens, the Brightin Star 7.5mm F2.8, designed for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It is compatible with Fujifilm X-mount cameras, offering a 180° field of view with minimal distortion. The wide f/2.8 aperture is perfect for bokeh effects and performs exceptionally in low-light conditions, and is all wrapped up with a great price.
Panasonic LUMIX F1.8 L-Mount Interchangeable Lens for Mirrorless Full Frame Digital Cameras
The Panasonic LUMIX S-Series lens is designed for L-mount full-frame mirrorless digital cameras. It provides impressive resolution from center to corner and produces appealing bokeh effects thanks to its large F1.8 aperture. Perfect for landscapes, astrophotography, and architecture, it offers natural-looking close-up shots with a minimum focusing distance of 0.18m.
Conclusion
Choosing the ideal wide angle lens can sometimes be overwhelming, but understanding your camera’s mount, suitable field of view, reducing distortion, aperture, and lens construction will make the process much easier. Our recommendations, based on our research and expertise, offer broad options with varying features, and we are confident they will suit your needs.
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