Budget ultra wide angle lens for APS-C

For APS-C canon mount there are few options like below:

Lens	Coverage	Mount	Weight	Length/Diam	Street Price (est.)
Tamron 11-18/3.5-5.6	APS-C	EF/Nik	375g	78mm/82mm	RM 1824
Tokina 12-24/4	APS-C	EF/Nik	570g	89.5mm/84mm	RM 1600
Canon 10-22/3.5-4.5	APS-C	EF-S	385g	90mm/83.5mm	RM 2560
Sigma 12-24/4.5-5.6	Full frame 35mm	EF/Nik	615g	100mm/87mm	RM 2240
Sigma 10-20/4-5.6	APS-C	EF/Nik	470g	81mm/83.5mm	RM 1600
Nikon 12-24/4	APS-C	Nik	500g	89mm/81mm	RM 3040

source from:http://photo.net/equipment/wideangle-dslr
If you are interested about all above lens performance and also features, feel free to visit the link above.

Personally, if you have the budget I would recommend to go for Canon 10-22 if you plan to stay on APS-C for long. Since full frame body will be more expensive we are going for Budget Stuff. The second best will be sigma 12-24 if you plan to for full frame later. Of course if you want to go for the widest sigma 10-20 will be the best at the price tag of RM 1,600. But bear in mind if you are going to shoot landscape, the aperture is not really a problem since we will be using some where slower than F/8.0 

If you are low on budget, and you want to have another wide angle lens, perhaps there will be another alternative solution. Wide lens conversion lens.

 This conversion lens cost about RM 150 to RM 250 depending on the quality. The focus length multiplier is 0.45x according to specification. But I doubt it can be so wide. The conversion lens comes with many diameter, I got the 67mm for my Tamron 17-50mm. There are many version of conversion lens. This is the slim type, that does not come with Macro capability. I don't like wide angle macro, it is not very feasible to have macro lens with 17mm focus length.














This is the conversion lens being "screwed", attached to the front of Tamron lens. Theoretically this should make the lens focus length become 7.65-22.5mm. But it seems the conversion rate is not that WIDE. From the landscape images I got from this converted lens, it is about 12-35mm. Which is about 0.7x only. Perhaps I will get another real 0.45x conversion lens later. But I doubt any lens can reach 7.65mm focus lens yet.

All images are taken from same spot outside my condo. I doubt this is 7.65mm Focus length. I think it should be around 12mm. according to the 50mm test.

This is the non-converter 17mm. As you can see from the comparison. The converted lens is indeed wider and can capture more stuff.

 This is the 24mm non converted focus length. I took this image to make comparison below image. Which is 50mm converted.

 This is 50mm Converted image. Theoretically it should have 22.5m But it seems it is not wider than 24mm as compare to above. So I took another 35mm and also 42mm. Later for comparison. The closest I found is about 35-36mm.

This is 36mm non converted image I took after I took all above images. The settings and angle might be abit different. But nonetheless it is almost the same like a 35mm. The yellow crane has moved from previous shot. So don't use the yellow crane at right side for comparison. This image pan to right while the above image pan to left.






Well now you have a cheap 12-35mm F/2.8 with the cost of RM 200. It is F/2.8 remember and the zoom range is from 12 to 35 is about 3x from what you have on any general zoom. Keep in mind that the performance at wide open is not as high as non converted F/2.8 but it still can give you very good image quality depend how you capture it. If you are going for landscape and HDR this will be a very good converted lens.