Jim Dick said:
That lens will be great for landscapes and indoor shots. I am looking at a 10-22mm lens for my Canon. I've always marveled at the fantastic landscapes taken by this type of lens. Since I have a couple of gift certificates that must be used at B&H, I'm really leaning towards this lens.
Jim, I went through the process of trying to figure out exactly which ultra wide angle lens I should buy a few weeks ago and ended up with the $300 Rokinon 8mm lens. The 10-22 Canon is a fantastic lens but I think you would be happier with the 8mm. I was looking at an 8-16, a 10-24 and an 11-16 before I got the 8mm.
Sharpness - With ultra wide angles sharpness is pretty much the same in all lenses. All ultra wides are extremely sharp. You can find lens test sites that will tell you X lens is sharper than Y lens, but this is mainly BS. The real limiting factor to sharpness in these lenses is the diffraction of the sensor and your computer monitor. Unless you are planning on printing billboards you will never see the sharpness differences in ultra wides.
Pros:
Zoom range - The one thing I noticed in user review after user review is that once you own an ultra wide zoom you are going to be using it at the widest zoom about 95% of the time. You probably have a kit lens that will go down to 18 and the ultra won't be any sharper at 18 than the kit lens is. I know that is probably contrary to what the lens test sites will tell you, but I take my photos in the real world, not at a lens test site.
Price - $300 vs $859, enough said.
Build - The Canon is a metal lens built like a tank and operates very smoothly. The Rokinon is a metal lens built like a tank and operates very smoothly.
Cons:
The Rokinon is a manual lens. This means you must set aperture and focus manually. The good news is if you use Sunny 16 (f/16 and set the aperture to the ISO) you will get great exposures out doors almost every time. Set the focus to 3 feet and everything from one foot to infinity will be tack sharp.
You cannot attach a filter. It comes with a built in lens hood of the petal variety.
Uses:
You can either use it to intentionally distort perspective like the bendy bus or you can take ultra wide angle shots that take in a 180 degree field of view, which is wider than your eyes.
Your mileage may vary, of course, since your style of photography is probably very different than mine. But I could not be happier with my purchase. But no matter which lens you get you will have a blast with it.
