Lens purchase?

[rizingstar]

Alright people?just signed up after trawling through the forum for info etc,and need a bit help on the purchase of a lens from onestop-digital,it's basically just to see if it's reliable and no problems with deliverys and if the worst happens - returns?
Havnt long had my Canon 400 and even after the first few weeks i could notice how the lens gave soft results,no matter how much you think your shots in focus,when you get it home onto the pc it's not the same,so i'm gonna jump in and get the sigma 10-20 as landscape shots are pretty much what i'm doing.

Here is an Hdr of probably my first weeks shooting with the Canon
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2...rbour02al1.jpg

[onefivenine]

Alright mate! Welcome to the asylum

That photo looks quite sharp to me, and the kit lens is adequately sharp at f/8.
Are you shooting in RAW and if so are you applying sharpening afterwards in PP?

Give us a bit more info - the EXIF data might reveal something you could do differently for instance.

Nice shot by the way . Did you mean to leave the horizon so wonky though?

[rizingstar]

Originally Posted by onefivenine

Alright mate! Welcome to the asylum

That photo looks quite sharp to me, and the kit lens is adequately sharp at f/8.
Are you shooting in RAW and if so are you applying sharpening afterwards in PP?

Give us a bit more info - the EXIF data might reveal something you could do differently for instance.

Nice shot by the way . Did you mean to leave the horizon so wonky though?

the EXIF data will be long gone now,and i took 3 jpegs(AEB) and yeh i see now the horizon is wonky that will be my inexperience showing up i just bought a hoya CP filter and a cokin filter adaptor ring set(with the sunset filter) and i'm now wishing i had of waited or even bought the body only and got another lens.

[£note]

I purchased a canon ef 10-22mm from onestop about a year ago:-

a) Delivery about 5 days
b) Had to pay duty and vat
c) Obtained a refund for the duty and vat without any hassle
d) Do not know about returns

Most people on this forum have had a positive experience and I would buy from them in the future.

[onefivenine]

Originally Posted by rizingstar

the EXIF data will be long gone now,and i took 3 jpegs(AEB) and yeh i see now the horizon is wonky that will be my inexperience showing up i just bought a hoya CP filter and a cokin filter adaptor ring set(with the sunset filter) and i'm now wishing i had of waited or even bought the body only and got another lens.

If you were shooting JPG then the camera will have applied sharpening itself. I just wondered if you'd converted straight from RAW without sharpening which would make the image slightly softer - this feature being due to the anti-aliasing filter in all Canon dSLRs.

The kit lens isn't too bad at f/8 but either side of that you start to see it's flaws after a bit of varied use... and upgrade-itis sets in quickly!

If you do go for a purchase from onestop I can vouch for them - got a 24-70 f/2.8 delivered in 4 days, no customs TAX, and many others on here have used them too.

[rizingstar]

upgrade-itis so thats what they call it..

Thanks for the info,appreciated

[Tobers]

I've just got a Sigma 10-20 and it's a really great lens. I do recommend it. I doubt the Canon 10-22 is worth the extra cash that it costs.

You might find that it's a bit "short" and you'll be after a bit more zoom range. There are lots of options out there and it really depends on how much money you've got (Canon 17-55 is very highly regarded including by me).

But get the 10-20 first if you're doing lots of landscapes and I'm sure you'll really enjoy it . You can be very creative in urban situations, or pretty much anywhere for that matter.

[philaitman]

I use onestop a lot if the price difference is big it's worth it.
Delivery fast
Service great
Full refund if any Vat or duty is charged.

However the 10-20 isn't that much cheaper (£30-40?) I got Jessops Newcastle to price match mine to Warehouse express with the pricematch form from one of this months camera mags.
Nikon lenses have international warranties which I know are honored. I've heard of Sigma being awkward so I payed the extra this time for piece of mind.
If any has heard different about Sigma and warranties please say so, as my source is just the net

[Tobers]

I got Photo Optix to price match to £286 I think it was. Just took a phot mag in there with a warehouse express ad in it.

[jonnypb]

welcome to the lens bug upgrade club

one stop digital are recommended by quite a few people on here, also try kerso from POTN or ebay. His ebay shop is flash camera but if you email him kerso1123@msn.com he'll do them cheaper than his ebay shop. He can sometimes be a bit slow to respond but his prices are normally quite good. If you want to buy local from somewhere like jessops check out some photo mags as they have vouchers in there to price match any lens in that brochure

i'm sure you'll be very happy with the 10-20, I opted for the canon 10-22 in the end as it edges it slightly over the sigma. less barrell distortion, better colours. I got the 10-22 from kerso and it was £77 more than what the sigma would have cost me (compared to the cheapest uk internet price at the time) I wasn't gong to use him again after I got my 70-300 from him cos of slooooooow delivery which i complained about as i was promised a date so to make up for it he did a very good deal on the Canon lens for me which I couldn't resist after seeing allymac's pics using his 10-22

[rizingstar]

[QUOTE=philaitman;5398673 I got Jessops Newcastle to price match mine to Warehouse express with the pricematch form from one of this months camera mags.[/QUOTE]

Another local i see yep thats where i got my canon from,along with a backpack and 2GB card,which was more expensive in the shop but they gave me it for the web price,bit strange them doing this kind of thing but i aint complaining,honest..

What mag are these forms in?and are they still available?

[Radiohead]

Maybe it's just me but I actually find the ultra-wides not great for landscapes, and would opt for either a standard zoom (say a 17-40L) or a decent telephoto like a 70-200/4L. The UWA's give masses of width but you can easily end up with almost no detail of interest. They really come into their own in urban environments IMO.

[bodoman]

Originally Posted by Radiohead

Maybe it's just me but I actually find the ultra-wides not great for landscapes, and would opt for either a standard zoom (say a 17-40L) or a decent telephoto like a 70-200/4L. The UWA's give masses of width but you can easily end up with almost no detail of interest. They really come into their own in urban environments IMO.

Very interesting, i would have thought that the wider the lens the better for landscapes, but i think you are right you can put too much detail
into a photograph and then loose the interest and impact of the photo.

[tontoshorse]

Originally Posted by Radiohead

Maybe it's just me but I actually find the ultra-wides not great for landscapes, and would opt for either a standard zoom (say a 17-40L) or a decent telephoto like a 70-200/4L. The UWA's give masses of width but you can easily end up with almost no detail of interest. They really come into their own in urban environments IMO.

Mmmm, as someone how is just stumbling along at the moment I find that interesting.
Obviously a matter of choice but given the number of canny landscape 10mm shots being shown on the forum recently I think it all depends on what there is to capture. The 10-20mm gives another dimension IMO.

BUT.... thats why we lust after the Holy Grail of "just one more" lens.

[onefivenine]

Originally Posted by bodoman

Very interesting, i would have thought that the wider the lens the better for landscapes, but i think you are right you can put too much detail
into a photograph and then loose the interest and impact of the photo.

I used to think that way too...

It's all about the perspective you are after. Long lenses really compress the perspective and the distance from front to back, whereas with a UWA things suddenly seem very far away so points of interest can disappear in the distance.

These two shots were taken yards apart.

First, 10mm

Second one at 200mm

Long lenses are great for landscapes!