Sigma 18-200mm

[Scottharris14]

Hi guys, just wondering if my 18-200mm Sigma lens is a wide angle lens or should i get something smaller?

[Tringa]

It is wide angle at the 18mm end.

If you are using a full frame 35mm then 18mm is moving towards the ultra wide angle. If you have a camera with, for example, a crop factor of 1.5 then 18mm is the equivalent of 27mm on a full frame. 27mm is still what I think most folks would consider to be wide angle.

Whether you should get something smaller is another question which only you can answer. Do you feel you want a wider view that your lens can offer?

Dave

[Donald]

Hi guys, just wondering if my 18-200mm Sigma lens is a wide angle lens

Yes. My understanding is that anything below 24mm is generally regarded as a wide angle. I assume you are using a crop factor camera; i.e. one with a smaller sensor than on a full-frame camera. So, your 18mm will not cover such a wide field of view as 18mm on a full-frame camera. If you need to read more about sensor sizes, then please go to this CiC Tutorial.

... or should i get something smaller?

That depends. Depends on what you want to do. Depends on whether you feel you need it. Depends on your budget.

Might be an idea to see if you could try out a wider lens just to get a feel for what it does. I've got a Tokina f2.8 11-16mm. It does open up a whole other area of photography.

[Scottharris14]

i kind of understand, im new to photography so please excuse me but what is a full-frame camera and what is a crop factor? i have bought a Nikon D7000

[Manfred M]

i kind of understand, im new to photography so please excuse me but what is a full-frame camera and what is a crop factor? i have bought a Nikon D7000

A full-frame camera has a sensor that is more or less the same size as a 35mm film camera. These tend to be professional or very high end amateur cameras. Nikons other DSLRs are referred to a crop frame, i.e. their sensor is smaller than a full frame camera. Nikon's have a crop factor of 1.5, i.e. their sensors are 2/3 the size of a full-frame sensor. This means you have to multiply the focal length of a lens by 1.5 to give you the equivalent focal distance. The 18mm lens acts like 18 x 1.5 = 27mm; so it is a moderate wide angle.

I'm with Donald on the Tokina f/2.8 11-16mm (equivlalent to a 16.5 - 24mm full frame). It's a very good wide-angle lens; I have one and really enjoy shooting with it. Just be forewarned; wide angles can be tricky to work with if you don't want shots that are mostly foreground and sky.

[Photon Hacker]

Just be forewarned; wide angles can be tricky to work with if you don't want shots that are mostly foreground and sky.

Could you please elaborate on this point?.

[Black Pearl]

Extreme wide angle lenses take a bit of getting used to. At first you are likely to look through them and be wowed by how wide () they are but not achieve a decent shot. Care has to be taken with foreground elements and the amount of sky you choose to have in the final shot.

Look for very strong compositional elements to give your shot a purpose and to allow the viewer to organise in their mind what you were trying to achieve. Elements such as lead in lines can be very important to stop the corners from being vast areas of nothing. If you have a great sky then giving it more space than usual can produce a dramatic effect. Very strong central compositions work well with super wide lenses as the image has the width to cope with their prominence.

I love my Sigma 10-20mm, have done from the day I got the very first of the UK stock when it was launched, but I have to use it regularly or my 'eye' gets out of practice. When I first got it I just couldn't get a picture I liked, I tended to use the width to get everything in where perversely concentrating on a smaller part of a scene sometimes works best.

Best example I could find: Lead in lines - check. Central comp - check. More sky than usual - check

[Manfred M]

Could you please elaborate on this point?.

All of these images were taken with a Tokina f/2.8 11-16mm lens on a Nikon D90 which has a 1.5 crop factor. All of the shots were at the 11mm setting.

Peyto Lake in the Canadian Rockies in Banff National Park. Try to ignore the scenery itself, but look at the distribution of sky and foreground. I composed so that there were different subjects in the background (mountains as well as sky) and foreground (lake, trees, large tree on right). It is all too easy to let the sky and foreground overwhelm the image and be rather boring.



The next shot is of the Mona Lisa, in the Louvre in Paris. Here I wanted to convey the idea that I was alone with the picture; no great crowds, just a picture, a couple of guards chatting and a student around the corner drawing a sketch. Notice how much wall and floor there is in the image. They add to the feeling of emptiness and lack of crowds.



Finally, a shot of what the room with the Mona Lisa was really like. Frankly, it was not all that crowded, but again, using an ultrawide lens captured a scene that looks super busy.




I hope that this helps put wide angle shooting into a bit more perspective.