fixed 10 or 12 mm lens for canon digital?

[rhys 0]

I am about to purchase a canon digital. my partner has a sigma 10-20 lens or something like that.

that lens is so heavy and she only uses it on 1 setting usually.

is there fixed 10 or 12mm lenses for canon digitals?

i don't want the extra weight!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[goobersnuftda 0]

Yes there are fixed lenses and some pretty good ones. You are right about the weight of them but I went a different route.

I go my Canon 20D with a 17-85 IS USM lense. It is bigger and a bit heavier but the image stabilzation is great. I also find that I use the camera for all over the DZ, ground shots, in the club house and all over the place without having to change lenses or removing it from my helmet.

The whole shomozzle is on the top of my helmet, dead center. As long as you have proper head placement on opening, it is not biggie at all.

[bofh 0]

Quote

is there fixed 10 or 12mm lenses for canon digitals?

i don't want the extra weight!

I've not seen any 10 nor 12mm fixed lenses with Canon EF or EF-S mounts, but ff weight is all you worry about, the fixed lenses are not always lighter.
Ie the Canon EF 14/2.8L weighs 560g, compared to the mentioned Sigma at 470g.
The Canon EF-S 10-22/3.5-4.5 USM is a rather good and light lens, only 385g.
It costs a bit more than the Sigma though.

[iamsam 0]

Canon 'L' series lenses will generally be heavier due to more robust build quality, i.e more metal.

Also any lens that give you a wide aperture of f2.8 or less will weigh in more as they're significantly harder to engineer.

but what do I know

[dragon2 0]

The Sigma 8 mm fisheye is slightly less heavy than the 10-20 mm.... Its smaller anyway.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[shogo 0]

Does IS work well in free fall? Are you using the IS in panning or tripod mode?
Could you put some pictures you took in free fall using the IS? (If it not much trouble.)
Thanks.

[Miami 0]

I keep the IS on and it works fine for me in freefall (17-85 IS USM on a 20D). I'm at work and don't have any of my pictures with me, but I posted a couple of pictures a few days ago in the tandem picture thread here.

And not sure if I'm just missing something simple, but I have no idea what panning or tripod mode for the IS is; it's just on and off.

Miami

[iamsam 0]

I woould be suprised if you can notice any difference in pictures taken in freefall with IS on or off, assuming your shooting at a reasonably fast shutter speed, say 250th sec or faster.

FYI, IS mode 1 adjusts for movement on the horizontal and vertical axis, mode 2 corrects only on the vertical axis (assuming a landscape format), which allows for smooth panning to acheive background blur.

but what do I know

[Miami 0]

Ah, I forgot some of the higher end lens with IS have 2 settings for it. The 17-85 only has on and off for the IS.

Agreed on noticing a difference. Only time I have noticed any is while hand holding at shutter speeds down around ~60 and lower.

Miami

[shogo 0]

Thanks for the info. So do you normally have the IS on? Or would you say IS may not be that useful in freefall? You would not say IS might be disadvantageous, right? Not a big deal, but if IS really works well in free fall, I thought people may not have to worry about not shaking head as much.
I was wondering, were those pictures taken at 17mm setting?

[Miami 0]

Yep, I leave the IS on...not because it needs it for freefall though. It doesn't degrade the quality of the photos at all and that way it is on when I need it other times (when shooting at slower shutter speeds).

And yep, those were taken at 17mm, but on a 20D that's more like 27mm because of the 1.6 crop factor.

Miami

[shogo 0]

Thanks a lot!