Wide angle camera lenses


With a full-frame digital SLR or 35mm film, a wide angle lens is generally considered anything with a focal length of 35mm or less.
Here are a couple of snapshots taken with an ancient Canon 20-35/2.8L zoom lens (replaced by Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, $1520 (review)). Note that the image on the left, at 20, appears to be significantly distorted if you view it from far away. But try clicking on it so that you get a monitor-filling JPEG. Then move your face in close to the monitor so that you are viewing it from a few inches away. The distortion disappears, right? A wide angle lens does not distort perspective but, if the viewer of the ultimate image does not adjust his viewing position, it appears to do so.
As a practical matter, most people these days aren't impressed by a wide-angle effect until you get down to 24mm. Wide angle camera lenses start to get expensive at 20mm ($500) and wider. So good compromises these days are are probably a fixed 24 ($250) or a high-quality 16-35 zoom ($1500). See the Canon and Nikon system pages for an idea of what's available.