Originally posted by jatrax You do not need ultra-wide angle for landscapes
+1
You don't even necessarily need wide angle for landscapes. I think Adam posted a while back that his favorite lens for landscapes was the FA* 85, but he might have just said it was his favorite lens overall and that he *could* use it for landscapes.
I'm perfectly happy with my 15mm ltd for landscapes and other things. I adore it. If I could change anything about it it would be to add WR and to either have a built in ND filter or have the hood be a little wider so it was easier to take a filter on and off.
To me, extreme wide angles aren't for landscapes, unless you're doing something "artsy" like taking a photo of a single flower and showing a landscape behind it. (this was actually with an 8mm fisheye, but you could get similar results with a rectilinear lens. Instead of things bending towards the middle, the stuff near the edges of the image would be stretched out.)
I mostly use my 10-20mm now for interiors of large spaces (or small spaces, for that matter - realtors use them to make houses look more spacious than they are) and for cool distortion effects that you get by getting close to the subject. The 8mm fisheye I haven't really found a specific niche for yet, but it's fun to use (when I remember to keep my feet out of the picture).
BTW, in case this helps -- the terminology for wide and ultra wide angle are based on sensor size. Wide angle lenses are a shorter focal length than the long side of the film or sensor is in length. When it gets smaller than the short side, it becomes ultra wide. Pentax DSLR sensors are 23.7 × 15.7 mm, so anything under ~24mm is wide and anything under ~16 is ultra wide (so I guess technically the 15mm is ultra wide, but it's still not *extreme* ultra wide
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---------- Post added 08-29-14 at 02:19 PM ----------
Originally posted by ripper2860 After I secure a 2nd mortgage of course!! (and secure a lawyer to handle the divorce!!)
Buy it used (and get the SMC version rather than the HD version so you can get the cool starbursts) and you might be able to avoid that -- maybe just a home equity line and a trial separation? lol