Michael Hession/NYT WirecutterWhether you want to make group portraits in tight spaces, convey the grand scale of beautiful landscapes and inspiring architecture, or simply enjoy playing around with unusual views of everyday objects, a wide-angle lens can always give you a fresh look at the world.At their widest focal lengths, these lenses can stretch out close-up subjects, while the far end of their zoom range still gives a wider view than the fast prime lenses we recommend.Top pickWith a range that’s wide enough for landscapes and narrow enough for comfortable street shooting, this sharp lens also lets in plenty of light for dim situations.There are lots of great options in this category, but right now the Tamron 16–30mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 is the best wide-angle zoom lens for the price. Its images are sharp, distortion is minimal and easily corrected, and autofocus is fast and accurate.It’s sharp. Both this Tamron lens and the Sigma 16–28mm f/2.8 DG DN captured very sharp images throughout most of the frame, though the Sigma lens remained a little sharper out to the farthest corners of the image. Still, the Tamron model’s broader zoom range and more extensive weather sealing make it the better choice for most people.Sony’s Vario-Tessar T* FE 16–35 mm f/4 ZA OSS produced similar performance to the Tamron 16–30mm at all shared apertures, but it has a narrower maximum aperture that limits its creative potential.It’s plenty portable. It’s about the same size as its closest competitors (3 by 4 inches) and smaller than the pricier lenses whose zooms start at 12mm or 14mm. The Tamron 16–30mm weighs about 1 pound, so you’ll notice it in a bag, but not as much as something like the 1.75-pound Sigma 14–24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art.The only lens we tested that was noticeably smaller and lighter was the 3-by-3.6-inch, 14.5-ounce Sony 16–25mm f/2.8 G, though that lens has a shorter zoom range and costs about $300 more.Sometimes vignetting can help bring the attention to your subject, as it did here where I let the camera correct distortion, but not light falloff. At 16mm, you’ll still make large objects seem like they’re tilted backward if you’re very close to them. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterAt 27mm the Tamron let us get a shot tight enough to leave out distractions on either side, but wide enough for a fun composition of the Olympic Rings on display in Rockefeller Plaza. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterAt 16mm and with the lens profile applied in Adobe Camera Raw, the steps leading toward the altar at St. Patrick’s Cathedral show no distortion. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterAt 30mm and again with the lens profile applied, you get a better view of the altar while still maintaining a sense of the grandiose space. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterProcessed from Raw with minor adjustments to exposure, but without applying the lens profile correction, you can see that the modest distortion and vignetting are not very noticeable without reference lines. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterSometimes vignetting can help bring the attention to your subject, as it did here where I let the camera correct distortion, but not light falloff. At 16mm, you’ll still make large objects seem like they’re tilted backward if you’re very close to them. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterDistortion isn’t too bad for such a wide lens. Without correction, you’ll probably notice some barrel distortion at 16mm and a bit of pincushion at 30mm, though neither effect is egregious. You’ll likely see it only when your photos contain straight lines, such as stair steps in the foreground or bricks on a building.In-camera correction eliminated this distortion completely, along with the minor vignetting visible toward the corners in raw images. You can also choose to apply corrections using the lens profile in Lightroom, if you prefer that method.We saw similar levels of distortion from Sigma’s 16–28mm, though that lens showed varying levels of barrel distortion throughout its zoom range, not pincushion.The Sigma lens is cheaper. Even so, this Tamron lens is the better all-around option, and the peace of mind you get from its weather sealing and extra zoom range is worth the extra $50 to $70 you pay over the Sigma 16–28mm f/2.8 DG DN. If you don’t mind those small sacrifices, though, the Sigma model is also a great lens. Michael Hession/NYT WirecutterTop pickWhether you’re after street photography or landscapes, this lens delivers big sharpness in a small lens.The most striking thing about the Sigma 10–18mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary is its small size, though its sharp images come in a close second. Its wide, constant aperture is handy if you want to capture group photos in indoor settings, do real estate work, or hope to blur out backgrounds in close-up shots.It’s as wide as you can get. This lens spans an equivalent of 15–27mm, which makes it the widest non-fisheye zoom you can get for Sony’s APS-C system. It’s perfect for landscapes but also suitable for street photography.You could also use it for casual astrophotography, but you’d be better served by a prime lens like the Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary because of its superior coma control.It’s sharp even at f/2.8. In the center of the frame, the 10–18mm f/2.8 is very sharp even at 10mm f/2.8, delineating tiny details and intricate textures with ease. That sharpness carries far out toward the corners, though at the extreme corners it falls off a bit. Stopping down to f/4 improves that, and at f/5.6 it’s sharp throughout the frame.Once you zoom to 14mm, those extreme corners improve quite a bit at f/2.8, and at 18mm it’s sharp edge-to-edge even wide open.It’s super small and lightweight. Measuring 2.8 by 2.5 inches, the 10–18mm f/2.8 DC DN is shorter than it is wide. Plus, at 9 ounces you’ll barely notice it in your camera bag. Mounted on the α6700 body we used for testing, it balances wonderfully.The oddest thing about its physical design is the skinny, far-forward zoom ring. We got used to it after a while, though, and the zoom ring’s beveled edge provides a tactile cue when your eye is buried in the camera’s finder.Thanks to in-camera lens correction, you won’t notice the 10–18mm f/2.8’s pincushion distortion in this image of old Shakespeare in the Park posters in Central Park. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterYou also won’t see the barrel distortion in this shot at 12.1mm, but the image is sharp enough to read the New York Times logo along the bottom of the posters. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterDespite the tight space on the 81st Street B/C subway platform, the 10–18mm got all of this mosaic in the frame. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterEven at 16mm, the 10–18mm f/2.8 can capture big vistas like this softball field in NYC’s Central Park. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterIf the background is particularly busy, the 10–18mm f/2.8 can sometimes make a swirly looking bokeh. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterThanks to in-camera lens correction, you won’t notice the 10–18mm f/2.8’s pincushion distortion in this image of old Shakespeare in the Park posters in Central Park. Phil Ryan/NYT WirecutterDistortion can be fully corrected. If you use automatic corrections on a Sony body, or apply a lens profile to raw images, you won’t notice any distortion. Without correction, there’s quite a bit of barrel distortion at 10mm and pincushion to a lesser, but still noticeable, extent at 18mm.Thankfully, the lens is generally free of chromatic aberration, especially after applying the profile or in-body corrections.It isn’t optically stabilized. Of course, this isn’t an issue if you use a body that has in-body stabilization. Even if your camera lacks IBIS, at wide angles like this you might not need it.It doesn’t have Sigma’s best weather-sealing. Sigma’s Contemporary lenses lack serious weather sealing, but this lens includes a gasket at the lens mount to keep out at least some water and dust.If you feel you really need a weather-sealed wide zoom, we recommend you opt for Tamron’s 11–20mm F/2.8 Di III-A RXD. It doesn’t quite match this lens’s sharpness in the corners, and its zoom range isn’t as wide as the Sigma’s, but it reaches a 30mm equivalent. That might be meaningful to some photographers.
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