10-24mm F4 OR 16mm F1.4?

[EvG]

got both, whichever you pick, you will be happy, but here is my advice:

 

pick 10-24 if:

- you take a lot of shots as a tourist

- you travel with friends, and are active

- you take some videos (VR)

- you want to shoot ultrawide (tight indoors, funky perspective)

 

pick 16 if:

- this lens has great rendering and bokeh for a 24 equiv, so taking portraits is an option, especially if you got kids 

- you often take pics at low light, or indoors

- you want to experiment with astro (not perfect lens for that, but it does the job)

- you travel with a tripod, alone or with someone that will let you take your time to compose frames with your feet

 

I've had 10-24 first, picked up 16 later on. I never take them both when I'm out shooting, rather pick the one that will suit conditions better. Not planning on selling either.

 

If I had to choose between the two.. hmm.. maybe the 16, but I just got my xt2 and plan to shoot more video with it, so things may change.

IMO just get the one that you can get cheaper and used in good condition.

 

some shots with 10-24: https://evgreen.exposure.co/maras-kaleidoscope

[Hermelin]

I'm kinda on the fence on this one as well.

 

Everyone rave about the 16 f/1.4 sharpness but looking at lenstip resolutions graphs comparing the 2 the 10-24 seems equally sharp @ f/4 and 5.6 in the centre.

 

Here's the 16. "On further stopping down the resolution improves and its peak can be noticed by f/4.0, where you see almost 70 lpmm"

 

 

And here's the 10-24

 

 

"By f/4.0 and f/5.6 (so near the maximum relative aperture) you get 69-70 lpmm so a level worth of a good quality fixed-focal lens. For a difficult construction such as a zoom lens it is a really excellent achievement"

[Hermelin]

Which one you rather use if you also wanna be able to do some occasional candid shot of family? I already have the 35 and 90 for this and I know it's not why you get a wideangle but it's still doable.

16 f/1.4 blows out the background better than 24 @ f/4 but 24 is a better focal lenght for shots of people.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Hermelin

[Nero]

I've never been real big on looking at numerical test results for lenses. Based on my personal experience owning both, the 16mm is quite visibly sharper than the 10-24mm when I open the files and compare as I process my images. I own and use both, so I do like the 10-24mm for some situations. If you want to maximize the sharpness from the 10-24, turn off the stabilization whenever conditions allow you to do so. The edge and corner sharpness drops off pretty fast once the stabilization really starts to kick in. So if sharpness is an important concern, you definitely want boost your ISO to get the shutter speed up and not rely on the stabilization whenever possible. Being so wide, you can get away with much slower speeds anyhow, so it's not a big loss.