In dire need of 20mm viewfinder... and cheap

[6x9]

The problem is that I don't like ultra wide distortion.

I had a 17-40 from canon. The thing is huge, the quality is OK, but it makes the lines curvy. For some reason, when I have a fridge in the corner of my photo, I like it to be straight. It's very important to me.

There's a distagon 21mm from zeiss, but I'd have to live 10 years on noodles to save up for it.

Get a C Biogon T* 4,5/21 ZM. I own one and love it.
"and exhibits virtually no distortion" This is true for the most part. Plus it is small and the finder is the best.

Unless you are getting a TS-E from Canon, you are going to end up in distortion world.

The Distagon T* 21mm F2.8 has a lot of distortion so I don't know why you mentioned it and not wanting distortion together.

 

[Andrey]

Get a C Biogon T* 4,5/21 ZM. I own one and love it.
"and exhibits virtually no distortion" This is true for the most part. Plus it is small and the finder is the best.

Unless you are getting a TS-E from Canon, you are going to end up in distortion world.

The Distagon T* 21mm F2.8 has a lot of distortion so I don't know why you mentioned it and not wanting distortion together.

Oh, I didn't mean to mention distagon in reference to "no distortion"

It's just many regard it as the ultimate SLR wide angle, so I mentioned it in regards to the "it's easier to compose via SLR viewfinder"

 

[clayne]

I used the 18mm Distagon for a while - didn't find it anything special compared to the well-known Nikkor WA lenses out there. It was a decent lens though - but relative worth surely didn't match price.

 

[6x9]

Do you know of any point and shoots with a 20mm lens?

The only one I know is vivitar wide and slim.

Ricoh GR 21 has a 21mm lens.

 

[Andrey]

Ricoh GR 21 has a 21mm lens.

I looked at ebay. Apparently only 4000 were ever made and they range from 1000 to 1500$

That's more than my whole film camera collection.

 

[michaelbsc]

Do you know of any point and shoots with a 20mm lens?

The only one I know is vivitar wide and slim.

I just asked them for a bag of old bodies, and searched through them looking through the viewfinders one at a time.

Get one with a decent image size wider than you need, and then judicious use of a black Sharpie on the plastic objective lens will give you the proper format.

I'll grant you that this a very inelegant solution. But elegance costs money.

 

[Andrey]

I just asked them for a bag of old bodies, and searched through them looking through the viewfinders one at a time.

Get one with a decent image size wider than you need, and then judicious use of a black Sharpie on the plastic objective lens will give you the proper format.

I'll grant you that this a very inelegant solution. But elegance costs money.

I might have to just bite the bullet once I test the lens.