Originally Posted by scotttharobot

not really.

Depth of field is sort of hard to accomplish with wide angles, as you are traditionally capturing many subjects within a scene, and having them all in focus is traditionally desirable.

i'm a low light nut, as I don't have an external flash, and prefer the look of natural lighting. I was pretty hesitant buying a slow lens, but remember, exposure is a blend of ISO, Aperture, and shutter speed.

being a lens, we can get rid of ISO as a part of the equation. the lens has nothing to do with ISO. so, the elements of exposure that still apply are aperture and shutter speed.

traditionally, with mid-range zooms and such, the only way for a lens to be a low light performer (without optical stabilization of some sort) is to have a fast aperture (f/2.8 or better, for example).

applying the rule of 1/focal length for a minimum shutter speed to minimize camera shake, wide angles shine. at 10mm (with the 1.5x crop factor, 15mm on a DX body), shutter speeds of 1/15 sec are enough to eliminate most camera shake. this rule really makes sense when you're at 300mm, trying to keep the image stable. longer focal lengths require shorter shutter speeds.

so, therefore, the slower aperture (f/4-5.6) is negated by the focal length, allowing for slower shutter speeds.