Autofocus zoom starting at 28mm are widely available on the after market and very often cheap (because widely available!). But you will certainly realise that with APS-C sensors, 28mm is too long. There is a big difference between 24mm and 28mm. 24mm is realy usable indoor and also good for landscape. Unfortunately 24mm was a rare focal lenght in the fim era. So zoom or prime lenses covering 24mm are expensive on the after market compared to their 28mm brothers. Have a look to this cute discontinued Sigma 24 Super Wide II f/2.8
This fast prime lens was also re-branded as Quantaray. The Quantaray version is less expensive but is the same. A photoline re-branded version was also available (but rare) in Europe.
I paid 50€ for my Sigma version:
The autofocus was very noisy on my Minolta D5D and on my Sony Alpha 700. But the autofocus was faster than with the kit zoom (18-70) because of the large aperture (f/2.8)
This lens was the competitor of the Minolta 24 f/2.8 (but was also available for other mount : NIKON...) that was maybe slighty better in terms of image quality and build quality. This is the reason why the Minolta is 3X more expensive. But it is no 3X better!
I was surprised by the image quality of this lens. The shapness was very good even on the 12MPIX Alpha 700 sensor. The sharpness was far better than with the kit zoom (Konica Minolta 18-70)! Color rendition was good, quite neutral.
This lens is metal built and the quality is very good. This is a compact an light lens : you will alway find empty space in your bag to carry it.
An other pro for this lens is the minimum focus distance: 180mm. An other is that this lens will be compatible with FullFrame DSLR.
This Sigma 24 is an excellent replacement for the kit zoom considering that 24 mm is wide enought for indoor, and f/2.8 aperture helps autofocus speed and accurancy and allows you to shoot in low light. 24 mm is also a good focal lenght (in my opinion) for landscape and because this lens is really sharp, then you have a nice fast prime lens for all your indoor shots and for landscape. Considering that, you will certainly no more use the kit lens provided with your DSLR. It was the case for me. That changed when I purchased the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 XR DI2. This zoom was at least as sharp and fast than the Sigma 24 Super Wide II f 2.8 and more versatile.
So I sold the Sigma 24 Super Wide II f 2.8 because it became useless for me. But I loved this lens!
