Just booked my flights for Iceland next month and I am literally shaking with excitement!! I've been saving up for this for like two years and I finally have my EOS R ready to go but I realized my kit lens is just not gonna cut it for those massive waterfalls and the black sand beaches. I need something wide, like really wide, to capture the scale of everything.

I've been scrolling through B&H and local shops for days now and I'm totally torn between a few options and my brain is kind of turning to mush trying to decide which way to go. I'm a bit of a comparison shopper so I've narrowed it down but every time I think I've picked one I find a reason to doubt myself.

Option A is the RF 14-35mm f/4L IS USM. This is the dream lens right? The 14mm is so wide and everyone says the L series glass is insane but man it's pricey. It's like $1300-1500 depending on the sale and that eats almost my entire remaining budget for the trip. Is the extra 1mm on the wide end really that different from a 15mm or 16mm? I've heard there is some crazy distortion that the camera fixes automatically but does that ruin the image quality at the edges?

Option B is the RF 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM. This one is way cheaper and lighter which would be great for hiking all day but I'm worried about that f/6.3 on the long end. Will it be sharp enough for those big landscape prints? I don't want to get home and realize everything looks soft because I cheaped out.

My constraints are basically:

• Budget: Trying to stay under $1400 but lower is better obviously so I can afford more gas for the rental car lol
• Use case: Huge landscapes, maybe some interior shots of those cool churches, and potentially some astro if I get lucky with the lights though I know f/4 isn't ideal for that
• Weight: I'm hiking a lot so lighter is better but image quality is still the top priority
• Timeline: Need to buy in the next 2 weeks to get some practice in before the flight

I'm leaning toward the 14-35mm and just eating ramen for a month to justify the cost but I keep wondering if the 15-30 is secretly 90% as good for half the price. Has anyone used both on the original EOS R body?