Good luck with that Joe. Every wide angle lens I've ever used barrels up close, and I use nothing but the best equipment (not for shooting cars). If you want wide without barrel distortions you will need a tilt/shift lens. Canon probably has the most affordable wide angle tilt/shift at $2,400 (17mm T/S on B&H) followed by the 24mm T/S at $2,200.
I'm still not sold on using a D-SLR camera for vehicle product photos that are going to be reduced in size to 640 x 480 pixels (as Matt mentioned a few posts ago). It is just a superior waste of money. Virtually any Point & Shoot can handle the job just fine.
If I were buying a camera for outdoor product imagery that is going to get 5 million shutter clicks quickly, will be exposed to varying temperature changes, will be handled by a non-professional photographer, and genuinely will not be cared for this is exactly what I would buy:
Canon PowerShot SX210 IS Digital Camera (Black) 4246B001 B&H
Why? Because it satisfies exactly what you need to shoot vehicle photos that will look fantastic, and does not break the bank so you can easily replace it *when* you do break it.
The good when looking for a camera for this duty: What this camera has
Shake Control: Canon Image Stabilization
Optical Zoom Lens: 28 to 392mm (28 to 70mm is the range you're mostly at)
ISO adjustability: Yes - as low as 80 up to 1600. (ISO 200 is where I usually live)
Weight: Less than a pound
Size: Small enough to fit in my pants pocket when I need to pull trash or do some quick detail work on a car
Macro Capable: Yes
Flash: Yes and it has "Smart Flash" for more natural light ...main reason why I like this camera over others. Range is up to 3.51 meters...perfect.
Extra Battery Available: Yes
Things I don't care about:
Shutter Speed: All consumer camera are proficient here these days
Mega Pixels: This is not image quality as camera marketers want you to believe (quality comes from the lens). MP's are simply the size of the image outputted. You can make arguments for downsizing mixed with lens quality helps image quality, but I'm not going to listen to you. Your photos are downsized so much this really doesn't matter when today's consumer selection is only 6MP and up.
Video capability: Nice to have, but this camera is for taking photos of cars. I'll buy a video camera for video if I want to go there.
RAW file output: This is an absolute must have feature for me on my personal cameras that are not used for shooting cars, but RAW processing adds time to the process. Time is something most dealers don't have.
White balance modes: If you understand it, maybe. The "Auto" setting is pretty damn accurate these days.
