New Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 wide-angle lens

Arciphel

Any wide angle junkies out there thinking about investing in one of these when they come out over here sometime later in the summer? I ordered one today on eBay for my D300, couldn't wait any longer. It's getting some good reviews and hopefully the f2.8 will let me do some handheld low light stuff that wasn't possible with the Sigma 10-20mm without a tripod.

AnimalRights

1st time to see this site and er...

"I do this because I love to share. I dream about what I'm going to write all night, then get up at 6AM and hit the keyboard at 6:30AM and don't stop till my wife pulls me off."



/edit

I like the guys enthusiasm but he needs to stfu about donations and what he does for free etc etc
jeez

Thirdfox

How many degrees do you lose with that 1mm difference?

Freddie59

Arciphel wrote: »

Any wide angle junkies out there thinking about investing in one of these when they come out over here sometime later in the summer? I ordered one today on eBay for my D300, couldn't wait any longer. It's getting some good reviews and hopefully the f2.8 will let me do some handheld low light stuff that wasn't possible with the Sigma 10-20mm without a tripod.

I've got the Tokina 12-24 model Absolutely love it. I posted a couple taken with it in this thread earlier today.

Arciphel

Animal Rights, I am shocked you are not already familiar with Mr Rockwell's flowery prose! You need to brush up immediately!

Thirdfox, just checked the websites and it says the Tokina has 104 degrees of coverage vs. Sigma's 102.4 degrees. I'm confused!

Freddie, The 12-24 is a lovely lens. A friend of mine has it and i borrowed it on a few occasions, apparantley this 11-16mm is based on that lens but they have sacrficed zoom range for sharpness and speed on this one.

When I get it i'll post up some pics, ordered it today and should have it by end of next week from japan. :pac::pac:

Freddie59

Arciphel wrote: »

Animal Rights, I am shocked you are not already familiar with Mr Rockwell's flowery prose! You need to brush up immediately!

Thirdfox, just checked the websites and it says the Tokina has 104 degrees of coverage vs. Sigma's 102.4 degrees. I'm confused!

Freddie, The 12-24 is a lovely lens. A friend of mine has it and i borrowed it on a few occasions, apparantley this 11-16mm is based on that lens but they have sacrficed zoom range for sharpness and speed on this one.

When I get it i'll post up some pics, ordered it today and should have it by end of next week from japan. :pac::pac:

Nice one! Looking forward to seeing them.:)

Freddie59

AnimalRights wrote: »

1st time to see this site and er...

"I do this because I love to share. I dream about what I'm going to write all night, then get up at 6AM and hit the keyboard at 6:30AM and don't stop till my wife pulls me off."



/edit

I like the guys enthusiasm but he needs to stfu about donations and what he does for free etc etc
jeez

Em....am I missing something here?:o:)

Thirdfox

I believe that Ani is referring to Ken Rockwell...

soccerc

Got the new Nikon 14-24 2.8 the other day.

Have taken a few shots and impressed so far but the subjects can get a little scared as you are almost in their face.

Quick and sharp piece of glass

Thirdfox

So absolutely jealous - although it would look comical mounted on my D40

What are you planning to do about filters? Do you use them with WA anyway?

Arciphel

Another review of this new lens that I have come across, on a Canon body.

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/Canon%20EOS%20Lens%20Tests/379-tokina_1116_28_canon

I shoot off a D300, which will automatically take out the chromatic abberation so not too worried about that.

Duchovny

It looks very good.

I was considering this one but in the end i bought the canon 10-22 arrived today so i will see and then post some pictures

Arciphel

Duchovny, I hear that lens is an absolute cracker, let's see some wide angle goodness!

melekalikimaka

10.5 2.8 all the way...one day i'll have enough money for it

Arciphel

melekalikimaka wrote: »

10.5 2.8 all the way...one day i'll have enough money for it

well i was going to go for that lens too, but i think the fisheye aspect could get very tiring very quickly, unless you want to post process all your shots to correct them. Love the ultra wide angle though, so we'll see how this lens performs.

Arciphel

Update - well, the lens arrived today from japan via ebay and didn't get stuck for any taxes or customs which was great. I've taken it out and popped it onto the D300 and taken a few test shots, looks good and I don't have any problems focussing at infinity or uneven focus from left to right of the frame like some others have reported. I'll take some shots with it over the weekend and stick them up on flickr, unless anyone has any specific questions about it. Happy so far, image is lovely & bright in the viewfinder thanks to the f2.8 ;-)

Arciphel

OK took this out over the weekend and grabbed a few shots with it wandering around dublin , the set on flickr is here - Tokina 11-16mm f2.8

Some quick notes -

- I don't miss the extra 1mm at the wide end from the Sigma 10-20mm at all.
- Exposure seems to be more accurate with this than the Sigma 10-20mm.
- very useable at f2.8, maybe not at the extreme edges but in the centre it's still very sharp.
- Stepped down to f8 or f11 it's insanely sharp, will be great for nighttime landscape / architecture shots, which is why i bought it.
- Chromatic abberation is noticeable but i shoot in RAW and this is easily dealt with in lightroom. It's only visible at the extreme edges of the frame below f4.
- Build quality is excellent, unlike the Sigma you can actually get the lens cap off with the hood still on. AF-MF pull ring works well.
- No vignetting at 11mm, even with normal thickness UV filter and Cokin Z-pro wideangle holder (1 filter) in place.

Ricky91t

Nice review there
and nice set on flickr

Freddie59

Arciphel wrote: »

OK took this out over the weekend and grabbed a few shots with it wandering around dublin , the set on flickr is here - Tokina 11-16mm f2.8

Some quick notes -

- I don't miss the extra 1mm at the wide end from the Sigma 10-20mm at all.
- Exposure seems to be more accurate with this than the Sigma 10-20mm.
- very useable at f2.8, maybe not at the extreme edges but in the centre it's still very sharp.
- Stepped down to f8 or f11 it's insanely sharp, will be great for nighttime landscape / architecture shots, which is why i bought it.
- Chromatic abberation is noticeable but i shoot in RAW and this is easily dealt with in lightroom. It's only visible at the extreme edges of the frame below f4.
- Build quality is excellent, unlike the Sigma you can actually get the lens cap off with the hood still on. AF-MF pull ring works well.
- No vignetting at 11mm, even with normal thickness UV filter and Cokin Z-pro wideangle holder (1 filter) in place.

Nice shots Paul. Looks like a great lens!:)

AnimalRights

I find most of the pictures have being "tampered" with too much, would like to see the originals.

Dink

And I'm the opposite! I think the processing on them is very well done! Nice shots, enjoy the new lens.

mrmac

Any update on this lense Archipel?
Are you still using it? How's it performing on the D300?
Torn between the Sigma 10-20, Nikon 12-24 or this Tokina 11-16.

mehfesto2

Me too.
Is it 2.8 throughout the range though?

MagicMarker

mrmac wrote: »

Any update on this lense Archipel?
Are you still using it? How's it performing on the D300?
Torn between the Sigma 10-20, Nikon 12-24 or this Tokina 11-16.

Can't speak for the Nikon, but by all accounts the Tokina is streets ahead of the Sigma. I have one and love it.

Yes it's 2.8 throughout the range.

quilmore

my 2 cents
it's a great lens
in a D300 is superb, sharp even wide open
incredible contrasts and colours, love that lens
I've moved on to a D700 and the lens still works, albeit at 15-16mm only
I may sell it because it's not worth keeping it for using it just at the end of the zoom scale
so far I haven't published it because it performs beautifully even in full frame and one day will do as arciphel did and publish it to fund the buy of the 14-24mm

mrmac

Thanks for the info. Appreciate the review from someone who also has a D300.

quilmore wrote: »

.... one day will do as arciphel did and publish it to fund the buy of the 14-24mm

I keep an eye out for you!

Arciphel

Howdy lads,

Yeah I don't have this lens any more, I sold it on adverts.ie to a guy who was going to be using it on a D2X, didn't make sense hanging onto it when I went to full frame. But for DX it is awesome, but maybe beaten slightly now by the new Nikon 10-24mm lens...

I used some of the cash to fund the Nikon 14-24mm AF-S. Which is the best lens I own But for anyone shooting on a DX body I don't think you can justify buying the 14-24/f2.8 when you are only using the DX image circle.

Like there is a guy I know on flickr with a D3x (maybe he posts on here too?) and he is using the D3x in DX crop mode (at about 7MP) with a Sigma 10-20mm DX lens on it. I don't understand the logic at work here...