Pros: Strong, sharp, cheap relative to the "name brand" Canon/Nikon lenses
Cons: Doesn't come with silent ultrasonic motor, hefty size/weight
The Bottom Line: Strong built quality. Sharp. Cheap. Useful zoom range. But if you don't mind a slower max aperture and/or want larger zoom range, try the alternatives listed above.
aloofyouth's Full Review: Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX For Canon
This lens review is for the Nikon mount but it's identical to the Canon mount lens except that the Canon mount has a built-in motor whereas the Nikon mount lens utilizes the "screw drive" that all Nikon cameras have EXCEPT for the D40/40x/60. I don't know why epinions lists only the Canon version of this lens, but whatever, they are identical except for the note above.
Pros:
- Tokina is not as well known as Canon or Nikon, and they are way behind in developing an IS/VR image stabilization system and ultrasonic motors, but they are an old Japanese firm that make good glass and has good quality control.
- FAST GLASS! An aperture of f/2.8 is usually excessive and you will want to stop this down to f/8 for landscapes to broaden the depth of field so as to have almost everything in focus, but the big advantage of f/2.8 is that it is possible to take indoors photos without flash and without cranking up the ISO to the point of graininess. Also, f/2.8 means you can have a shallower depth of field for artistic close-up shots if you want.
- 11-16mm is a useful range for crop sensors. On the Canon APS-C EF-S format (the format that all Digital Rebels use as well ad the XXD series), 11-16mm translates to 18-26mm in 35-mm equivalent terms. On the Nikon DX format, it translates to 16.5-24mm in 35-mm equivalent terms. (Dirty little secret: you can even use this lens on a full frame body, though you get heavy vignetting if you get out of the 15-16mm range.)
- Sharpness is excellent all across the frame, though don't expect miracles at f/2.8; it will still have significant corner softness if you shoot wide open.
- Vignetting (dark corners) even wide open at 11mm isn't that bad, and you can always clean it up in photoshop.
- Uses the industry standard 77mm filter ring size, though it's plastic threaded so try not to screw/unscrew repeatedly.
- This lens is strong and has plenty of metal for durability. I literally dropped this lens, unintentionally, onto an aluminum bleachers seat from about 3 feet up. The metal construction held up beautifully as the lens wasn't scratched or dented, though the lens cap flew off and the edge of the lens cap got screwed up pretty badly. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR ANYWHERE ELSE!
- 9-bladed aperture for nice, round out-of-focus blur (bokeh).
- Cheap relative to "name brand" lenses by Nikon and Canon. For instance, the Nikon 12-24mm f/4 is a slower lens and isn't even sharper, but costs nearly twice as much as the Tokina!
Cons:
- Not intended for use with full-frame cameras, only APS-C/DX format sensors like the Canon Digital Rebel series, Canon XXD series, Nikon D200/300, or Nikon DXX series. But you probably already knew this if you own a full-frame SLR.
- Kind of thick and heavy. 560 grams is almost 1.25 pounds. It can barely fit in my camera bag, which has pockets designed for thinner lenses, but that's the price you pay for this great lens, I guess. On the plus side, it's only 9cm long (less than 4 inches).
- You get a small but noticeable amount of distortion once you move away from 16mm down to 11mm; it gets VERY noticeable if you are shooting at 11mm at straight-line subjects like buildings. This is fixable in photoshop but could be annoying if you must have straight lines in all your photos. Landscape photographers probably don't care since they don't shoot buildings often.
- Chromatic aberration (purple fringing in high-contrast areas like bright sun peeking around treebranches) is a bit worse than average but fixable in photoshop. It's also auto-corrected in the newer Nikon cameras (D90, D300, etc.).
- The lens cap doesn't lend itself easily to taking it off with the lens hood attached, but you can do it, just not as easily as with Nikon lens caps.
Other:
- Wideangle is great for distorted closeups and accentuating depth of field; it exaggerates distances near the center especially. And this lens is WIDE. 11mm may not sound much wider than, say, a 18-55mm kit lens, but 11 divided by 18 is .61. You can get almost 40% wider by using this lens at 11mm rather than a kit lens at 18mm! And with a minimum focusing distance of about a foot, you can get up close and personal.
- This lens flares, but what wideangle doesn't? It's not any worse than other wideangle lenses.
- Autofocus was noisy but successful, though it's hard for a wideangle to NOT be in focus since you have such huge depth of field. To manual focus, you have a "clutch" mechanism where you push/pull the focus ring. There is a marking painted on the lens barrel to help you remember which is A(utomatic) and which is M(anual) focus.
Bottom Line:
- I recommend this lens with caveats:
-- If you KNOW you won't need f/2.8, because all you ever shoot is landscapes or other stuff at f/4 or slower, you may want to try to Tokina 12-24mm instead and save a hundred or two bucks.
--Also, if you KNOW you need even wider lens range, you may want to try the Sigma 10-20mm. Beware that the Sigma is a slower lens, but it's a worthy alternative for about the same money as the Tokina 12-24mm.
--If you do NOT need the extra wide end, especially if you hate changing lenses, you will want to move up a step and get something less-wide with a bigger zoom range, like the Tokina 12-24mm. That 1mm on the wide end is not going to impress you if you never shoot at 11mm anyway, and you'd add an extra 8mm to the tele end.
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