Advice on a wide angle/fisheye nikon fit lens for walkabout?

velonoir

velonoir

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Dougie
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Hi all, quite new to the forum and currently re-evaluating my lens set. Plan to get hold of an 18-200 VR and sell off my mid-zoom lens (18-55, 18-135 and 70-300) to unclutter myself. However I'm also very keen to get a wide-angle or fisheye lens.
After the VR is bought budget will be a bit tight so probably heading to ebay or waiting to see what comes up here but I'll be looking to spend around £250. The lenses I've been considering are the sigma 10-20 or tokina 12-24 given they often go for around my budget. Not sure which to go for though. I like the idea that the sigma will give me a wider shot and less overlap with my other lens nut have heard the tokina has better build quality and if I'm using it for walkabout stuff maybe the 24mm end will be more useful? Anyone had both and able to offer a feeling on whether the extra 2mm at the wide end on the sigma is noticable or build quality felt like it would be an issue?
I've also been considering the samyang 8mm but haven't seen much about it.

Any thoughts, opinions or alternative suggestions are welcome.
 
If you like the effect that a fisheye lens gives then the Tokina 10-17mm is an excellent choice, but fisheyes aren't really "walkabout" lenses and the novelty can wear off pretty quick - I think my old 10-17 has been resold on here, in pretty quick succession at least twice since I parted with it....
 
First thing you need to decide is fisheye or normal wide, I have the siggy 15mm fisheye but it's use is limited to fun and to be honest I hardly use it, if that's what you want then you may be lucky (I was) to pick one up second hand for your £250, if you decide on the wide option then you wouldn't be dissapointed with either of the 2 your looking at, I have a feeling that you'll find the 18-200 to be the better walkaround lens and if it was me I'd be looking for the sigma 10-20
 
I think I should have been clearer, if I went down the fisheye route it would be something I'd treat more as a special use lens or walkabout specifically looking for interesting perspective shots, the 18-200 would be the main walkabout lens. I guess my issue is that I haven't had the opportunity to try either of the wide-angle lenses I'm looking for. It needs to be a something compatible with the DX format camera so I'm guessing the zenitar or peleng are pointless as they'll just end up being a about a 15mm equivalent in DX. Can anyone say whether they really noticed the extra width the 10mm on the sigma gives incomparison to the tokina? The tokina 10-17 is something I hadn't thought much about but they seem to come up pretty infrequently used. Any reason the tokina 10-17 would be a better bet than the sigma 10-20? better build. Sorry for all the questions but I've not been able to lay my hands on any of these lenses to physically look at or tey out.
 
This was shot with the 10-17mm fisheye at 13mm on my D70s....

2559804306_27f9067aae.jpg



Edit: iirc I cropped this one a bit, the owner of the shadow on the left was in the pic and looking a bit of an odd shape due to being right at the edge of the frame :lol:
 
I have the Pentax 10-17mm which is basically the same lens as the Tokina and it has hardly been out since I bought it. Over the last few days though I have been using it almost all the time, going out with just this lens to try and get more use out of it. A couple of shots taken in the last few days.





It's actually great fun trying to get a subject that works well with the fishyness of the lens but I should think you would get bored quite quickly were it to get overused.
 
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