Which wideangle zoom....?

specialman

specialman

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Pat MacInnes
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Okay, so I’ve capitulated on whether wide-angles are any good or not, and thrown caution to the wind – this month’s mortgage payment is going on a wide-angle zoom!

A few of you may have read that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the Sigma 10-20mm in terms of it’s image quality around the edge but it really does have price on its side and let’s face it, price is a massive part of the buying process (or at least it is for me). However, I also have the other options of the Tamron 11-18mm, Nikon 12-24mm and the Tokina 11-16mm, the latter of which is the one that’s caught me eye the most, although I'm struggling to find a UK stockist.

The Nikon is a wildcard, as I don’t think I can afford the near-£600 price tag, even if it a Nikon lens and that it apparently produces great images. The prices of the others are much more up my street though.

Maximum aperture is a big thing for me, as I tend to shoot a lot of low light stuff in my job working on a fishing mag. The Sigma is f/4 wide open, and the Tamron is f/4.5 – not brilliant but adequate. The Tokina on the other hand is a constant f/2.8 all the way through the (much) shorter zoom range. Anyone care to supply a test image showing edge sharpness on the Tokina when wide open at 11mm? I know wide-angle’s are always gong to be a bit fuzzy around the edge when wide open, but a constant f/2.8 gives me room to breath that the others lens won’t give me with their slower max apertures. Plus, with my images regularly going front cover and A4 inside the mag, I need a lens that’ll not compromise on image quality – am I on the right track with the Tokina?

Of course, I also haven’t mentioned the Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye. I take it this isn’t a corrected lens in the same way the others are and will display a fisheye perspective rather than corrected verticals etc? I was also keen on the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye but with it being limited in terms of how much I can use it in magazine work (it’ll look repetitive when used too often), I think this may be a buy for later in the year.

I’m sure I’ll have forgotten to mention something so feel free to pick my comments apart!! :)
 
I'd be taking a very close look at the tokina 11-16. It might be cheap bit of tat but reducing the zoom range and opening up the aperture is saying all the right things to me about how a lens should be designed.

The Nikon does have a great reputation and I suspect that if you went down this route (would that be 2 months mortgage? ;) ) you'd get most of what you're paying.
 
Those tokina samples are quite impressive. The road surface at the bottom of the fiat 500 shot is quite a good place to go pixel peeping.
 
I have had the 11-16 for a couple of weeks now and have been pleased with it so far.

There are some shots on here that you may find of interest.

I haven't tried any of your other suggestions so can't provide any sort of useful comparison.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Going against the majority, I was never happy with my sigma 10-20. Have recently read somewhere (canot find it now), that my Circular Polarizer (£160 - :( ) might have been causing my soft image issues?

Almost certainly user error, so grain of salt etc etc.

Gary.
 
hmmm I didn't relise there were this many wide zooms.. I was only considering a sigma 10-20 although the tokina and tamron is very appealing for the price.
 
ab$olut said:
hmmm I didn't relise there were this many wide zooms.. I was only considering a sigma 10-20 although the tokina and tamron is very appealing for the price.
Click to expand...

TP is a very 'pro' Sigma site, especially when it comes to the 10-20mm. The Tokina certainly looks to be the ebst of the bunch, as it's got the zoom range that fits in nicly with my 18-70mm Nikon zoom, has a good max aperture and is only £60 or so more than the current favourite, the Sigma 10-2mm.
 
specialman said:
I was also keen on the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye but with it being limited in terms of how much I can use it in magazine work (it’ll look repetitive when used too often), I think this may be a buy for later in the year.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that you can 'unwarp' the 10.5 fisheye in Nikon Capture software if you want. The following image (not the best I know but one I had quickly to hand) is in three forms, normal, unwarped and 'unwarped including areas without image data':

Normal:
fisheyetest01.jpg


Unwarped:
fisheyetest02.jpg


Unwarped (retaining all data):
fisheyetest03.jpg


Flashy
 
If it's just the 10-20 that's not your favourite, can I lob the Sigma 12-24 into the mix? Especially with the possibility of a FF Nikon X00 in the next year or 2, Dx lenses might not be the way to go. It's a bit more expensive than the 10-20 (quite a big bit) but cheaper than the Nikkor (which is Dx anyway). Being a FF lens, the 12-24 uses the "sweet spot" on Dx sensors too.
 
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