I'm an ultawide "freak" and have tried several different ones on my D300. Without question, the best one is the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8. Sorry I couldn't vote in your poll.
Sigma 8-16 is in a class by itself, if you can handle ultra wide this is it!
Difference between 8 mm and 11mm is significant.
here is shot by this lense.
tjny wrote:
Sigma 8-16 is in a class by itself, if you can handle ultra wide this is it!
Difference between 8 mm and 11mm is significant.
here is shot by this lense.
BTW, these aren't just ordinary buildings. This is Astor Place in Manhattan; to the left is The Cooper Union building where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous 1860 address on slavery that probably resulted in his winning the presidency, to the far right there is a white façade building that to its immediate left, is a building with collonades and dates from 1815 (old by New York standards); this is all that remains from a longer row of New York City's first purpose-built apartment complex. In one is a theatre that houses the original Blue Man Group. The cube in the foreground is meant to be rotated, often by visiting tourists or bored homeless people.
The Nikon 12-24 has the least distortion of all of them, with excellent image quality.
The Tokina 12-24 nearly matches the Nikon 12-24 in every category except for price, it costs much less.
Tokina also makes the excellent 11-16 which is a constant 2.8 aperture (although not really useful for landscape/scenery).
And finally the best ULTRAwide option is the Nikon 10-24. Not constant aperture, but excellent image quality abeit some distortion and price is a little high).
I would pick any of these four over any of the ones on your list. Regarding your list, the 14-24 does not accept threaded filters which rules it out immediately in my book. Finally you're paying A LOT (both in terms of dollars & weight) to have that constant 2.8 aperture which once again is practically useless for landscape photography. There are a lot better choices for a lot less weight & money.
Great distortion control, awesome build quality (Nikkor-ish), and the constant 2.8 is great. I use it indoors, and am excited to bring it on my trip to New York City.
talexander wrote:
Ok, so let me throw this out there, photozone review of 11-16 2.8 didn't seem so glowing why is it the best WA?
It's not as wide as 8-16/10-20, it seems to have relatively high CA, and is so-so sharp?
F2.8 on a wide angle doesn't mean much to be as I'll shoot F8 most of the time.
Tim
PZ test lenses at close focusing distances, lenses behave quite differently when focused close to infinity. Thats why shooting test charts with wide angles is pretty useless. In real world Tokina 11-16 is very sharp corner to corner at f4 to f8 and quite usable on indoor shots at 2.8 when corner to corner sharpness is not that important (corners will be out of focus anyway)
Apr 05, 2012 at 07:11 AM
Andre Labonte Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Two23 wrote:
I'm an ultawide "freak" and have tried several different ones on my D300. Without question, the best one is the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8. Sorry I couldn't vote in your poll.
I did try that lens for a day, and it's not as good as the Tokina. First, that f2.8 is very hard to give up! Nice, bright viewfinder even in low light. Second, the build quality of the Tokina is more solid. Third, the tokina, a 1.5x lens, handles straight lines better than the Nikon, a 2.4x lens. If there was a better ultrawide than the tokina out there, I'd own it. I've already owned and sold the Sigma 10-20mm and original Nikon 12-24mm.
talexander wrote:
Ok, so let me throw this out there, photozone review of 11-16 2.8 didn't seem so glowing why is it the best WA?
It's not as wide as 8-16/10-20, it seems to have relatively high CA, and is so-so sharp?
F2.8 on a wide angle doesn't mean much to be as I'll shoot F8 most of the time.
The f2.8 is a HUGE advantage as it gives you more capability. I shoot trains at night with mega flash set ups, something that can really create CA. The CA on the tokina is no more than what I get with my $1,200 Nikon 17-55mm f2.8. The tokina is in a class by itself overall, Not even Nikon makes an equivalent, at least not for DX.
