I'm fairly new to photography and and recently purchased this lens.
I tried it for some sunset pics and lower light situations at F/2.8 and find the lens to be unusable. Not sharp at all.
I've tried it again shooting some landscapes with the sun in the background and the flaring with this lens is awful. Not only that, I tried shooting F/8 and still think it's not that sharp. I feel my kit lens is sharper.
I'm shooting with a D90.
My question is, does anyone else have this lens and being that I'm a beginner, is there something I'm doing wrong here?
Any pointers?

Thanks in advance.
-Todd

i dont know alot about that lens in specific Todd, but many feel that 3rd party lens makers have a lower quality control system and therefore need to be "calibrated". At 2.8 alot will be soft or out of focus. at f8 though things should be pretty snappy. I would suggest ruling out user error, mount it to a tripod and/or use a suitable shutter speed to guarantee theres no camera shake.

also, post up a sample or 2 for review for indepth help

well not sure what to say here.....

If I need a lens that I cant get from Nikon or it is not for my budget I turn to Tokina. I have never had any problems with them. They make great quality lenses - optically and build quality on and out.
Back in a days I had that lens and had no problems with anything that you describing.

Maybe you could post some pictures what happen and we can look at it


Here is one photo that I took

I tried 3 separate Tokina 11-16s and finally gave up on it. Everyone seems to rave about it and QC is usually not an issue at Tokina, moreso Sigma. My copies overexposed and were not as sharp as my Tokina 12-24 f/4 when wide open....

I often use this lens on D80 and D300 and haven't had the problems you mention. As for flare, I use the lens a lot to photo oncomming trains. Usually if anything can cause a lens to flare it's that! When someone starts talking about sharpness, I always ask what tripod you are using? I use a Gitzo 1325, which is very solid, and don't have problems with sharpness. I also check the focus accuracy of a lens when I first receive it. I use a tripod for this, of course.


Kent in SD

Here's an old thread from when this lens first came out http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/642312

If you scroll down there are a couple of shots at f5.6. That's not wide open, but it's a couple of stops down. The lens is pretty sharp. These were shot from a tripod.

See if you can post a couple.

Strange. I use this on my D200 and find it to be one of my sharpest lens even wide open. I compared it against my sigma prime at f2.8 and the Tokina is sharper.

shooting into the sun isn't a good place to start, keep it at 45 degrees at most. out of frame. it's not sharp maby because you are focusing at the wrong place, try focusing 1/3 down the frame. if this doesn't work your not mad and youv'e a duff lens.

I really appreciate the responses. You folks here are very helpful.

I live on the west coast of Florida and bought the lens for some sunset opportunities and I also travel all over and wanted something wide.

I will say, both times I tried the lens I did not use a tripod. When I travel, I go by vehicle. So pulling out the tripod everytime I want to use this lens is a pain n the butt. I also tried a shutter speed as high as 320 and I just wasn't too happy.
I have a Manfrotto 055XPRO and the 488rc2. I'll have to give it a try.

I'm in west Texas right now and saw something to shoot the other day. The sun was coming down and I tried moving at a bunch of different angles and couldn't lose the flare. It seems the sun has to be very low in the sky or completely out of frame. Kinda sucks for the purpose of why I got the lens.

I need to learn how to put pics up here so I can show you guy's what I'm talking about.

I'll keep messing around with it. Maybe I just need some more learning. Thanks again.

capttcb wrote:

1. I will say, both times I tried the lens I did not use a tripod. When I travel, I go by vehicle. So pulling out the tripod everytime I want to use this lens is a pain n the butt. I also tried a shutter speed as high as 320 and I just wasn't too happy.
I have a Manfrotto 055XPRO and the 488rc2. I'll have to give it a try.

2. I'm in west Texas right now and saw something to shoot the other day. The sun was coming down and I tried moving at a bunch of different angles and couldn't lose the flare. It seems the sun has to be very low in the sky or completely out of frame. Kinda sucks for the purpose of why I got the lens.

.


1. Shutter = 1/320 isn't all that fast. I usually want at least 1/500 if trying to handhold, and 1/1000 if I can get it. There are some great travel tripods out there by Benro now.

2. Shooting into the sun is a huge challenge for any wide angle lens. My Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 is no better than the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 with that one.


Kent in SD

And a monopod is a decent substitute if weight is a problem; combine a mono with a handy tree for bracing, and you have a light tripod.

I have owned both the 11–16 and the 12–24, and feel the latter is the better lens. cheers, kl

there might be a problem with your specific copy (can we see pictures ?) but most extreme wide angle zooms exhibit quite some flare when the sun is in the picture or close to it (even the wonderful 14-24 will give you flare). And regarding shutter speed, this is almost irrelevant for a wide zoom. I get perfectly sharp pictures hand held at speed lower than 1/30 sec sometimes even slower than 1/10 sec... by night.
I cannot imagine that your shutter speed is an issue if you shoot into the sun !
The problem could also be an AF issue if you don't focus on the right point... on the other hand @f8 the DOF is so large that it shouldn't be an issue.

Guy

my 11-16mm tokina is a cracking lens. whilst its not as sharp as my 17-35 2.8 nikkor (big price difference) its still a very sharp lens, and I use it all the time for interiors and exteriors of buildings

My 11-16 has been great, other than my 55 f2.8 macro the sharpest lens I have. But there have been problems with QC and this lens. If it is still under warranty I would send it to THK for repair. Others have done this and been very satisfied.
But, test it with a tripod, with autofocus mine seems very accurate but the focus ring never hits infinity. If you crank the focusing ring to infinity, the lens is not sharp. I just leave it on autofocus, and I do very well with the lens. I have thought about sending the lens in, but it is too good as it is, don't want to mess it up.
The lens has huge potential and worth repairing.

Tom

if you can't hand-hold an ultra-wide angle shot at 1/320, i shudder to think of the shutter-speeds you use for any kind of telephoto work.

with my nikon 10.5mm fisheye, hand-holding is not a problem at 1/40.

Two23 wrote:
1. Shutter = 1/320 isn't all that fast. I usually want at least 1/500 if trying to handhold, and 1/1000 if I can get it. There are some great travel tripods out there by Benro now.

Kent in SD

The Tokina 11-16 has well documented sample variation problems. Further, it can be verified good one day and then turn bad the next — in the middle of a paying shoot (ask me how I know this).

My copy, after it turned evil, could not acquire focus in either auto focus or manual focus mode. I had it less than a week, replaced it with the Nikon 12-24 since I needed a lens that would most likely just work and I needed it in a hurry.

omeega wrote:
if you can't hand-hold an ultra-wide angle shot at 1/320, i shudder to think of the shutter-speeds you use for any kind of telephoto work.




I usually shoot using a tripod whenever practical. The reason is I will often crop several shots from one I like. Sometimes the crop is over 70%. The blur is there on wide angle shots, you just don't see it until you start enlarging (or cropping.) Also keep in mind where I live--the Northern Plains. Winds of 20+ mph are very common. This winter, once week they've been over 40+ mph (sustained.) Earlier this week I was blown down three times in one hour. I wouldn't have a chance without a tripod. I often sit on the ground with tripod legs not extended at all to get some shots.


Kent in SD

I had the lens and it was plenty sharp, even wide open. I remember hearing some of the early copies had problems. I'd say send it back with your complaints and it'll probably come back as sharp as they get. I think it's an excellent lens.

Ho1972 wrote:
The Tokina 11-16 has well documented sample variation problems. Further, it can be verified good one day and then turn bad the next — in the middle of a paying shoot (ask me how I know this).

My copy, after it turned evil, could not acquire focus in either auto focus or manual focus mode. I had it less than a week, replaced it with the Nikon 12-24 since I needed a lens that would most likely just work and I needed it in a hurry.

Never heard of it turning evil. Everything I had heard was where they had shipped from the factory without a shim that was causing it to be bad. Cant really see that "turning" on you.

OP, if its early enough send it back for another. If its too late send it into Tokina. The people who had reported issues said that Tokina was able to take care of it on the first try (probably installing that shim).

I would say try it on a tripod. Not saying you need to carry one with you all the time....just for testing sake.

Tripod. Timer release or cable release.

If it is soft then switch to live view on the tripod and use the older (slower but more accurate) contrast based focus.

If it still is not sharp, then you have a lens problem. If it is ONLY sharp in the live view mode...you have a lens calibration problem.

Roman

ryan stewart wrote:

Never heard of it turning evil. Everything I had heard was where they had shipped from the factory without a shim that was causing it to be bad. Cant really see that "turning" on you.


My guess is that the shim issue doesn't tell the whole story, i.e., there's more than one problem with this particular lens.

I received the 11-16 from B&H, took some test shots including a focus chart and did some extreme pixel peeping. Everything checked out. Two days later I took my verified good lens on a shoot. Somewhere during the early part of the day, it stopped focusing correctly. Unfortunately, I was only chipming now and then to check exposure. Only when I began working on the images did I discover that the vast majority of everything I shot with the 11-16 was unusable. I had to schedule a reshoot, which thankfully cost me only my time since no models or immediate deadlines were involved.

Testing it again, I discovered that I could not get a sharp frame by either auto focus or manual. My guess is that something inside the lens shifted. Would those magic shims have prevented this shift? Don't know, don't care. It's gone and that's that.