DX Wide angle zooms

After searching around the web and elsewhere I thought I would check with you guys.....It seems that the vote goes mostly for the Nikkor 10-24 even though it is way more expensive. Contenders are the Tokina 11-16 and Sigma 8-16.

Thoughts?

Oh, and I am thinking mostly landscapes; not too much indoors.

Thanks : )

I had the Nikon 10-24, it's a great lens. There are a few threads I started around here with sample images. Great center sharpness, softer on the edges. I liked the range of having 10-24, but the tokina may be sharper in the 11-16 range.

before Nikkor had this lens, I made do with the sigma 10-20,, was pretty happy with it.

I have the Tokina 11-16. It's awesome. LOVE IT! Built like a tank.

Wow, thanks for the replies.
Hmm, it seems that there is not as much consensus as I thought.

Allen-
Thanks for posting the very same question I have been pondering. Usually I love Nikkor glass but for the wide zoom for DX all the reviews point to the Tokina but I have never owned one before. I have been stalling on this purchase waiting, watching and reading!
Kathleen

Yep, I like the Nikkors as well, I was fortunate enough to "demo" the tokina before actually buying it. It is the only non-nikon brand lens I have, and I'm very happy with it.
Build quality is very good, It is maybe a little heavier, presumably because it is made of actual metal and glass.

Let me be the first to chime in and say that I absolutely love my Sigma 8-16mm. Just a hair more reach than the others and I've never once flinched on the IQ. The only thing I believe the other lenses have "over" it is a brighter aperture wide open (folks who want to use a lens for astrophotography will tell you that you don't want anything darker than f3.5) and probably more importantly that it accepts filters. If you're doing landscapes and want to slap on polarizers and ND filters then it's going to go a lot easier on you with the Tokina or Nikon, something I wish I'd thought of back then, but I wasn't quite "there yet" with my photography.

I love my tokina 11-16 II. I did tons of research on this lens before purchasing it. It just felt like the right one for me. All the information and videos where really helpful. One thing that helped me decide was to see the different examples from others on sites like flickr or facebook.

Thanks for all the, um perspectives... : )
In a very unscientific, informal survey the lens with the most votes is the Tokina 11-16.
This comes as a bit of a surprise.

One follow up question: what do you tend to use your lens for? What subject matter does it surprise you positively and negatively?

Allen said:

One follow up question: what do you tend to use your lens for? What subject matter does it surprise you positively and negatively?

Click to expand...

Where the skyscape meets the landscape. When start thinking "If only I could go a little wider/higher this would be perfect". When I love what I got but I know there's a still more out of the frame. When the view is BIG, or the view is too close to capture otherwise. When I want to frame a small subject in a big place (get close to them and show everything else around 'em. Interiors when you want to show the whole room without knocking down a wall.

Here are a couple examples, all shot with a D7000.

Two shots of the same waterfall. First at 28mm...
And again taken near the edge of the rock I'm standing on giving you what is essentially the upper-left 1/4 of the previous photo...


This one was taken of a small cabin from about 15 feet away. Could have gotten the cabin and not much else with a 24 or 24mm, and I could not move back more than another 5 feet.


Again, 2 feet back from here I start introducing too much sky or grass into the frame, so I need to consider cropping for a long and thin photo when that's not what I want/need...


There's nowhere I could possibly stand in this building and capture the interior with anything less wide...


And finally, a couple that word have worked just fine with a less wide angle, but became so much more grand when opened up to the 114 degrees of space in front of me.

Nice sky photo.. so... now that you have the D600,, do you find the D7000 collecting dust?

stmv said:

Nice sky photo.. so... now that you have the D600,, do you find the D7000 collecting dust?

Click to expand...

Absolutely not. My wife is a major bird nerd, so we spend a lot of time staring at trees and shrubs. A nice cropped sensor camera is great for birding. My Sigma 150-500mm would still be nice and sharp on the D600, but I'd spend a lot of time cropping photos given that it's acting like a 225-750mm on my D7000. The 8-16mm is a DX lens, so it buys me little on the D600, so if I'm out doing landscape stuff I can keep the 28mm or 50mm f1.8 on the D600 and the Sigma stays on the D7000. Saves me from swapping lenses. Before it got real cold I spent several chilly mornings in the field behind my house with the D600 on one tripod and the D7000 on another waiting on a sunrise. One of the truly nice things is that they both take the same battery, so it's not a lot to think about to have both bodies.

The D90, on the other hand, is sitting around a lot. Contemplated converting it to InfraRed, but then read about some issues shooting with that body in IR and RAW and decided I'd be better off sitting on it for a bit and tossing the money I'd spend on a conversion into the lens pool.

Backdoorhippie - I really like that lake shore shot, outstanding!!!

BackdoorHippie said:

Here are a couple examples, all shot with a D7000.

Click to expand...

Very nice, and interesting comparisons...so if you had to do it over again would you still go for the 8-16..or perhaps the Nikkor 10-24? ....rationale?

Thanks.

Allen said:

Very nice, and interesting comparisons...so if you had to do it over again would you still go for the 8-16..or perhaps the Nikkor 10-24? ....rationale?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I'd probably go with one of the other two options just because of the ability to add ND filters if I wanted to. If I had to pick one I'd say that the Tokina would win out just for the brighter lens for astro photography over the 1 extra degree of visibility. The D7000 has the autofocus motor, so I'd save some bucks over the Nikon getting the older version and invest that in the aforementioned filters or something else I think I need. LOL

Excellent shots Jake, you've got me missing an UW, next on the list!

Thanks, Rick. It's one of those lenses I never knew I needed until I played with one.

Good conversation on this and thanks for the great pics Jake. For me personally, I really want a nice sharp landscape wide angle for DX crop and the Tokina keeps coming out on top. I still have my F3 and the pro glass from film but from day one with a DX, I have been missing a wide angle. I think my pro-shop in town has all the contenders for rent so that is something else for others to check out in there area if still on the fence.
Cheers- Kathleen

I'm actually looking for a wide angle. I have been looking at the tokina 11-16mm. But wasn't sure. Maybe I should look at it again!