Man...Just bit the bullet..

And bought myself a 16-85vrii. :eek-new:
I've been eying this and the 11-16 Tokina for a long while now.
(I also picked up a new bag, the Lowepro Passport Sling which I hope will let me access my gear a little easier while on the go.)

I'd been seeing the price of the 16-85 creep up and up on Amazon in the last few weeks and finally decided to order it from B+H. It's now close to $700 on Amazon!!:disillusionment:
This is the most expensive lens I've bought so far at $670 shipped. I REALLY hope it's worth the price of admission!

I get to go to Baltimore and celebrate my GF's birthday this weekend and stay at a classy hotel and tour a freakin' submarine. I should get the lens just in the nick of time two days earlier. I'll have plenty of time to put it through it's paces and see if it's worth the money. I was also looking at the 18-105, but plastic mounts turn me off..

Anyway, sorry to rant, just wanted to share!

LOL no worries - good choice on the 16-85 it's an amazing lens. It replaced the famous 18-70 which in it's own right was awesome, Congrats

16-85 on a crop camera has to be worth the price of admission.

Congrats. You picked a nice lens. Enjoy Baltimore and be sure to check out the Harbor. It's the place to experience Baltimore's night life.

Thanks guys! I live not even an hour from the harbor, and I've been there before to see Dream Theater when Ram's Head was called the Thunder Dome. (That was a better name IMO)

I work for Kimpton Hotels and I do IT here in VA. I get $50 a night rooms on what would normally be $250+ a night stays in rooms that would boggle the mind, so I had to treat the woman right! Even went with the Deluxe upgrade and got her a stone bathtub jacuzzi while I was at it. It'll let me smoke cigars uninterrupted out on our private patio on the 6th floor

Next on my list is the 11-16 Tokina. The goal is to have three total lenses I can travel with. One for zoom (16-85) one for super wide (11-16) and I already have the 35 1.8G and 50mm 1.8D for low light things, though I feel like I'd be using the Tokina most of the time just because it seems great with that 2.8 aperture. I'll buy the other one well.. once I pay off this lens on my credit card It's reassuring that you guys think highly of this lens. I was a bit on the fence for a long time about it reading all the reviews on this vs the 105, vs the 18-70. But in the end, I think I won't miss the reach and I certainly won't miss the price tag of the 18-70. VR, good glass and convenience of not changing lenses that often won it for me.

Congrats on the lens! At 16mm you'll get a taste of uw and want that Tokina even more

I knooow! I'm wondering however, how often I would want to use that $600 lens though, if I even need to. It would be great to be able to, but I feel like I'd be thinking to myself, "Do I really want to change lenses? Can I pull this shot off with 16mm?"

Probably just flawed logic though. I'm sure it will open up some new doors to my shooting and let me get a little bit more creative in the process!

16 is a nice width, below that begins perspective change which I happen to like. At least with the 16-85 you'll be able to dabble in the wide range before buying an ultra-wide. You'll see in my 10-24 thread the benefits below 16.

That's a great lens, i had one for several years and it was my most used lens.

I only sold it recently since it was DX and my only 67mm lens.

I got my 16-85 today! I was real happy until I started unboxing it. Seems like the glass has some kind of minor surface defect. It appears "smudged" and somehow scratched. Here's a poor quality video of it, I am not certain you'll be able to see it well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOCLbKWzWlA&feature=youtu.be

Other than that, it functions as normal I suppose, however I am not seeing the sharpness and colour that I was expecting the glass to give me. Hm. I'll go shoot tomorrow during the daylight and see what it's like, today I was shooting about an hour and a half before dusk, perhaps that had something to do with it? Here's a shot of it at around 6 something in the evening. Obviously worked on it, not a raw file. Unimpressed with how much I desired to sharpen and add more saturation to it in post..

Here is the RAW file, no editing (save cropping to give similar results)

grass kitty RAW by stupidphotoguy, on Flickr


And here is the edited version, which I would like to see as closely out of the camera as possible with regard to colour rendition. I just thought that the lens would give me a bit better saturation and balance. Was I wrong to assume this?


Kitty by stupidphotoguy, on Flickr

smudged and scratched? What?

You haven't had the lens long enough to know what you can do with it.

If it's damaged, I'd send it back. The cat looks pretty sharp here, but this resolution is hard to judge anything. Shooting raw with any lens is generally going to give you a flat image.

I like the images...I like the PP one but I think you have greened the kitty's fur a bit to much. I see tons of potential in those snaps and that lens. Like I said on DX that focal range is nice working range stuff.

I don't know.. Maybe I'm just out of it, I'm just getting over a week-long fight with some kind of head cold. There wasn't much interesting to shoot for a few hours so hopefully tomorrow I'll see it in a different light. That cat one was mostly a preset in LR that I used and added a bit of sharpening.

Jeff, you ARE correct. I just get antsy to find perfection in time for the 30 day return policy haha.
I'll update tomorrow with some more snaps and see if my mood changes about the lens in general. But the this particular copy is definitely going back because of the odd smudge/scratches. That just makes me uneasy. I'll have to wait until after this weekend however. Looking forward to using it in Baltimore

Today I'll be shooting at lunch around town. I'll be taking one picture with the 18-55 kit lens and one with the 16-85 at the same apertures, same ISO and same focal length to compare if my copy measures up. I'm going to re-set my image settings entirely. All images with be properly exposed according to the camera. All photos will be shot in RAW and not processed except for export to jpg then uploaded to Flickr. This will give me a better understanding of how/where this lens excells and what to expect when using it. I think.. If nothing else, it's a fun little experiment.

After shooting with this lens for about 30 minutes, it seems I like this lens. Especially at 16mm! I think it's better than the kit lens in some aspects like colour rendition/saturation and it IS definitely a touch sharper too. It does have some light falloff in the corners at 16-18mm, but it's easily correctable. Everything just looks more professional, even if the material i typically shoot well..isn't What are your thoughts? Here is an unedited photo:


Unedited Self Portrait WAmirror by stupidphotoguy, on Flickr

And another one. This one had a smidgen of colour saturation added, but nowhere near as much as stuff I've taken with the kit lens.


Hallway Hotel by stupidphotoguy, on Flickr

Here's one that IS edited a little. But look how clean this lens can potentially be with RAW files!


House by stupidphotoguy, on Flickr

Looks really like a great lens to have in your possession.

Thanks, Marcel!
Images really don't translate well over the compressed internet.

Overall though, I think it is a winner for me at least, because it offers me versatility. In my bag, that's starting to get more important. I'll post some more photos in my 365 after the weekend, and update with a full "review"my personal findings after 30 days.. Perhaps this thread will become useful for someone who searches for it.

Can't wait to see circa 30mm short normal stuff and the long end 75mm shots! There is a ton of versatility in this lens.

They look great. Many don't realize what those extra 2mm on the wide end and the sharpness of more pro elements (2 ed and 3 as) can do!