Calling all wide anglers :o)

Englischdude

Senior Member
Hi All,

the lens missing from my arsenal at the moment is a wide angle. I would appreciate some feedback about your experiences with the different lenses available, however there is one important factor to consider.... it must be a good IR performer!
I have checked the lens hotspot performance page at the Kolari site here Lens Hotspot Performance Database | Kolari Vision Infrared and they list the following for example as being good performers for infrared photography (i list the usual ones only):

Nikon 10-24
Sigma 10-20 / 12-24
Tamron 10-24
Rokinon/Samyang/Walimex 14mm (not in the list, but I hear good reports,also FX compatible but manual focus)

I am against the Nikon due to the cost, leaving me at the moment to decide between the Sigma Tamron or Samyang?

If anyone can offer their 5 cent worth or maybe even suggest something else it would be appreciated. TOKINA is not an option, bad IR performance.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Wishing you all a successful week!
 

AC016

Senior Member
I can't say much in regards to the use for IR photography, but i was very happy with my copy of the Tamron 10-24 when i had it. From what i read, it keeps lines straighter then the Sigma.
 

nidding

Senior Member
While it is the only one that I have experience with I can only recommend the sigma 10-20. I have the 4-5.6 version, and it's just great. I would really hate missing the short 2mm from the 12-24, and would gladly sacrifice a little IQ for that :)
 
From the title of this thread I thought you might be taking about fat fishermen. :cool:

There are a number of us here including me that shoot with the Tokina AT-X 11-16 PRO DX Nikon. You can search this forum for is and see what the comments are. I love mine. When I got it I was thinking I would use it to shoot indoor photos where I just needed a little more width but I have found that I use it quite a bit more.
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
From the title of this thread I thought you might be taking about fat fishermen. :cool:

There are a number of us here including me that shoot with the Tokina AT-X 11-16 PRO DX Nikon. You can search this forum for is and see what the comments are. I love mine. When I got it I was thinking I would use it to shoot indoor photos where I just needed a little more width but I have found that I use it quite a bit more.

glad you posted that Don, did not want to take the risk of offending anyone :D

If it were not for the terrible IR performance of the newer Tokinas it would be my first choice also. I had the opportunity to borrow one for a while, built like a tank and superb image quality. I do love Infrared photography though so the bad flare/hotspot performance is a KO criteria im afraid.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
I used the Nikkor 10-24 quite a bit back when I had it and really liked it.

I've also heard good things about the Tammy and Siggy, though.

One issue with the Rokinon/Bower 14mm is it has 16 billion tons of compound (mustache) distortion. It may not be as obvious on a crop body, but it makes me vomit when used on an FX body. Although it can be corrected in post, you end up cropping out so much of the image you end up with an equivalent FOV of a 16mm lens. They're sold under the Vivitar, Samyang, ProOptic, Bower, Opteka, Bell & Howell, Rokinon, Falcon and Walimex labels (Vivitar calls it a 13mm).
 
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hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
What is your budget? How about a pre-owned Sigma 14mm f/2.8? It is rated to be at least as good as the Nikon if not better.
 

J-see

Senior Member
I have the Samyang 14mm and 24mm but mainly use them at night. Nikon cams can communicate with the lenses except focus. On my cam they're very sharp but you need a lens correction profile since they suffer some distortion. Especially the 14mm.

But they're fantastic lenses for the price. How they'd do for IR I wouldn't know. The 14 also doesn't take filters. Most of my last "long exposure/low light" and landscape shots (threads) have been shot with one of both so you can check those shots and check quality.
 
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MartinCornwall

Senior Member
I have the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6mm and the Tokina F2.8 11-16mm Pro II. I have done IR on the D7000 with an 18-200mm but that is not wide. Not sure about IR on the 1st 2 but if shooting at night the Tokina is awful for flare issues if there is any lights around but great if not. The Sigma has less of a flare issue but a slower lens. Not sure about IR on these lenses yet as I have not yet had the chance to test them out.
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
thanks for all your replies. i have only heard horror stories about tokina and IR hotspot/lens flare so i wont consider any tokina lens. The Rokinon however is apparently fantastic! the sigma apparently suffers from a little flare but no hotspots (according to the kolari website)
 

jay_dean

Senior Member
Yep, also had the Nikon 10-24mm back in the DX days. Great lens, and deffo worth a look. Try the second hand market if the price is an issue
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
Seems to me that sigma and nikon take the lead, not much feedback on the tammy which surprises me as here in austria that would be the cheaper of the bunch. It is tending towards the siggy or the roki, the roki of course is all manual focas but is suitable for fx. Ich have checked darktable and lens correction data is available for all lenses mentioned here. Ich hope [MENTION=9753]Scott Murray[/MENTION] will give me some feedback on his rokinon.
 

STM

Senior Member
Unless the lens was actually designed for IR, which are rare as hen's teeth and very expensive, it will not be a star performer with IR. If you are going to step outside the Nikkor ring for economic reasons, I would stick with the Sigma or Tamron and pass the Samyang's by.
 

J-see

Senior Member
From what I read the Samyang/Rokinon are optically among the sharpest <25mm you can get and mine give the impression that's true but I also read the quality isn't necessarily consistent throughout all lenses and that there can be individual lenses that perform less.

If that is true I wouldn't know but I'm very satisfied with mine. They're among my favorite lenses but I don't do IR so it might be different for that. For astro they seem to be the preferable lenses. I use them mostly at night and they perform fantastic there.

But like I said, they don't come without distortion.
 
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Scott Murray

Senior Member
Seems to me that sigma and nikon take the lead, not much feedback on the tammy which surprises me as here in austria that would be the cheaper of the bunch. It is tending towards the siggy or the roki, the roki of course is all manual focas but is suitable for fx. Ich have checked darktable and lens correction data is available for all lenses mentioned here. Ich hope @Scott Murray will give me some feedback on his rokinon.
Hey Martin just got back from a drive.

I like the Rokinon for some lightning and milkyway shots but do not like it as a landscape in general lens, here is the reason. As you can see by the below photo there is quite some distortion when the horizon is not dead centre, I have had trouble removing this distortion and only use this lenns when this will not be an issue.

SHM_4288.jpg

But dont get me wrong I have gotten some good images with this lens aswell.

SHM_6340-Edit.jpgSHM_4262-2.jpgSHM_4206-2.jpgSHM_4265-2.jpg
 

J-see

Senior Member
She does that indeed and even when centered, the shot can suffer distortion but with a good lens profile and if needed some extra manual adjustment, you fix most of the issue.

Here's one I shot with the 14mm without lens correction and with lens correction + extra adjustment. I don't have a profile specific for my cam so either I have to create one myself or just manually adjust the profile I use now.

bridge1.jpg

bridge2.jpg

The foreground still suffers some but it's seldom that is an issue in my shots. A part of the distortion could be blamed on me. I shot this in the dark and while I can level the cam in both directions, it's not certain I had a perfect 90 degree angle on the bridge itself which can create a difference between the dimensions left and right of the shot.

It's certainly not a lens for architecture.
 
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