Playing with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens

This isn’t meant to be an authoritative review—for that, you can go to Ken Rockwell’s review of the Tokina 11-16mm lens, or any of the other myriad articles that come up in Google (or Bing). I’m just posting some explorations and my own experience with the new lens (new to me that is).

I reluctantly returned the lens back to LensRentals.com last week after using the lens over a two-week period to shoot a few quick jobs that had fallen into my lap. It wasn’t all work as I also got a chance to just play around with the lens too. Overall, I was very pleased with the results. It gives you perhaps the widest angle without fish-eye distortion of  any DX lens—which is exactly what I was needing for the architectural shots I was working on. These images were shot with a Nikon D80. The first four shots are comparisons between a Nikkor 18-200 VR at 18mm and the Tokina. These four were all shot on different days, so they’re not a comparison of the same exact lighting conditions and a swapping between two lenses, but basically the same shot from the same physical location within 6-12 inches. The second Coeur d’Alene Cellars shot is higher because I was also using a relatively new tripod (purchased after the first shot was taken) and because I could—but same position on the front sidewalk.

CDA Cellars with Nikkor 18-200 VR

And with the Tokina…

CDA Cellars with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

Here are some interior shots that were shot just a couple days apart under similar lighting conditions.

Kitchen with Nikkor 18-200mm VR

And the Tokina…

Kitchen with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

As you can see in the second kitchen shot, while the lens allowed us to get the refrigerator in too, which we were looking for, it had the unfortunate effect of elongating the room to where the fireplace seemed to be half a football field away.

Here are some more shots with the Tokina 11-16mm…

Example of Tokina’s green lens flare below. It became bothersome in many of the shots with direct sunlight.

Overall, room elongation and lens flares aside, I was impressed with the lens and heartily recommend it for the serious prosumer with a Nikon DX mount (I know, its also available for Canon weenies too).

I also want to heartily recommend LensRentals.com for providing a great lens and a flawless rental experience before making the final purchase decision. I don’t receive anything from LensRentals.com and they don’t even offer an affiliate program, so you know the endorsement is genuine. I look forward to making it a core component of our ongoing arsenal acquisitions as well as using LensRentals.com to play around with even bigger toys before I buy. Hmm, that D700 is looking nice. I may even find a job to justify a D3x.