Nikon D90 and the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 Ultra Wide Lens!

Tokina 11-16 2.8 @12mm

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great 4th of July and got some nice pictures.

Update: Newer Version Just Released 7/27/2012 Check it out Here

I’m going to talk a little about the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 Ultra Wide lens today and my personal thoughts about it. As I said in a previous blog here that I really wanted to get this lens for landscape photography. Well it turns out I was just recently hired by a Build and Design Company to take some photos of their finished interiors……Yep, A paying photography job, Sweet. Anyway this was the perfect reason to finally get the Tokina 11-16mm lens. Plus I was getting ready for vacation where I really wanted to use this lens. I found a good deal on eBay from cameraland with MSN cashback which after the rebate cost me around $520.

First off this lens on the D90 is very cool, looks great and is built like a hand grenade. It worked great for the building interior work I was shooting. It made all the difference in the world compared to my other widest lens the Tamron 17-50mm 2.8. I found out quickly the tammy is just is not wide enough for interiors in my opinion after trying both lens. The Tokina is sharp and fun to use but takes some basic practice to get use to. I used this lens on my D90 set to aperture priority F/8 & F11, tripod, and used the natural lighting of the interiors and the photos came out very nice. See low-res samples below.

So now it was time to take this Tokina on the road for vacation up the California and Oregon coast into Seattle Washington for a family visit and lots of pictures. I was exited to start shooting landscapes and such with the Tokina until I started framing shots at 11mm and they seemed to be a mile away in the viewfinder and just too much at times it seemed. This seemed to be fine on a few shots but not all. I found myself putting on the Tamron 17-50mm more often then not for landscape photos. Don’t get me wrong here the Tokina was sharp and great at 11mm but for most landscape shots I found framing the scene and some zoom ability was needed from the Tammy. The Tokina zoom range is very minimal thus I’d say this lens will always only be used at 11mm which is why I got it anyway. This brings me to an early conclusion that this is definitely like others have said a “Specialty Lens” especially great at building interiors and exteriors and some special landscape photos. I also loved this lens for any really close up shots of big things like cars. I swear it seems like you can get a foot away from a car and fit it all in the frame at different angles, very cool. After my trip I’d say that 80 % of my landscape keepers came from the Tamron 17-50mm but one of my very favorites did come from the Tokina 11-16mm taken at 12mm.

I can’t compare the Tokina Ultra Wide against others like it because this is the first and only true ultra wide I’ve ever used. I do love this lens the more I use it for it's specialties and would definitely recommend it for interiors and exterior building photos and some landscape specialty shots but not as just a landscape lens. I will continue to play with this lens and become more familiar with it as time passes. Below are a few sample photos from the Tokina 11-16mm on my Nikon D90.

Tokina 11-16 @ 16mm

Tokina 11-16 @ 11mm

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