Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX Lens for Canon Digital SLR by Tokina
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Digital camera reviews of Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX Lens for Canon Digital SLR
Digital camera Review: Sharpest Lens I Ever Owned
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing lens. I never owned a Canon L lens but I think this lens must be equal in quality, or close to it. The quality of this lens makes a big difference in the outcome of my photos. It's a little heavy compared to my other lenses but well worth the bother to have it along. A very high quality lens in all respects and a bargain at this price. A comparable L lens would cost at least 2x as much.Digital camera Review: lens quality
Summary: 4 Stars
This Tokina lens is well made. It isn't the best 12-24mm lens out there, however. The focus isn't as sharp nor the colors as accurate as from my Canon lens. It is a fair value, however. As is generally true, you get what you pay for.Digital camera Review: best 400 dollars i ever spent
Summary: 5 Stars
for the past 3 years i have been shooting with a canon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 as an every day lens and a canon 16-35mm f/2.8 when i could get my hands on one. after my professor and adviser recommended the tokina 12-24mm to me several times, i finally splurged and bought one. OH MAN do i love it.
sturdier than the 24-85 and significantly less bulky than the 16-35, i find it sharper than either lens at any aperture. the manual focus ring is nice and tight and because the zoom element is internal, it does not slide when pointed down. the auto focus is a touch noisy, but pretty quick and accurate. over all, it is very well built.
not to mention, the super wide angle makes excellent and interesting images. it is great for landscape photography and close-up portraits, among many other things.
i definitely recommend this lens. it is well worth the money.
Digital camera Review: Magic Lens
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had the Tokina 12-24mm for 3 years and it is an amazing lens. Incredibly well built, sharp and great contrast. All my other lenses are Canon L -- and this one keeps right up with them. The ability to go super-wide (past 17mm) is a lot of fun -- -enables a lot of creative shots and adds a great sense of depth to landscapes.
I have compared the Tokina directly to the Sigma 12-24 and Canon 10-20mm lenses. I thought the Sigma was nearly as good in picture quality, but not nearly as well built as the Tokina. The Sigma may have even been a touch sharper, but the color saturation and slight warmth of the Tokina create strikingly beautiful images with very little retouching. The Tokina lens is nearly all metal with great grippy dials -- the Canon and Sigma are mostly constructed of plastic. I also liked that the Tokina is a fixed f4 in aperture - enabling more flexibility in exposure. The Sigma is only f4 at 12mm, and then you lose a stop to f5.6 if you zoom in at all -- requiring more light for the same exposure.
The extra 2mm of vantage that the Canon 10-20mm provides (over the 12-24mm Sigma and Tokina) is attractive, but I thought the barrel distortion ("fisheye" effect) was pretty pronounced between 10-12 mm. It's not too tough to fix the distortion in photoshop -- but considering the significant extra expense for the Canon and the great images I got out of the Tokina I decided to stick with the Tokina tank. Only downside of Tokina is that the autofocus is slow -- but I rarely am trying to catch anything in motion with a super-wide angle lens anyway.
Anyway -- even from a Canon L devotee, I say this lens is a 6 out of 5. Especially when you take the price into consideration -- worth every penny.
Some samples are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoneman
Digital camera Review: Truly wonderful lens
Summary: 5 Stars
I've used only one Tokina lens prior to this one, but it was one of my most beloved lenses, the 80-200 f/2.8 from some 15 years ago.
So I had no qualms about buying another Tokina to fit the ultra-wide slot in my lens lineup.
I can't say enough about this lens. Well-built, sharp as all get out, easy to use, minimal distortion. It's a joy to use, even if a bit heavier than comparable lenses.
I've had a few dogs among my third-party lens purchases over the years, but this isn't one of them.
It's built like a tank. The push-pull system to switch between manual and auto focus is very well done (My Tamron 90mm macro had a similar system that worked really well, too) and a far cry better than Canon lenses.
If I could give it six stars, I would.