Introduction

I received my tokina 12-24 f/4 DX lens in May 2005. It has quickly become my most favorite lens along with my 70-200 VR and 17-55 f/2.8 [What other lens do you really need?].

I have used this lens extensively during the past few months and I am extremely pleased with the lens.

Real life samples

If you don’t care about pixel peeping and want to simply see real life samples, stop right here. I used this lens extensively during my Alaska trip. You should check out the travelogue and photos from this lens. I am very impressed by this lens. Just a few samples below:

Most photographed tree, Bristlecone forest, Tokina 12-24, 12mm

Clouds, Kahana Beach, Tokina 12-24

Other reviews

There are some interesting reviews that sound more professional in photo.net and in Popular Photography, so you should check them too.

Build

The lens is robust. It feels strong and heavy. It has the slider approach on the barrel to switch between AF and MF, like the Tamron 90 macro.

The lens feels sturdy without being impossible to carry around :) . No complaints in this regard.

Gallery

For starters, this is the full gallery that contains all the test samples shot so far. You can check the EXIF by hitting the “i” button.

Observations

Here are my thoughts so far.

  1. 12 mm, f/4. Very usable. Sharp centers, soft corners.
  2. 12mm, f/9, Great improvement in sharpness.
  3. Virtually no distortion at 24mm.
  4. Barely noticeable distortion even at 12mm, if you watch your framing and perspective. I am very impressed with this shot. This is with no perspective correction whatsoever.
  5. Colors and contrast of this lens are very impressive. When you add a circular polarizer, it is even better. Without any post processing, results for the same photo
  6. Definite CA problems at 12mm. Watch the end of the leaves.

CA

One of the questions I get asked most is the CA of this lens. As I mention above, CA exists, it is a definite problem. The good news is it can be cleaned up easily.

 

CA uncorrected, 100% crop, watch the slope of the mountain.

CA corrected, 100% crop.

If you don’t mind CA and won’t mind correcting it in post, go for the lens. That is the only weakness of this lens. If you shoot for $ and can’t have CA, well then, this is not the lens you want.

Update

I see a lot more CA on my higher resolution Nikon D80 camera. It was getting too tiresome to fix CA in every photo, hence I finally sold this otherwise excellent lens :( . I am currently considering the Sigma 10-20 lens instead.

I eventually gave up and bought the Sigma 10-20 lens which seems to fare better in the CA department.

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