Wide angle for Nikon D7000?

[garymck]

Hi,
looking for advice on purchase of a wide angle lens for my D7000. I currently only have the 18-105 Kit lens and find I spend most of my time at the wide end.

I'd like to by a lens to extend mu FOV. There are a lot of options like the Nikon 10-24, Tokina 11-16, Sigma 10-20 and 8-16, and some Tamron glass as well.The lens will be used for mostly landscape pics, with an occassional astrophoto as well. I've read heaps of reviews, but just get a bit more confused as they seem to disagree often (sample variation?). The Nikon is the most expensive and I could go for it with a bit of waiting, but is it really better for my purposes than some of the less expensive options? I'm not in to blowing images up on the screen looking for aberrations, and most of my pics are printed at home using special pigment inks on an Epson printer at A4 size.

advice welcome!
cheers
Gary

[Octane]

The Tokina 11-16 will suit you just fine.

If you get a dodgy one, send it back until a good one arrives.

H

[Adelastro1]

I've used the Tokina 12-24 f4 for years and last year bought a D7000 to use with it and it worked well, so I can recommend the Tokina's for sure. They are solid lenses and built well and although I haven't handled the Nikon 10-24 or Sigmas, I'd rather have a solid lens than a light plastic one (all may be very solid and well built but I don't know). Tokina does have CA wide open when doing astro shots, but the others may do as well.
From what I've read the Tokina 12-24 performs about the same as Nikon's 12-24 f4, but at half the cost.

You've probably read about this so apologies if I'm repeating. For the lenses that you listed however, keep in mind the range of the zoom. 11-16 isn't much of a range whereas 10-20 or 10-24 will give you a bit more versatility and saves changing lenses if you need something slightly higher than 16mm. Having said that the D7000 images can be cropped quite well still if shot at 16mm if you need to zoom in.

The advantage of the Tokina 11-16 is that it is constant f2.8 which is an advantage for astro shots. Also it's sweet spot would probably sit lower in the range than an f4 lens (probably about f5.6), where it's at it's sharpest and lowest CA.

And of course there's the cost... Nikon's are more expensive than the other two so if that's a factor go with Tokina or Sigma - they're both good.

I've now bought a D800E so I have two cameras now, and also the Nikon 14-24 f2.8 FX lens which is THE best wide zoom, but on DX it's cropped and would be 21-36mm equivalent. Upgrade to an FX camera if you can afford it! haha.

[trek1701]

Gary

A true wide angle rectilinear lens


http://www.completedigitalphotography.com/?p=327

Cheers Mark

[garymck]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've decided to wait a bit and go for the Nikon 10-24mm zoom......

cheers
Gary

[Adelastro1]

Great, what made you choose that one in the end?

[garymck]

I've actually changed my mind after reading this review an looking at the sample pics:

http://www.juzaphoto.com/article.php?l=en&article=34

I had decided on the Nikon 10-24 based on the slightly longer zoom range and looking at "reviews" .

After looking at the above I've decided on the Sigma 10-20 f3.5, this came up better than the Tokina which is pretty much universallly regarded as a good lens, and I figured the difference in price would allow me to get closer to buying a Nikon 35mm f1.8 prime for low light as well.....

cheers
Gary

[Adelastro1]

Ah good choice too. And probably wise if you want to save money for a 35mm. I'm sure the Sigma will do a good job.