Lens Advice from Nikon DSLR Users

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unless one needs the extra wide angle reach of a 10mm zoom, I'd say the tokina 12-24mm is an excellent choice for a wide angle zoom. At the other end, the Nikon 70-300mm is a really nice and reasonably priced zoom telephoto if you want that range as well.

Optically, I've found that Tokina glass is excellent and most folks could never tell the difference in images made between a Nikon or Tokina or Tamron. Having said that there's nothing like the build quality of a good Nikon pro level lens --- they are a joy to handle in part to their fast focusing and ergonomic design. A Nikon lens will also have a higher resale value, although I've yet to check this out as I can never part with any of mine!

I do a fair amount of Underwater photography and use my Tokina and Tamron glass in place of overly large Nikon lenses that are impractical in a housing.
For that purpose I use a Tokina 12-24 and a Tokina 10-17 (fisheye) for wide angle work, plus a Tamron 90mm macro. They are all excellent.

Tamron do make the occasional nice lens, true. That 90mm macro is quite nice in terms of IQ and sharpness and bokeh. But most other Tamron's I've used tend to hunt a lot for focus and are also fairly slow to focus. Especially in lower light. That's why I'd never consider one to be honest, as there are far too many other alternatives.

Sigma have stepped up their game with some of the newer lenses that have just been released, such as the 85 1.4 and 50 1.4. I love the way their 30mm renders bokeh and tones and if you get a good copy it will be sharp as anything. I owned it once but returned it because I didn't want to sift through copies for a good one.

I once heard a BnH salesman say that Tokinas are basically rebranded Nikon lenses. How true that is, I can't say. But I can easily see that their tonal characteristics are the same.

Doug

I'm still not sure if this uses an internal focus motor, but there's this..

http://www.adorama.com/US 442745.html

and a Nikkor

http://www.adorama.com/US 442785.html

or the same @ B&H

Used Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor AF Lens 2144

I really can't remember UW being 'cheap'

Here's a nice little superwide 20 prime AF lens, actually it may not be there by the end of the day if I can convince my wife..

http://www.adorama.com/US 439888.html

While I'm thinking about it. One of the nicest things about digital (as opposed to film) landscape photography is the ease of stitching multiple images into a single. This can get you the wide field of view with a normal lens (while not gaining all of the distortion of a UW lens, unless that's the visual image you want).

Doug b said:

I'll keep an eye out for an UW manual focus lens for you. Shouldn't be too hard to find. How about 20mm ? Not wide enough?

Doug

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Thanks, I appreciate that.
I have the 18-55mm kit lens and even though it is a kit lens it seems to produce pretty good images so I have fairly decent coverage down to 20mm right now (though I'd eventually like to upgrade it to a 17-55mm f2.8, probably many years and dollars from now).

Dysfunction said:

While I'm thinking about it. One of the nicest things about digital (as opposed to film) landscape photography is the ease of stitching multiple images into a single. This can get you the wide field of view with a normal lens (while not gaining all of the distortion of a UW lens, unless that's the visual image you want).

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I know you are right. I read a recent article in Outdoor Photograpy where one of the landscape artists used (I believe--don't have the article in front of me) a 50mm prime on an FX body and a ton of vertical and horizontal stiching.

And, I don't need the UW, but I would like to have one and the different prospective (distortion and all) it gives.

BTW: Thanks for the links . . . I am tempted by the Nikon lens, but with used ones pushing $900 I may go the second body route to gain long term flexibility. Problem with that is it is far easier to justify to the wife buying a new lens over a second body

Made up my mind . . . I think

I'm going to go with the 12-24 Tokina and plan on adding a second body next year. By that time I should be able to pick up a used D90 for a real good price.

Thanks everyone for the input.

Awesome! You had better post a ton of sample images from the Tokina!

Doug

Doug b said:

Awesome! You had better post a ton of sample images from the Tokina!

Doug

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Also eagerly awaiting these test samples. ^-^"

If I were you though, I'd skip the D90 and go for a D7000. Well, technically, I'd skip another DX body and go straight for a used D700!

Doug

Doug b said:

If I were you though, I'd skip the D90 and go for a D7000. Well, technically, I'd skip another DX body and go straight for a used D700!

Doug

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I keep looking for a D700 body to turn up in my price range, but so far no success.