Picasso Moon's reviews

Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X 124 AF PRO DX SD

I use this lens on my D200 and it is my primary landscape lens. The 12-24 focal length is ideal on a DX body for capturing the great outdoors. The construction quality of the lens is outstanding. It feels much better in your hands than some lenses that cost much more.

The lens is sharp a across the entire zoom range, when stopped down a bit. I find the color and contrast to be good also. The lens is used along with the Nikon 18-70mm kit lens and it works out quite well. The kit lens is not the best at the 18mm end which is OK because the Tokina can handle the 18-24 range quite well.

A few things to watch out for. First, take care when shooting into the sun and use the supplied hood. This lens will flare quite readily in contra light situations. Also, when wide open, the edges will get soft, especially at extremes of the zoom range along with purple fringing in high contrast scenes. Stopping down 1 or 2 stops will cure both the soft edges and greatly reduce the purple fringing. This works out very well for me since I very rarely shoot wide open with this lens.

Overall, I am very happy with the Tokina and would recommend it. You get outstanding build quality and very good image quality (see caveats)
at about 1/2 the price of the Nikon equivalent.