Ultrawide choices

Discussion of lenses, brand or independent, uses and merits
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Greg Beetham
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Re: Ultrawide choices

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

Dusty wrote:Barry, I never bought one. Finances are one of the reasons, I'm still not whole after the tornado, and then there's the sense that I may be switching mount, since I'm a die-hard OVF man.

Did I say sense? That's wrong. I'll probably invest in a D610 if we ever get my Dad's property ready to sell and then get it sold. Not a fan of the Canon, the Pentax, which I like, is just too close to falling off a cliff, and no one else makes anything with an OVF and a whole system.

I'm sure I'll post my Disneyworld pics here when I get it, since that's where the bulk of the $$ I get will go - taking the kids on their dream vacation! Not a lot of money in a house when it has to be split 8 ways.

Dusty
Dusty I haven’t been following the thread closely but I will offer one thing, FF does wide angle much much better than APS-C, (from my remembered 35mm experience and comparing the two formats) it does wide with ease whereas the smaller format tends to struggle producing the same result, (but of course APS-C wins at telephoto) all you have to do though is find a good lens for the FF at the right price. I hope the D610 works out for you, there should be plenty of lenses around, many more than A-mount and Nikon should have taken notice of prior mistakes with the D600.
Greg

ps I'm right with you on OVF's
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Ultrawide choices

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

Just a quick update I took delivery of the Tokina lens and have been playing with it for a while now.
I have to say I'm impressed in many ways an F2.8 lens sounds fun for an UWA if you do low light but it would be completely hopeless if the lens was awful at this aperture. The Tokina is anything but..it's disgustingly sharp across 90% of the frame wide open only the extreme edges and corners show some smearing even then it's not horrible either. It is perfectly usable wide open across the range though improves stopping down.

The online reviews are quite accurate there are weaker points the CA is there though fairly easy to clean up. Build is excellent as Tokina usually are. Distortion is very easy to correct if required. Little if any obvious vignetting

I now understand why Tokina released this lens for A mount (just this one) Sony don't have anything to offer (the 11-18mm was OK but only that - aka on 6-10mp and it actually costs more than the Tokina) the later Tamron didn't impress me one of their weaker lenses didn't try the newer sigma the older one was not bad. For crop users it's very likely the Tokina is (minor warts and all) the best there is for an UWA zoom at least for A Mount users.
David Kilpatrick
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Re: Ultrawide choices

Unread post by David Kilpatrick »

Biggest difference Barry is the f/2.8 - none of the other ultrawides can focus properly. f/2.8 plus an f/2.8 centre AF point gives much more accurate focus so the Tokina always wins.
classiccameras
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Re: Ultrawide choices

Unread post by classiccameras »

Dusty, I like Pentax for all the right reasons, but their lens line up are not that impressive on IQ or price, but Tamron and Sigma are a good alternative to build a system. As for falling off a cliff, could happen, but Pentax are still churning out new models with reasonable sales, one wonders what the Ricoh road map looks like at the moment.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Ultrawide choices

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

classiccameras wrote:Dusty, I like Pentax for all the right reasons, but their lens line up are not that impressive on IQ or price, but Tamron and Sigma are a good alternative to build a system. As for falling off a cliff, could happen, but Pentax are still churning out new models with reasonable sales, one wonders what the Ricoh road map looks like at the moment.

Having played with Pentax what hurts the appeal is the lack of autofocus s/h lenses there are not that many around and those that are ain't that cheap. It's possible to beef up a system using Tamron lenses I mostly used those. It's not that the range is bad but you have quite a few pancakes the fast ones are pricey the affordable ones are slow (ie don't bother buy a zoom lens) Quite a few MF K mount lenses around but it's not quite the same appeal

Also I have to say this but Minolta glass is just better contrast, rendering in particular smooth OOF areas on many Minolta lenses and that was a factor for me. Pentax have a nice body range though it's doable to make a system but only with Tamron mixed in. At this stage in the game though I wouldn't invest in Pentax it's too late they will stick around but the party ended years ago it will stick around but don't expect huge things bar that FF body maybe.
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