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Sigma 15-30 or Tokina 12-24 as only lens?

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lente

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I recently bought a Rebel XT body and I'm trying to decide on what lens to get. I like to take wide pictures and find myself taking a lot of panoramic pictures when I can't get all the area that I want with my current camara (Powershot G1), stitiching them is a pain, so I'm thinking about getting a wide rectilinear lens. Most of my pictures are outdoors.

I don't want to spend a huge amount of money but I'd rather spend enough now than have to get another lens in the future.

I'm thinking of just getting one lens for now and maaaaaybe a not-too-expensive tele in a year or two.

These are my current top contenders:

Sigma 15-30
+ Slightly higher tele
  • Seems to flare a lot.
  • No front filters (I was hoping to use a UV filter to avoid having to clean the lens)
  • Sigma quality control?
Tokina 12-24mm
+ Wider
  • Is this too wide as my only lens? how bad is the distortion at 24mm?
  • purple fringing and chromatic aberrations
  • not too many reviews yet
? Does anyone know how flare prone this lens is?

Your help is greatly appreciated. thx.
Gabriel
 
lente said:
Sigma 15-30
+ Slightly higher tele
  • Seems to flare a lot.
  • No front filters (I was hoping to use a UV filter to avoid having
to clean the lens)
  • Sigma quality control?
Tokina 12-24mm
+ Wider
  • Is this too wide as my only lens? how bad is the distortion at 24mm?
Click to expand...
Not really any distortion at all at that FL.
lente said:
  • purple fringing and chromatic aberrations
Click to expand...
It's minor, and doesn't show up in most shots.
lente said:
  • not too many reviews yet
Click to expand...
Lots of happy user reviews.
lente said:
? Does anyone know how flare prone this lens is?
Click to expand...
Extremely low flare. The sun's in this picture:



It's a fantastic lens.
lente said:
Your help is greatly appreciated. thx.
Gabriel
Click to expand...
 
Fully agree with stephenmelvin. I was also thinking about Sigma before Tokina came into play…

22mm 1/45sec F/4.5 ISO 100



12mm 1/250sec F/4 ISO 1600

 
This lens is wider, is USM, rather fast (3,5 - 4,5) and is optically very good for such a wide lens. There is not many distorsion issue, and it can takes good pics even wide open.
--
I love the crop factor at the long end, I hate it in the wide range
 
Thanks for your advice. The are are few reasons why I didn't consider this lens:
  • It's about US$300 more than the other two. While I would spend this amount to get the right lens, it seems that the difference does not justify the price.
  • It has an EFs mount. The Tokina is only meant for digital SLRs but it can be used on FF cameras at 18mm+ without vignetting. I want to be comfortable buying a lens and feeling that it's somewhat future proof (I guess nothing is 100% future proof).
  • It doesn't include a hood (ok, ok, minor thing).
thx.
 
lente said:
Thanks for your advice. The are are few reasons why I didn't
consider this lens:
  • It's about US$300 more than the other two. While I would spend
this amount to get the right lens, it seems that the difference
does not justify the price.
Click to expand...
I can't argue against that
lente said:
  • It has an EFs mount. The Tokina is only meant for digital SLRs
but it can be used on FF cameras at 18mm+ without vignetting. I
want to be comfortable buying a lens and feeling that it's somewhat
future proof (I guess nothing is 100% future proof).
Click to expand...
Frankly the tokina compatibility is very limited and of no value. If you are interested by full frame you should try the sigma 15-30 EX : it's subject to flare but it's tight sharp from F7 to F13, and give nice results even on a 1 DS.
lente said:
  • It doesn't include a hood (ok, ok, minor thing).
thx.
Click to expand...
Yes it's pretty annoying coming from Canon
--
I love the crop factor at the long end, I hate it in the wide range
 
Thanks a lot for your answers. Any thoughts on using this lens as my only lens, is it versatile enough?

thanks!
 
I doubt that it's versatile enough. If you want a versatile lens, get a 17-35 or 17-40L.

22 or 24 mm are wide. AT least a versatile lens, should go to 30 mm (50 mm equivalent on full frame cameras)
--
I love the crop factor at the long end, I hate it in the wide range
 
I can't comment on the tokina, but I use the sigma 15-30 on my 1Ds and I'm very happy with it.
 
I've found myself shooting cheerfully for weeks with only a 14/2.8 and very rarely wanting something different.

As a matter of fact, I've found myself shooting cheerfully for years, months, or weeks with a single prime lens -- a 50, 35, or 28 when shooting film, a 35, 20, or 14 when shooting digital. The versatility isn't in the lens; it's in the photographer. ;-)

Petteri
--
Me on photography: [ http://www.prime-junta.tk/ ]
Me on politics: [ http://p-on-p.blogspot.com/ ]
 
The 15-30 is a more useable walk-around range if you ask me. In fact, it would be just about perfect for my uses.

jgb
lente said:
I recently bought a Rebel XT body and I'm trying to decide on what
lens to get. I like to take wide pictures and find myself taking a
lot of panoramic pictures when I can't get all the area that I want
with my current camara (Powershot G1), stitiching them is a pain,
so I'm thinking about getting a wide rectilinear lens. Most of my
pictures are outdoors.

I don't want to spend a huge amount of money but I'd rather spend
enough now than have to get another lens in the future.

I'm thinking of just getting one lens for now and maaaaaybe a
not-too-expensive tele in a year or two.

These are my current top contenders:

Sigma 15-30
+ Slightly higher tele
  • Seems to flare a lot.
  • No front filters (I was hoping to use a UV filter to avoid having
to clean the lens)
  • Sigma quality control?
Tokina 12-24mm
+ Wider
  • Is this too wide as my only lens? how bad is the distortion at 24mm?
  • purple fringing and chromatic aberrations
  • not too many reviews yet
? Does anyone know how flare prone this lens is?

Your help is greatly appreciated. thx.
Gabriel
Click to expand...
 
Petteri Sulonen said:
I've found myself shooting cheerfully for weeks with only a 14/2.8
and very rarely wanting something different.

As a matter of fact, I've found myself shooting cheerfully for
years, months, or weeks with a single prime lens -- a 50, 35, or 28
when shooting film, a 35, 20, or 14 when shooting digital. The
versatility isn't in the lens; it's in the photographer. ;-)
Click to expand...
I have shooting for years with only a 50 mm macro 2,5 and I was very happy ( I had also, a 35-105 but only used my 50 mm in order to have tight sharp pics).
But I will not call this a versatile zoom ...



--
I love the crop factor at the long end, I hate it in the wide range
 
Flare catches me out know and then, I find I need to be a bit more careful with it than my other lenses. It has only caught me out at the extream wide setting though. I don't know whether you've actually had your hands on one but basically the front glass element moves in and out as you zoom which has the effect of changing the depth of the hood (I'm sure you've seen that the lens has a fixed petal hood (the reason front filters can't be attached)). At it's widest setting the glass is as far out (away from the camera) as it goes which means the hood is in effect quite shallow and so you're more likely to catch a bit of flare. Hope that makes sense, it's obvious what I mean if you get your hands on one.

As far as using it as a general walk about, I would suggest that the extra 6mm at the long end would out weigh the advantages of the 3mm gain at the short end of the Tokina; but hey that's just my opinion.
 
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