Definitive List of Best 3rd Party Lenses

I've been searching the Nikon forums for the past few days in search of opinions on 3rd party lenses. Needless to say, I have read a lot of responses/suggestions/comments...

Unfortunately, I'm not satisfied. I would like all willing participants/owners to post their opinions about which 3rd party lenses (nikon Mount...of course) are the best on the market right now. Post the top 3 if you want. Post the top 5 if you want. Post a list of the 'gems'.

I'll start it off mentioning three lenses that I've heard are great.

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO HSM EX

I've heard a few people talk about Quality control issues with this lens. That being said, those who have good versions love it. Some say it is as sharp as the Nikon 80-200mm 2.8

Tamron 28-75 f2.8 Di

I did some research on this lens and it is actually sharper on the edges (according to MTF) than the Nikon Nikon 28-70. The test photos I've seen with this lens are impressive.

Tokina 12-24 f4

What can I say. Everyone rants about this one.

Please post your opinions/lists/etc.

--
mostly snapshots with the occasional photo that i am 'almost' happy with:
http://imageevent.com/the_yattering

Love it!

The build quality of the Tokina 28-80 is excellent!

Tamron 11-18mm F/4.5-5.6
Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX
Tokina 12-24mm f/4
Sigma 14mm f/2.8 EX
Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX Fisheye
Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Tokina 17mm f/3.5 PRO
Sigma/Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC
Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX
Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX
Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC
Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX MACRO
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 SP
Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX MACRO (does 1:1 out of box)
Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP MACRO
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX MACRO
Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX MACRO
Tamron 180mm f/3.5 SP MACRO
Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX
Sigma 50-500mm f4-f6.3 EX
Sigma 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 EX OS
Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX
Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX
Sigma 300mm f/2.8 EX

Or maybe you don't care about ancient, discontinued lenses.
--
http://www.pbase.com/adriainpdx

--
Marabou Muddler

Theweapon said:

I've been searching the Nikon forums for the past few days in
search of opinions on 3rd party lenses. Needless to say, I have
read a lot of responses/suggestions/comments...

Unfortunately, I'm not satisfied. I would like all willing
participants/owners to post their opinions about which 3rd party
lenses (nikon Mount...of course) are the best on the market right
now. Post the top 3 if you want. Post the top 5 if you want.
Post a list of the 'gems'.

I'll start it off mentioning three lenses that I've heard are great.

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO HSM EX

I've heard a few people talk about Quality control issues with this
lens. That being said, those who have good versions love it. Some
say it is as sharp as the Nikon 80-200mm 2.8

Tamron 28-75 f2.8 Di

I did some research on this lens and it is actually sharper on the
edges (according to MTF) than the Nikon Nikon 28-70. The test
photos I've seen with this lens are impressive.

Tokina 12-24 f4

What can I say. Everyone rants about this one.

Please post your opinions/lists/etc.

Click to expand...

The only Sigma I would even consider is the 100-300 f4 HSM , which is probably their finest zoom telephoto.

For macro work, the Tamron 90mm di macro is top drawer.

For a wide zoom, the Tokina 12-24 f4 is hard to beat.

Other than the above three lenses, it's Nikkor or nothing (for me at least).

= Dan =

thw, you mentioned so many and not Sigma 10-20mm... Forgot it or...?

--
http://atlantis.fotopic.net

And these 3 lense should be good enough for serious amature!!!

Alan

Theweapon said:

I've been searching the Nikon forums for the past few days in
search of opinions on 3rd party lenses. Needless to say, I have
read a lot of responses/suggestions/comments...

Unfortunately, I'm not satisfied. I would like all willing
participants/owners to post their opinions about which 3rd party
lenses (nikon Mount...of course) are the best on the market right
now. Post the top 3 if you want. Post the top 5 if you want.
Post a list of the 'gems'.

I'll start it off mentioning three lenses that I've heard are great.

Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 APO HSM EX

I've heard a few people talk about Quality control issues with this
lens. That being said, those who have good versions love it. Some
say it is as sharp as the Nikon 80-200mm 2.8

Tamron 28-75 f2.8 Di

I did some research on this lens and it is actually sharper on the
edges (according to MTF) than the Nikon Nikon 28-70. The test
photos I've seen with this lens are impressive.

Tokina 12-24 f4

What can I say. Everyone rants about this one.

Please post your opinions/lists/etc.

Click to expand...

two I think live with my good Nikon glass-
Sigma 70~200 f2.8 HSM
Tamron 90mm macro 2.8

http://www.shutterbug.com/test_reports/0204sb_sigma/

Thanks to phily_guy for posting this in another thread.

--
Marabou Muddler

It would be nice if we could do this in some orderly way and post a matrix of the results somewhere as a reference for those looking for high quality lenses. A few I would nominate:

Tamron SP 90 f2.8 Macro (Pick of the litter in the 85-105 macro group)
Sigma EX 150 f2.8 Macro (the best macro out there right now)
Sigma EX 70-200 f2.8 HSM (equal to everything else in its range)
Sigma EX 100-300 f4 (best in its range and well under $1000)
Sigma EX 12-24 f4.5-5.6 (filter issue aside, this is the best in its class)
Tokina 12-24 f4 (great image quality and price, high CA)
Sigma EX 18-50 f2.8 (gives the Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 a run for it)

Sigma EX 28 f1.8 (love that continuous close focus, if you can find a better fast 28mm, buy it)

Sigma APO 400 f5.6 Telemacro (simply superb images in a relatively small package)
Tokina 300 f2.8 (price and performance)

--
regards
Mike Parker
Frederick, MD

Thanks for all the opinions, folks.

--
carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

Certainly not. If you feel that there's a great 3rd party MF gem, let me know.

Hi!

I'm mainly an MF shooter, so definite listings would become too long, but here's a quick writeup of lenses I still own/use, which offer extremely good optical performance (I prefer most of them to today's comparable lenses):

From the original Vivitar Series 1 lineup (late seventies - early eighties):

28/1.9 (made by Kiron=Kino or Komine)
35-85/2.8 (made by Kiron=Kino)
90/2.5 Macro (made Tokina)
105/2.5 Macro (made by Kiron=Kino - better than the 90, imo)
135/2.3 (made by Kiron=Kino - stay away from the 135/1.5 and 135/1.8)
200/3.0 (made by Kiron=Kino, or Komine)
70-210/2.8-4.0 (made by Komine - version with the 62mm filter thread!)
90-180/4.5 Flat Field Macro (made by Kiron=Kino)
600/8.0 Solid Cat (made by Perkin Elmer)
800/11 Solid Cat (made by Perkin Elmer)

From the later Vivitar Series 1 lineup:

450/4.5 Mirror (imo, best mirror lens ever)

Kiron:

24/2.0
28/2.0
28-85/2.8-3.8

28-210/3.8-5.6 (amazingly sharp lens - outperformed most primes in edge sharpness)

Others:

Sigma 500/4.0 Mirror Ultratel (one of the fastest mirrors ever)
Tokina 200/3.5 RMC
Porst 135/1.8

There are some other respectable third party MF gems, but the ones mentioned above are amongst my personal favourites. User experience is highly subjective, but to me those have always done a great job (for their respective application).

AF lenses would include (I only had a few - optically I don't see a reason to move away from AI/AIS glass):

Sigma 20-40/2.8 (matched or even surpassed most of my primes in sharpness)
Tamron 28-75/2.8 (matched my AFS 28-70)

Regards
Alex

--
carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

I have ...

Tokina 12-24/f4
Tamron 28-75/f2.8
Nikon 50mm/1.8
Sigma 100-300/f4

--
http://www.pbase.com/ajones0000

Tokina: 12-24mm
Tamron: 90mm Macro
Sigma: 18-50mm F2.8

'nuff said.

It's funny you mention those two because I've seen others compare the sharpness of the Sigma to that specific Tamron lens which I hear is a gem.
--
Just shoot! =)
http://www.dphotoguide.com