Best wide angle for crop sensor?

James_EG · Oct 24, 2012

Hi, I am currently trying to buy wide angle lens for my Canon 60D, the lens I had settled on was the Tokina AT-X 11-16mm f/2.8 PRO DX II AF, which hasn't been released yet in the UK, but can be bought from DigitalRev. But with the lens I also want to buy some lee filters and with such a small focal length I have heard that vignetting can be a problem, even with the wide angle adapter for the filter holder, and it would be even more of a problem if I used a circular polariser with the ND grads as the holder would be even further away from the lens.
So, will it be alright to use the filters with this focal length range? Or should I be looking for a lens with slightly more range, like the 12-24mm, or will the sharpness be good enough to just crop the photo in the 11-16mm, as I do want to try and get the latest version of this lens, as it is very high quality. And it's not too expensive, because I don't want to spend too much, in case I ever upgrade to a full frame camera.

Thanks, James

480sparky · Oct 24, 2012

There is no such thing as 'the best' of anything. Lenses, cars, skillets, baseball bats.... if there was just one that would be proclaimed 'Best', it would be the only one on the market.

What is best for you? That depends on several things. What you're shooting, and how much you have to spend, for starters. If you're wanting to stack several filters in front of an ultra-wide, you may need to pony up for some really over-sized filters.

spacefuzz · Oct 24, 2012

Ive heard good things about the sigma and tokina ultra wides. I had the Tamron 10-24 for years and really thought it did a good job.

James_EG · Oct 24, 2012

Thanks for the replies, I think I'll go for the Tokina after looking at some of the reviews of the first version, and the second version is much better. I don't really want to spend loads in case I upgrade to full frame, and I'm not sure if the Tokina can fit onto full frame cameras. As for the filters, I really can't afford any more filters, as if I buy larger threaded filters for just one lens, and then get another lens or two that call for 77mm filters in the future, I won't be able to afford it, so I think I'll just crop the pictures and only use the Circular Polariser when I really think it'll help on the ultra wide.

James

2WheelPhoto · Oct 24, 2012

Tokina 11-16

Scuba · Oct 24, 2012

I have been impressed by images with the tokina 11-16 but I haven't personally used it. I have heard/read the sigma 10-20 has some sharpness issues.

TheBiles · Oct 24, 2012

I always liked the Sigma 8-16 when I had a crop body. If you're going to go wide, might as well go as wide as you can.

Sent from my Galaxy S III

swiftparkour94 · Oct 24, 2012

It won't be wide much but for both photography and filming I'll eventually get the Tamron 24-70mm it's got IS and USM (don't remember what they call it so I'm just using the Canon terms, same thing really). I believe it's around $1,300. Yea, it's a lot but from the reviews I've read and MTF charts it beats Canon's and is cheaper with the addition of IS!

Majeed Badizadegan · Oct 24, 2012

Best crop WAL: EF-S 10-22mm (also, the most money)
-- much less prone to flare than any other crop WAL
-- excellent IQ corner to corner
-- 1mm more than tokina 11-16
-- more useful focal range (FF equivalent of 16-35mm)

Fastest crop WAL: Tokina 11-16mm
-- Fast. There's no other advantage. It flares worse, IQ is comparable, and it's FL is much more limiting both on the wide and long end.

James_EG · Oct 25, 2012

Rotanimod said:
Best crop WAL: EF-S 10-22mm (also, the most money)
-- much less prone to flare than any other crop WAL
-- excellent IQ corner to corner
-- 1mm more than tokina 11-16
-- more useful focal range (FF equivalent of 16-35mm)

Fastest crop WAL: Tokina 11-16mm
-- Fast. There's no other advantage. It flares worse, IQ is comparable, and it's FL is much more limiting both on the wide and long end.

Are you comparing the version one or version 2 Tokina As I know the version 1 did have a flare problem, but the version two I think has better glass and a new coating, which reduces flare really well, as shown here --> Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX II Hands-on Review - YouTube -- skip to 4:40 to see an example of the flare.

James