Possibly something wrong with lens?

303villain

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Yesterday i picked up a Tokina 12-24 F4 At-x Pro lens, and for some reason, almost every picture i have taken seems to me to be blurry.... i did a number of photos in both MF and AF and they all seem SUPER soft to me? im confused because it seems that some(very very very few) come out perfect, but the rest all seem VERY soft?? Im going to post the pics on this thread in a few hours when i get to work, but i was wondering if its possible that there is something wrong with my new lens??
 
i very much doubt it,it is most likely the lens is coverd in something or there is something on your sensor... try a different lens and do you get the same problem?
 
It's not unheard of, that you would get a bad copy of a lens. If your other lenses give sharp photos...then it seems like it would be the lens.

You could Google a lens test sheet and runs some tests. Is it new or used? If it's new, you could always exchange it for another one and see if it has the same problems.
 
well i bought 2 lenses the 12-24 tokina, and a tamron 90mm f2.8,the 90 is fantastic. the kit lens has no problems either. ive only had the camera for...not even a month, and the only time ive ever had the lens off was when switching to these ones. hopefully i'll be able to post some examples here shortly.


btw-the lens was indeed brand new
 
Here are 2 examples of what im seeing, maybe its just my eyes playing tricks on me or something, who knows! In both pictures i focused on the H key, one in MF and the other AF

IMG_0443.jpg


IMG_0444.jpg
 
Hard to tell if it's out of focus...but it's definitely soft. That may be a consequence of such an ultra wide lens. You can't expect superb performance from every lens...especially a Tokina.

Try some USM on those, and see how they look.
 
the unsharp mask helps quite a bit but not until WELL over 100%, how much would the wideness affect the softness of the pictures?? i may just try and return the lens, see if they will let me. as soon as i get home i'll print out that test thing. thanks alot guys
 
heres 2 examples with the 90 f2.8 as a reference, they look a TON better to me. the first one focus is on the O in "turbo" and the second one i believe is on the headlight, not positive on that one though

IMG_0473.jpg


IMG_0468.jpg
 
I'm no expert on optics...but a super wide lens has to really bend the light quite a bit, that can tend to separate the different wave lengths of visible light...which (I believe) will cause things like chromatic aberration and softness.

Some lenses just have better quality glass & coatings.
 
thats true. its weird because theve usually given me really good advice in the past, and they said that that 12-24 is their most popular, best results non canon lens, like i said, im going to try and return it, see if they'll let me put it towards a different lens.
 
Obviously if you're not happy with it then return it, but I'm inclined to think it's not a faulty lens but simply getting what you pay for in a wide-angle Tokina zoom. Don't get me wrong, I have a Tokina wide-angle zoom for 35mm and think it's incredibly good value since it gives good images from 19-35mm without too much flare, distortion etc... but remember you're comparing yours with a fast prime lens. You can't really expect to get the same level of sharpness.

Sorry if I'm asking an obvious question here but what aperture and shutter speed are you using? Is there no chance that it could just be slight camera shake? Also what focal length are you using? Softness around the edges at full wide-angle is pretty much standard in a lens like that (afaik).
 
yes thats true, i am indeed comparing it to a fast prime, im thinking of sticking with primes as much as possible, as i tend to usually prefer them. those pictures are at 24, with a mid-range aperture and probably around 1/60th. i doubt its camera shake, ive never had a problem until anything slwoer than 1/50, plus i tried a few in full daylight at close to all the way closed and a fast shutter speed, and its basically the same results. what sort of lens would you recommend thats not going to break my bank account that is not this wide(i was looking at a 28-70 tokina or tamron or something, seemed nice, but not sure)???
 

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