Rokinon 14mm vs Tokina 11-16mm??

V

vision_filmz

Carbonite Member
In attempt to buy two lenses instead of one I am thinking that just maybe I can buy the Rokinon 14mm and 85mm for the price of the Tokina 11-16mm.

Currently my only wide lens is a Zinitar 16mm lens which is great for the wide angle, but I ust admit it is really soft wide open at f/2.8.


Now in no comparison do I think the 14mm Rokinon lens can compare to the Tokina 11-16mm , but surely it must be better than my Zinitar 16mm?

Opinions?
Thanks
 
the samyang 14mm has a lot more distortion, and more vignetting wide open, but on APS-C it is a very, very sharp lens, corner to corner, even wide open, and has a lot less CA (which is easy to correct on stills, not so much in video)
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/533-samyang14f28eosapsc?start=1
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/666-tokina1116f28eos?start=1

when the samyang 14mm starts to suffer is when you mount it on a full frame camera: vignetting becomes huge, distortion becomes ugly (mustache), and corner sharpness goes down the drain
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/532-samyang14f28eosff?start=1
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/...LensComp=769&CameraComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0

but on APS-C it's a very solid contender (if you can live with the distortion), and half the price indeed!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0014Z3XMC
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003VS9UP4
also, for the Samyang, I'd get that Nikon version I linked to, and a cheap adapter off ebay: you don't know what your next camera will be, and being more future-proof is a very important thing too
 
Not really a fan of distortion, especially since this will be for filming female models. So do you recommend I just pay extra for the tokina 11-16mm or just buy the rokinon 14mm? Woman don't like that distortion look, is it something I can fix in post?

Help me out, thanks!
 
what kind of beauty shots are you shooting with such a wide lens? I'd guess full body shots in a tight place where you can't take a step back, or very wide shots where the subject appears relatively small in the middle of the frame - any other thing just doesn't seem to make sense to me: even with the tokina and its nearly perfect rectilinear projection, such a wide lens will inevitably distort the image, if not in the sense of a lens' image quality issue, then just because of the unnatural perspective
http://stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/lensdistortion/strippage.htm
at 11mm, any face appearing in any place that's not precisely the center of the frame will most likely look just horrible

anyway: I have the tokina, and I think it's a great lens; I also have the samyang 8mm fisheye, and it's awesome (I'm not sure if I should add a "for the price": I haven't tried more expensive fisheye options, but I've read at worst it's a close contest); I know the samyang is not nice for full frame, but I'm not sure how good the tokina is there either (it can work as a 15-16mm f/2.8 on ff); still, for me it was an easy choice: I share that lens with someone who shoots only stills and requires AF, so the Samyang was not a contender
 
Well think a distance of about 10 feet in low light where an model/singer would perform a song. In order to get a shot from the top of her head to her feet requires me to step back, which in a sense cause light loss.

At 16mm with the zinitar I was able to be at a good distance and still record perfectly, anything above that just isn't wide enough. Now the tokina 11-16mm could be used also in tight location such as small rooms as well as cars, were it would give it the real "large" look. If the the Rokinon 14mm was as good as the Tokina then I could save some money, but if the Tokina 11-16mm is really that much better than I would obviously pay the difference. I completely understand that these lenses will distort anyways, but I would not be on top of the subject, I would always at least be about 5-10 feet away.
 
Canon also makes a nice wide angle for cropped sensor cams, the 10mm-22mm, for $770:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-EF-S-10-22mm-3-5-4-5-Digital/dp/B0002Y5WXE

Ken Rockwell likes it well enough:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/1022.htm

But it is slower then the Tokina.

I've read mixed reviews of the Roki 14mm - Mr. Rockwell didn't like his copy, although I've heard others say he must have had a bad copy; that their copy was spot on. I'm torn as well... but the one for sure positive (or negative, depending on your POV) the Roki is that it is fully manual - meaning it'll port to Sony or Panasonic easily via a "dumb" adapter.
 
sam.14 nikon is a great investment. As is tok.11-16 due to its popularity

i disagree that its bad on FF, unbeatable for the money (which, as always, is the relevant factor on buying lenses)
 
I just went ahead and bought the Tokina 11-16mm lens , I could have chanced it with the Rokinon 14mm , but My gut told me to go with the Tokina.......

$670 brand new with a 3 year warranty from an Ebay seller....
Thanks Everyone
 
The Tokina will serve you well in a wider range of uses than the 14mm prime. At 11mm it is a spectacular tool for ultra tight environments like cars and such. At 16mm is is nearly distortion free and as sharp as nearly any wide lens made. The combination for tight, wide and landscape with incredible sharpness is unmatched anywhere. Most importantly for me, it's a great lens on a stabilizer.

Cheers,
Pete
 
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