tokina 11-16mm v Lumix 7-14mm

T

taras4444

Well-known member
Hi all, just a general question of which you prefer and would hence recommend. I have the af100 and my only current lens is the voigtlander 25mm (not a bad first lens ;)

But now I am looking at getting a sweet wide angle and have narrowed it down to the tokina 11-16 and panny lumix 7-14mm. Obviously the panny is a lot wider and whilst some say the 7mm end adds a bit of distortion i don't necessarily mind that nightmarish look. However the cheapest i cant find from a good ebayer is around £650-£750.

One of the most talked about wide lenses on here seem to be the tokina 11-16mm, for around £450. However, if i do opt for this i would have to get an adapter too which i am clueless about and so the cost may get closer to the panny. I've heard on bhphoto some people complain about the tokina images looking "soft". However, its a lot faster.

In a perfect world Id get both... but for the time being I dont think ive ever been so much on the fence. So please sway me, what would you guys get? (I'd mainly want it for just sweet wide angle fiction and feature work).

Thanks Taras
 
I've used both and in short they're both good. You're right about the adaptor, once you've go a decent one the prices become pretty similar. I no longer have the Tokina, but still use the Lumix. There is a lot of distortion on the wide end, but if you're static in a small room (like a hotel room, which I do a lot of), the extra width really helps. Don't worry about it being slow, when you're that wide everything's going to be in focus anyway.
 
I've got the 7-14, it's my favorite Lumix lens. Super-mega-shockingly wide. Plus no need for an adapter, and hey, the iris control actually works... big thumbs up for the 7-14.
 
Barry_Green said:
I've got the 7-14, it's my favorite Lumix lens. Super-mega-shockingly wide. Plus no need for an adapter, and hey, the iris control actually works... big thumbs up for the 7-14.
Click to expand...

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what do you mean "the iris control actually works"?..The reason I ask is I went into my local shop today after work and played with the AF100 and the Lumix 20mm f1.7 for about 20 minutes....to say the least, I was massively disappointed at the iris control. When set to manual, it was.....I don't even know how to explain it..totally messed up. I'd roll the iris ring up and nothing would happen...then it would..then it wouldn't...iris up...iris down....took me a good 25 seconds to actually dial in the f-stop I wanted....it was totally unresponsive and felt like a toy.

Is this the normal way it usually is?
 
I mean that the Tokina doesn't have an iris ring on it.

All the iris controls on all the Lumix lenses are awful. Now, it sure shouldn't have taken 25 seconds(!!!) to dial it in, obviously. It's a little bit slow, but it works.
 
i have to say the Tokina.... Really, it is a sweet wide angle, and much faster than the panasonic. Dulcos lenses actually rehouses it and sells it as a PL mounted cine-lens for around $3500, it is that good. The 2.8 constant aperture is nice, and with the right adapter controlling the iris is really a non-issue. I find that 11mm is really wide enough, and I hardly ever use it wider than 16mm actually. Also, it will cover s35 completely (and FF35 at focal lenght >15mm), so you can use it on future cameras. The cost of the adapter may make the price even with the panny, but you can always use that adapter for other leses as well as you build your set. BTW; I would recommend getting the nikon version unless you can afford one of the electronic canon adaptors like the redrock that can control the lenses iris (not one of the cheap ones with the cheesy external iris), and make sure to get a decent quality nikon adaptor like the novaflex if you go the nikon route. Really, I have the tokina in the nikon mount and love it. No regrets whatsoever on that lens.
 
Hey, i opted for the lumix 7-14mm today. Anyone know how I can change the aperture setting? It was showing 5. something today inside, apparently its suppose to go to 4 something? Is there a way to control the apperture via the camera as theres only a focus and zoom ring.
 
I don't know why, but at 11-12mm, it's impossible for anything indoors within a reasonable distance to end up in focus...not sure if I'm confused or what.
 
KyleProhaska said:
Perhaps I'm just missing something here, but indoors my Tokina is almost useless. In a pretty big room at 11mm I can't for the life of me focus on the room...it's always soft. Not until I increase to about 14mm+ can I actually get the room sharp. Things up close is a different story, that's easier...but what good is the lens if I can't get the room sharp? Outdoors obviously things are fine because the subject is either close or VERY far away, but indoors...the real reason I bought the lens, it seems to be useless.

I wonder if the Nikon Adapter I have is somehow messing with the optics? It doesn't mess with my other Nikon primes, but it's the only thing I can think of.

Anybody else know what the issue might be? I put the lens up for sale and have a lot of takers but never got rid of it because I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong here...either way it's driving me mad.
Click to expand...
Try putting it on a DSLR and take some shots at the problematic F-stops and zoom. At least you can see if it's the mount.
This lens is so popular I think you might have a bad copy. Warranty?
 
Because I work with Nikon Primes I bought the Nikon version so I can't put it on my Canon 5D. I do have another Nikon adapter but it has no iris control, so I can't really use it indoors even if I put it on it to find out if my other adapter with aperture control is the problem. If it is that sucks because it's the main reason I bought it in the first place, so I can use the Tokina.

Frustrating to be sure...
 
Just did a test outside with a subject that's about as far away as the corner walls of my apartment.

@ 16mm I can get within the focus distance of about 1ft and get things sharp.

@ 11mm things get more complicated. If I'm wide open, and I take the focus to as far left as it will go (meaning focusing as close as I can), my subject outside (the one that's about 10ft away, not 1ft) NEVER comes into focus. I slowly lowered my stop range to try and get it sharp and it got a little sharper but nowhere near acceptable in my opinion. Indoors this is a problem that I can't use the wide end of the lens. 14-16mm seems to be OK, but still...it stinks to be stuck there. On top of that, I need to keep the lens basically wide open.

Hmm... :/
 
Sounds like a back focus problem to me, which may well be due to sloppy tolerances in the lens adapter. Back focus is more critical the wider the lens (because the light impinges on the sensor from a steeper angle, therefore any error is magnified into a larger circle of confusion) which may explain why you never saw the problem with your other primes. Is there any way to shim your adapter?

- Greg
 
The issue is not light. My adapter lets me go from wide open all the way to closed and I did the test out in broad daylight. Also there's no way to electronically control the Tokina from the AF100, it's only via the adapter. Regardless it seems to be an issue with my adapter because at 11mm I can get closer to something sharp if I stop down the lens pretty far, but even so that's not practical indoors.

Does anyone own the Tokina and an AF100? What adapter are YOU using specifically?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top