UKC

Have a Nikon D3200.

Looking for a wide angle zoom lens, it's mainly for landscape and nighttime sky stuff. Seemed to have narrowed it down to two

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM

The Tokina is more expensive but happy to go for it if its worth it.

Any thoughts and opinions and advice welcome.

In reply to davegs:

I've had both on a D5000 then a D7000: Sigma (the f/3.5 version) initially then replaced by the Tokina. For me, the latter was better but others on here have had different experiences. There have been several threads on the subject so it would be worth trawling the history.

In reply to Fraser:

I would agree with the above ,also the tokina being a faster lens would have an advantage for night photography.
I have owed them both but on different camera systems so hard to judge whether one was better than the other .On reviews the tokina is considered to be a sharper lens.

In reply to davegs:

Hey man, I can't comment on the two, But I have a Nikkor 50mm f1.8.
Even on a DX body it works great for astro and Landscapes can pick it up at a reasonable price. I would imagine that's not wide enough for you?

In reply to Bootrock:

Hi
I have the Nikkor 35m f1.8 which is brilliant but just wanted to go wider.

In reply to davegs:

Have got the Sigma and am very happy with it on both a film and digital Nikon.

In reply to davegs:

Of those two the tokina is nicer. Have you tried a wide lens before?
This two are quite wide, nice though but I found I got better shots slightly longer so I sold both and now have the tokina 12-28 f4 DX

In reply to davegs:

Also, does anyone know if these have a focus motor or whether it's just manual?

In reply to davegs:
The Sigma has an inbuilt motor. The Tokina didn't used to, but the newer model now does.

In reply to davegs:

Thanks for all the advice.

Right, plumped for the Sigma. Couple of reasons, 1. Sigma has autofocus built in. 2. The cost, cheaper by £85

Prepare for a flurry of poor quality wide angle shots!

In reply to davegs:

Good luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. For the record, the Tokina does now have an internal motor, it was just the mk. 1 models which didn't. Still, £85 is a noticeable difference. Have fun and be sure to post the results!

In reply to Fraser:

The £85 difference was for the MK1 without the auto focus. The MK2 would've been a lot more.

In reply to davegs:

Ah right, makes sense. I managed to pick up a second hand mk. 1 on here after I upgraded from the d5000 to the d7000, which has the motor in the body. Another plus for the Sigma is the extra 'width'.

In reply to davegs:

One point you will want to consider is how easy the lens is to focus manually. Most modern glass does not have a hard stop at infinity making astro/aurora and other dark photography quite tricky. If the camera can't get a focus lock and you can't do it by eye because it's dark then your in for a rough night.

Cheers

In reply to seaofdreams:

Nikon 3200 has liveview which is by far the best way to do it, focus manually at 100% zoom.

In reply to seaofdreams:

I was going to post a thread about this but thought that I was just a numpty, is there any way to make this easier as the auto focus on my 18-70 is broken.

Thanks
Steve

In reply to seaofdreams:

I will do what I've done with my other lenses, focus to infinity during the day time and put a small mark on the focus ring.

In reply to I'd rather be climbing:

Take a look at http://www.lonelyspeck.com/focusing-at-night/

I've never had much success with the live view method mostly because wide lenses tend to mean smaller bright objects and more uncertainty. When the noise creeps up its hard to tell between noise and blur. Deep dark sky results in very little apparent exposure between foreground and sky. auroras are worse as they tend to be diffuse objects making life even more complex however an understanding of the above link can help.

Or buy a manual lens with a hard stop. Either the 16 mm fish eye or 24 mm f/2.8 AIS Nikkor are good bets. I've not tried but samgyang do a 14 mm with very little barrel distortion. I've got the sammy 24 mm tilt shift and I don't recommend it.

Check that they work correctly with your body.

In reply to davegs:

If that works for you then go for it. My modern glass has the focus point behind a plastic screen and thus I can't mark it

In reply to davegs:

The Tokina is a stunning lens