Tokina 12-24 CA's vs. Tamron 10-24 corner sharpness

[philip_tam]

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I have a Tamron 10-24mm lens, and I bought a Tokina 12-24mm to compare, and I'm considering switching. When I recieved the package, I went outside and snapped a few pics quickly.</p>

<p>Indeed, the Tokina is sharper on the edges, but then something jumped out at me: it creates obscene CA's. I thought I might have recieved a lemon, so I went and exchanged it and tested it again. Same problem.</p>

<p>The test picture was this picture below, shot with a D60 with no CA correction, at f/8:<br>

<a href="http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3632/tokinavtamronsample.jpg">http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3632/tokinavtamronsample.jpg</a></p>

<p>And here are 100% crops of the bottom (where the foliage is) and the cars (where the CA is).</p>

<p>I shoot RAW, and I have a D5000 with automatic CA correction, but I'm wondering what I'm losing by correcting *that much* CA. More than anything, I'm just shocked and feel like it's interesting for people to see.<br>

<a href="http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/850/tokinavstamron.jpg">http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/850/tokinavstamron.jpg</a></p>

 

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>My Tokina 11-16 supposedly has bad CA problems, but I never have a problem with them in real-world images... My 18-200 was a little worse, and I have a dozen or so images I've had to seriously massage, but it was no big deal in the grand scheme of things.</p>

<p>For me, I'd rather have sharpness, since CA is easy to manage in my D90.</p>

<p>Also, you're showing 100% crops. What happens in printing? A lot less in my experience.</p>

<p>Where bad CA hits home the most in my experience is with bokeh, and in ultra-wide lenses, who cares about that.</p>

<p>Also, the build quality of the Tamron ultra-wides is a deal-breaker for me anyway. And I LOVE the Tokina clutch mechanism. I like it better than real-time AF-S over-ride actually.</p>

[philip_tam]

<p>I've actually found the Tamron to be very solid. Nothing wobbles, nothing feels loose, and the tolerances seem really tight. It's closer to my Nikkor 60mm micro than my kit lens. On the other hand, both of the Tokina's I have, the central body feels like a nice, hefty brick, but the focus ring wobbles quite a bit. The zoom ring is nice, dampened, and firm though.</p>

<p>My chief complaint about the Tamron is the corner sharpness (when I didn't like it, I cropped out the bad parts) and the simple, no frills M/AF mechanical focus. Softness can't be saved... CA can (I pushed the same image through CA correction and it disappeared for the Tokina pics). For the focusing motor, it feels really terrible when you accidentally turn the focusing ring when AF is engaged. The Tokina focus clutch is awesome.</p>

<p>This is kind of a tough decision... I'm seeing the Tokina vignette in the corners at 12mm too... so I'd be giving up a whole 10-13mm.</p>

[eric_arnold]

<p>hi, i've had the tokina for 4 years. the build quality is very reassuring. CA with it is less of a problem on a d90 or d300, but in your situation, i think you have to decide which lens is better for you,</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Philip, if your Tokina vignettes at 12mm, could it be there is a filter on it? Vignetting, I only have seen it as problem with thick filters, and slightly so with a normal size UV filter. So, be sure to check the lens without filters.<br>

I've got the Tokina 12-24 for quite a lot of time, never really have had major issues with the CA at all (including on bodies that do not correct for it - D50 and D80). On the D300, it is a non-issue.<br>

The lack of 10-12mm, I can understand that it is a miss, but for the other complaints, well, it might be mine is a top sample but maybe you are searching a bit for the errors? I know, every review wrote how much CA the Tokina has, so I checked for it too. After not finding it in any amount that takes away from the aesthetic qualities of the photo (subjective, but to me the only really interesting), I stopped worrying about it.<br>

And yes, the Tokina's feel like how lenses should feel. Properly sturdy.</p>