Review: Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 Apherical AT-X 116 PRO DX

Posted on March 1st, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Photography.

A review coming soon… ;)

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Comparison with AT-X 124 PRO

Here’s some comparison side by side the Tokina AT-X 116 PRO with Tokina AT-X 124 PRO lens.

Left is AT-X 124 PRO - Right is AT-X 116 PRO

Front View

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Rear View

kkk_0808.jpg

Top View

kkk_0810.jpg

As you can see, these two lenses are so very similar!

Don’t forget that the AT-X 116 PRO is a F2.8 lens, while the AT-X 124 is a F4 lens.

Built Quality / AF MF Switch

The lens feels solid in hand. Tokina AT-X PRO series of lenses are very well designed. Focus ring and zoom ring is large and good texture, making manual focusing or zooming with ease.

The AF/MF switch design of the lens is like all other Tokina AT-X PRO series lenses. Push forward to AF, Pull backward to change to MF. You can engage or disengage the AF/MF at any position! A great design that Tamron is following in some of their lenses now. :)

Specifications

Just in case if are curious and want to read about the specifications of the lens…here they are:

tokina-atx116-specs.gif

As shown above, this lens is ONLY available in Nikon and Canon mount. Only for Nikon DX or Canon APS-C sensor. For Pentax, Sony and Olympus (4/3rd) users…sorry…don’t blame me…you go ask Tokina.

Funs in Closeup! Megumi at 30cm!

The greatest strength in this lens in my opinion is the ability to focus till very very close to your subject!

My baby is touching the lens…oops…her fingers were even on the glass already! She is 8 months old…and the lens is within her reach when I took these photos. :P

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Megumi:”Lai…lai…touch a little…”

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“Left hand touch…”

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“Right hand touch…”

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“hem! Don’t touch don’t touch loh…!”

kkk_0854.jpg

I shall post some full size resolution sample soon. :)

Distortion?

I have to admit that I did not really pay much time or attention in testing the lens, so here’s some quite sample shots of a wall of posters. I don’t see much pincushion distortion from the lens.

All photos are original none crop version, except curved, sharpen and resized to 1000px for web presentation.

At 11mm, side view of the wall

kkk_0777_11mm.jpg

At 11mm, front view of the wall

kkk_0801_11mm.jpg

At 16mm, front view of the wall

kkk_0802_16mm.jpg

Update: I did another distortion test with more proper target, slide metal curtains:

at 11mm

5603-12-2008.jpg

at 16mm

5403-12-2008.jpg

I can hardly notice any distortion from the lens! Very very good distortion control!

Sharpness?

This lens is sharp. Very very sharp. In order to show the sharpness of this lens…I sacrifice myself and become the test target of it…yeah…my fuzzy hair and mustache should be a nice area for focus testing.

To give a fair view of sharpness testing of the lens, I set my Nikon D200 to sharpness at NORMAL setting. All photos below are none edited except cropping to 100% in Paint Shop Pro. Colour setting is set to Portrait mode, so you don’t see very vibrant colour.

Flash used: Nikon SB-800 with Lambency flash diffuser

Here’s the full view of my mug shot (don’t try it on your wife… :P )

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Below: 100% crop from the above photo
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kkk_0787_c2.jpg

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How’s the bokeh?
kkk_0787_c3.jpg

Full Size Sample (Jpeg Basic from D200)

Here’s some bonus files for you to download…if you want to zoom in and out in your monitor screen. :)

Click the file name to download (around 1MB each)

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kkk_0868_s.jpg

kkk_0783.jpg
kkk_0783_s.jpg

Flare Test (Added on 31st March 2008)

Since this lens will be used outdoor most of the time, so I think flare is an important issue here.

I took some worst case scenario by shooting directly into the sun:

Both vertical and horizontal shots I took at different exposure, so that flare or ghost can be seen clearly when under exposed.

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From the above tests, I can only see one spot of small flare/ghost in the image. In my opinion, the lens is very very flare resistance! Definitely a very well designed lens for a zoom!
Summary

At the price range of around US$720 range, it is a very worth for money lens. Sharpness is superb, minimum focusing distance of 30mm of this lens is amazing! You can create extraordinary portrait shots with this lens, or amazing close-up of wildlife with great nature background!

Built quality is great. The lens feels solid and sturdy in hand. Tokina is known to have great built/design of their AT-X PRO series lenses, which in my opinion is on par if not better than Nikon and Canon similar lenses. Better than Sigma and Tamron build quality for sure.

Try it…you will love it. ;)

You can order the Tokina AT-X 116 lens at:

http://shashinki.com/shop/advanced_search_…

34 comments.

JP Denk

Comment on March 5th, 2008.

Thanks for sharing these photos. The second one is especially fun. I like the expression on your daughter’s face, and the way she is holding out her hands.

I was wondering, did you crop any of these photos? From what I can see, there is no odd distortion/softness at the edges, even at f/2.8. This was a big problem with my Nikon 12-24 mm. Are you pleased with the image quality of this lens? Have you used any of the other lenses in this category (say, the Nikon 12-24 mm or the Sigma 10-20 mm)? Thanks very much. Have a great day!

JP Denk

KhoKing

Comment on March 5th, 2008.

Hi JP Denk,

Thanks for the comments. :)

All the photos above are uncropped version. They are all original from Nikon D200, just resized for web purpose.

I do have some test shots on a wall with posters. I shall post them out later today. :)

I have not tried the Nikon 12-24mm nor Sigma 10-20mm, so I can’t comment on the comparison.

Personally, I must say that I was surprised and shocked by the sharpness of the Tokina AT-X 116 lens! I took some shots of my wife, I can count the hair of her eyebrows! Sorry, can’t post that photo though as she will kill me for posting her funny look with such a wide angle lens. :P

I shall update with some full resolution original files later. :)

Terry Ng

Comment on March 5th, 2008.

Yes, please post more pics!!! :)

JP Denk

Comment on March 5th, 2008.

Hello Again, KhoKing:

Thank you for your return comments. It seems the Tokina 11-16 lens is very sharp. I am pleased to know there is no cropping in your photos. Usually, with my Nikon 12-24, I would have to crop quite a bit from the edges. This area almost always was far too “soft” to use. I will be interested to see any other photos you are able to post. (And I understand about not posting the photo of your wife. My wife also is not eager for her photo to be shown to the world! :) Thank you for your early review of this lens. So far, it is the only useful performance information I have been able to find.

Hope you have a fine day.

JP Denk

KhoKing

Comment on March 6th, 2008.

Hi Terry and JP Denk,

Thanks for revisiting my blog.

I have updated the short review with more photos and some physical comparison with the Tokina AT-X 124 PRO lens.

Hope you guys enjoy reading. :)

JP Denk

Comment on March 6th, 2008.

Thanks again, KhoKing! I appreciate you taking time to share these files and your impressions of the lens. Your input has been extremely helpful. Even pushed at f/2.8 and 11mm settings, this seems to be a very impressive lens. I’m leaning toward purchasing it. Hopefully, it will become available in the US soon. If not, I may purchase it via the Shashinki site. Thanks again for your help. Best wishes to you and your family. And happy photography!

Fendrri

Comment on March 6th, 2008.

I’m thinking of getting myself one. I was almost going to buy the tokina 12-24mm last week when suddenly this lens was available at kakaku.com. The difference is about 10.000 yens, but if it’s a much better lens, I’m going to save some cash for the 11-16. Thanks for the short review Koh!

Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 apherical AT-X116pro - ScubaBoard

Pingback on March 9th, 2008.

[…] Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 apherical AT-X116pro Anyone try this Lens? I hear a lot about the Tokina 11-17……..but this with F2.8 (Is it even useful for WA with regard to DOF)? Here is a review KOH KHO KING Review: Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 Apherical AT-X 116 PRO DX […]

lkunl

Comment on March 13th, 2008.

Thank you very much for you review and sample pic.
Could you post some outdoor pic sample.

KhoKing

Comment on March 14th, 2008.

Hi lkunl,

I shall get some outdoor shots and some more distortion test samples soon… :)

ene

Comment on March 14th, 2008.

I’m looking too for an Ultra Wide Lens :) Just to know… how bad is the vignetting on a film camera?

KhoKing

Comment on March 14th, 2008.

Hi ene,

Sorry, I have not tried this lens on film camera. As this lens is meant for DSLR with 1.5X or 1.6X cropped sensor, so you will definitely get pretty bag vignetting or round dark corner for full frame or film SLR.

Thanks.

ene

Comment on March 14th, 2008.

I know that the 12-24 can be used from 16-17mm on 35mm with acceptable vignetting… i was hoping to gain a 16 f2.8 for my f100 :) maybe it’s too much…

KhoKing

Comment on March 14th, 2008.

Anybody wanna lend me a D3 for testing?! :D

BK

Comment on March 15th, 2008.

KKK, get D3 from your own stocks for testing… :P

KhoKing

Comment on March 15th, 2008.

BK, my wife asked me to get your phone number…she wants to discuss something with you “seriously”… :D

Nah…with a baby commitment now, I have to use my money wisely…no more luxury… :P

lkunl

Comment on March 15th, 2008.

KhoKing

one more question.
How about color saturation of 11-16 compare to 12-24 Tokina.
I use 12-24 tokina and I think 12-24 tokina is less color saturate compare to Nikon lens.

Thank you very much

lkunl

KhoKing

Comment on March 16th, 2008.

Hi lkunl,

I did not do test comparison of the two lenses, so can’t really comment on that.

Color saturation is very much depends on your DSLR, and it can be easily punched in during computer editing.

Do that note that I did not dial in extra sharpness in my Nikon D200, as I prefer to do it in computer post processing later. In my mug shot above, I can easily unsharp mask and get very sharp final image. So, don’t blame the lens for unsharp images, but do appreciate the details it delivers.

I have just uploaded another TWO distortion test images at 11mm and 16mm. :)

lkunl

Comment on March 16th, 2008.

Distortion also very good controlled like Tokina 12-24.

Thank you for new image sample.

KhoKing

Comment on March 17th, 2008.

For those who are interested in seeing a defective Tokina AT-X 116 PRO lens with bad coating:

http://shashinki.com/blog/2008/03/16/a-defective-tokina-at-x-116-pro-11-16mm-lens/

:)

Paul

Comment on March 18th, 2008.

Here is an interesting link in Japanese giving more examples.　Scroll down below the Japanese text for test images.

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/lens_review/2008/03/03/8016.html

Alan

Comment on March 22nd, 2008.

Hi there,

I think a lot of people are wondering about how this lens handles flare, since this focal length will be used outdoors a lot. I guess the simplest way to check is just to go outdoors and have the sun just out of frame or in the very corners…

Anyways, thanks for posting what you’ve already gotten up!

Alan

Comment on March 22nd, 2008.

Also, how are chromatic abberations? These are less of a problem for me but I know others have been wanting to see how this lens performs in terms of that.

KhoKing

Comment on March 25th, 2008.

Hi Alan,

I will do some flare resistance test soon… :)

cinman

Comment on March 30th, 2008.

I have just bought from ebay japan store. First impressions : after using canon 10-22 and sigma 10-20 : this lens is different . manuel focus–automatic focus ring is very fine (this is first time for tokina :))
and lens is so silent
lens focus is very good
lens body is very good
sharpness is not bad
I am not pro so I dont know how to revew a lens ::)

Ahandre

Comment on March 30th, 2008.

hi Khoking.

excellent review. I wonder if Normal thickness B+W CPL filter will cause vignetting ? Possible to test on your side ?

KhoKing

Comment on March 31st, 2008.

Just updated with flare test photos. Well done, Tokina! :)

subra

Comment on April 1st, 2008.

kk, whats the price of the ATX 116 PRO,do you have the stock ? Good review!

KhoKing

Comment on April 1st, 2008.

Hi Subra,

Thanks for the compliments.

You can order the lens at:

http://shashinki.com/shop/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=tokina+at-x+116&x=0&y=0

Cotku

Comment on April 5th, 2008.

Ken Rockwell also did a glowing review of this lens (www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/11-16mm.htm). If it perfoms as well as it appears, I suspect Tokina will have a backorder situation once it hits the U.S

A Smit

Comment on April 19th, 2008.

Excellent review. Helped me make my decision regarding the lens

hanglun

Comment on April 27th, 2008.

Thank your sharing.Can your compare canon 10-22 and tokina 11-16 which one better,this two lens price close.

Kader - mein Foto-Blog » Blog Archive » Tokina 11-16

Pingback on May 3rd, 2008.

[…] denen man sich von der Qualität des 11-16 überzeugen kann: - KennRockwell.com - Impress Watch - Koh Kho King - PBase Cameras - Flickr - Photozone - Photoscala - […]

Gandalf

Comment on May 11th, 2008.

Thank you VERY MUCH for the flare/ghosting check.

I really appreciate that, and I have ordered the lens at E-Bay - it is the only place to get it for the time being, I will not wait untill it arrives in Denmark in a month or so.

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