First impressions:
That lens is built like a tank and weighs as much... optical quality is
excellent, the lens has a constant maximum aperture of f4, pictures are
excellent.
One drawback, the Tokina 12-24 is slightly prone to flare (see
in the tips section, the Tokina anti-flare technique)
Other limitations: some copies seem to exhibit color aberration (magenta pixels around high contrast areas - for instance leafs in a tree on a sunny day) - my copy does not show this - and this can be compensated with the appropriate post processing. Some pixel peepers could see limited corner softness fully open - this is something I only see if I very closely look at an A3 print - not really an issue in practice.
- extremely solid build (metal)
- constant aperture f4
- no visible vignetting
- sharp pictures
- AF/MF switching (see cons)
- very cheap (looking at the overall performance)
- nice finishing
- lens caps and sunhood provided
- reasonably fast focus
- on par with the much more expensive Nikkor (the Nikkor is more flare
resistant)
Cons
- some flare under extreme circumstances
- AF/MF mechanism (this is a matter of taste)
- heavy ?
- does not come with a pouch
- no AF-S like AF but who cares ?
My conclusion: highly recommended
A few pictures...
A very famous landscape (@17mm, Tokina on the D200) - Maligne Lake
Interesting perspectives (museum in Hornu, Belgium)
Wide landscape shooting
And again architectural perspective @12mm (shot in Berlin)
