Great image quality for an after-market lens. Fantastic for scenics!

Slight flare without hood. Maximum aperature of f/3.5. Wish it were f/2.8, but for the money...

One of the better aftermarket lenses out there. Very sharp and detailed images can be obtained from this lens. I use it with my old Canon A-1 bodies and are darn close to the image quality of the original Canon FD prime lenses at a third of the price! Flare is an issue with any extreme wide-angle lens and there is an original lens hood available at B&H Photo on special order (as of 5-16-05). This hood will quiet all the complaints of the flare issue! If you can find one of these in your mount, BUY IT! Thay have been out of production for some time now and will be lost to history soon.

Customer Service

Never needed.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor AI-S and Canon FD wide-angle lens of various focal lengths.

build quality sharp good contrast good color 17mm is great

some light fallout on edges loose focusing range

Typical great Tokina solid build quality. This lens is built like a tank! 17mm is a great experience. My first experience with this lens was at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The outside swimming pool photograph with this lens turn out perfectly sharp, good contrast and great colors! The indoor photograph of the dining room was amazingly sharp with perfect exposure. I could not have taken a picture of the church without this 17mm lens which just fitted in the frame perfectly! The only issue I have with the lens is that the focusing ring is too loose. Sometimes I would see shoots that have some light fallout on the edges. Other than that, this is a great lens!

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 19-35 f3.5 - f4.5 Tokina 24-200 AT-X f3.5 - f5.6 Sigma 24-70 f3.5 - f5.6

Low distortions, good sharpness, good contrast. Small, easy to carry. Very strong construction.

It tends to flare easily (as do most of the lenses with big front elements). Filter size 67mm is not a standard with Nikon but there are step rings, so one can use 77 or 72mm.

Regarding the price it's the best wideangle prime lens one can get. Although it is a good idea to test before the buy because there are big differences between examples. The first one i've got has strong light fall off in the corners. The one i have now is ok. Low distortions and good sharpness even in the corners. I've tried a identical looking Vivitar which was bad regarding distortions and contrast.

Customer Service

Never used.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 18-35/3,5-4,5ED, Sigma 15-30/3,5-4,5 , Vivitar 17/3,5 , Voiglaender Super wide Heliar 15/4,5

Pictures that otherwise would not be taken are possible. Excellent sharpness, good color, good contrast, extremely low - to no - distortion.

Moderate to heavy flare - Is there a lens hood for 17 mm lenses?

Affordable, good performing lens, but be careful of light source - flare can be a problem.

Customer Service

not tried

Similar Products Used:

For extreme wide angle: Supplementary fish-eye lenses (Low cost is a major factor). All other 35mm slr lenses I now ha

Usable on both AF and manual bodies. Very sharp with little distortion. Very low flare and high contrast.

No standard lens hood and filter size not common with other lenses

One of my favorite lenses and is always with me no matter which body I use. As I have an extensive collection of fixed focal lenght Pentax lenses, the quality of this lens is a match.

Customer Service

I have had 2 of these. My first was stolen along with a body.

Similar Products Used:

None

good optic performer, reasonable price, quite compact in size, filtersize of 67mm is moderate and filters are available almost every

no lenshood supplied as standard, prone to flare (not uncommon to extreme wide-angle lenses though)

I sold my 19mm wide-angle and soon regretted it. As the Vivitar was no longer available, I looked for another lens and found the Tokina as a secondhand lens. The optical performance was praised by the salesperson; he even showed a copy of a test from a magazine. I was convinced, at least by the price, new or secondhand.
This lens does live up to the promises: good sharpness, fine contrast, little to no distortion.
I prefer zooms rather than a lot of primes when on holiday, but this lens I always carry with me.
I can only recommend it to everyone looking for a extreme wide-angle lens with good performance and reasonable price.

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

Vivitar 3.8/19; Vivitar 4-4.5/17-28 zoomlens

Distortion always less than I fear when using the lens.
Good apparent sharpness.
Good contrast.
Main strength is that the super-wide view and perspective challenges the imagination and can help make an average photo into a stunning one.

Flare is difficult to eliminate.
Straight lines in the picture will be distorted.
Camera meters can be easily fooled - use an incidence meter (as well)

A challenging lens in use. Its weaknesses (inherent in all superwides - flare, distortion, contrast, vignetting and sharpness) are offset by the sheer impact of the images. The sharpness may not be wonderful (it is good, though) but there's so much in the frame that the viewer doesn't get much chance to nit-pick the edge sharpness etc. Who needs AF at 17mm??

Customer Service

OK

Similar Products Used:

Fujinon-X 19mm EBC

Very sharp image, good neutral color, strong construction.

Rare size for filter in Russia.

Very good lens, average price.

Similar Products Used:

None