FEEL.BUILD QUALITY.VERY GOOD FOR THE MONEY

COULD BE FASTER

VERY GOOD PERFORMANCE AND BUILD QUALITY FOR THE MONEY.I REALLY LIKE THIS LENS.WHAT A SMOOTH OPERATION.OF COURSE IT COULD BE FASTER APERTURE WISE BUT THEN AGAIN YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ALL CAN YOU?

Customer Service

NOT NEEDED YET

Similar Products Used:

PENTAX 35-80
TAMRON 28-200

Lightweight, compact, versitile, Nice and wide.
Sharp Sharp Sharp!!!

lens hood is a joke.
focus ring wiggles a bit, and manual focus has no feel to it.
very soft wide-open.
MFD (minium focus distance) is not close enough for me

A great entry level lens, inexpensive, and light-weight. Produces sharp prints, even to 16X20. Sharpness sweet-spot is f8 - f11, which is ideal for landscape anyway.

Customer Service

na

Similar Products Used:

sigma 17-35
canon 20mm

cheap and wide zoom?

everything. the lense tself is erypoorly built and would break with any drop or good bump. the optical quality is about what you should expect for $200. the lense is so plastic that it makes a vivitar sound good.
the build is it's worst quality.

this lense is a very cheap lense. peple who buy this lense generally don't want to shell out 1500 for a pro wide zoom. thats very understandable. but I wouldn't suggest this lense to my worst enemy on my worst day. I would suggest the tokina 20-35 f2.8 cause it's only $550 for that and it has excellent qualities all the way through. or the nikon 18-35 that just came out, or for canon there the 20-35 f3.5-4.5. try to avoid this lense if you can afford it, cause believe me your getting what you pay for. be cheap and thats what you got.

Customer Service

none.

Similar Products Used:

20-40 tamron. 20 35 nikon. 17-35 nikon.

The construction feels very "serious", although lightweight. The rings are really smooth, even the focussing ring (Pentax AF) which is slightly too few braked, but not loose.
The length of the lens does not vary, neither while focussing not while zooming (nice with a hand on the polar. filter). The front lens rotates, but NOT the filter ring... Nice with Polar/effect filters, too.
The images are sharp enough for me when stopped down between f/8 and f/16. Did some tests real-life and with charts in "normal usage conditions" (no real pro lens test conditions : 100ASA film, good tripod but not professional): sharpness was similar to Pentax 28-70 f/4 AL with same aperture and focal (I'm NOT saying this lens is as good, just it's similar in these conditions).
AF is fast enough.

Distortion is really noticeable.
Expect vignetting at full aperture.
Also expect vignetting with a standard ring filter (not slim) at 19mm, even stopped down => you must buy a 100$ slim Polar!!!
Saw some flare, only with sun hitting the lens.

I had to choose between this lens and the SIGMA 17-35 f/2.8-4.0 EX.
For outdoor photography, where I stop down to f/8 or smaller apertures most of the time, the Tokina does a very good job for 1/3 of the price.
Do not buy this lens if you plan to shoot architecture (heavy distorsion) or to use it wide open (vignetting and probably reduced sharpness/contrast). For my photography usage, it was the very best buy and I'm happy.

Customer Service

Not needed, yet... Cross fingers.

Similar Products Used:

Pentax 28-70 f/4.0 AL for the 28-35 range
Nothing in the 19-28 range

Light weight, fit and finish very good. Feels sturdy. Optically quite good when stopped down to f/8 or more.

At this price, no real weaknesses.

This is a very good value in the ultra wide zoom category. I considered the Sigma 17-35, but this was less than half the price of the Sigma. I also considered the Canon 20-35, but that was $350 used. Simply too much money for the Canon. I have used this Tokina for a couple of weeks, and shot about 8 rolls and have reached the following conclusions:
1) stop it down to f/8 or better. Optically it is very sharp at this aperture. It isn't particularly soft at more wide open apertures, but the images are nice and crisp when the lens is stopped down.
2) The autofocus is perfectly adequate. It makes a little zzzzt sound, but it is quick and sure footed. No problems shooting sports like soccer or baseball.
3) The lens is best used outdoors. With a flash indoors, you have to be careful about light fall off at the edges.
4) This is well built lens. I have not experienced any wobble, wiggle or looseness in either zooming or focusing. It mounts solidly to the camera and the fit and finish are excellent. It is light because the barrel is made of plastic. This is not a problem for me. I'm not using it as a hammer, after all.
5) Highly recommended for hikers, general shooting outdoors, and for scenics. Also a good lens for use in crowded conditions. An excellent value at $200. Also, I recommend the hood, although I haven't had any flare problems with the lens in any shooting conditions. The hood helps protect the large front elememt.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

No ultra wide zooms

Cheap, wide coverage, excellent build quality, cheap.

Some light falloff in the corners, some softness also in the corners, heavy.

An excellent consumer lens. I didn't want to spend mega-bucks for this focal length since it's not one of my primary lenses, and this fit the bill well. The sharpness is outstanding and the construction is excellent. It sure doesn't feel like plastic to me, but they tell me it is.

Customer Service

Haven't had any contact with them.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon AF-S 17-35/2.8, Tokina 20-35/2.8 ATX, Sigma 17-35/2.8-4

very sharp stopped down excellent color/contrast
modest distortion levels for a wide zoom
solid build, yet light weight

hood should be provided with lens

This is an OUTSTANDING consumer wide angle zoom lens. Sharpness is good wide open, and excellent stopped down. Distortion levels are modest for a wide zoom. Great for outdoor photography!

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon 24-85
Tamron 24-135

Sharp and contrasty lens. Was purchased to go beyond the range of my Canon 28-105 lens. I shoot with it more than the Canon lens.Tokina blows it away at the 28 and 35 range.

None noted so far.

If you want a wide angle zoom and do not want to pay much money, get this lens! While its not an L-series lens, but for the money, its not bad. Also, I did not want to pay the bigger money for the Sigma product in this category. May step up to the Tokina pro AtX version later on, but for now, this lens is more of my primary lens.

Customer Service

Have not tried yet but rebate took forever to come back!

Similar Products Used:

None

Decent build quality, inexpensive

Focusing ring has no real feel to it, but that's nit picking.

Excellent lens for those who want to add a ultra wide-wide zoom to their arsenal, but don't want to blow a wad on a dedicated lens or pay the inflated price of one of the other second party makers. Auto focus, though a bit noisy, is surprisingly quick. Build quality was also better than I expected after reading reviews here. Money well spent!

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 17-35mm

Versatile range. No wobbles or rough noises. Low distortion. Smooth controls.

Light build quality. Extra charge for shade. Falloff at wider apertures.

My default lens. Good feel, nice performance when stopped down, may really be 19mm at wide end (Vivitar won't go as wide). Fairly quiet and doesn't hunt (on a Canon A2). Build and performance are quite nice - for the money they're great.

Similar Products Used:

Vivitar 19-35 Series 1 in manual focus.