Lens advice please

[Phil Durow]

Hi all.

I am looking for a new lens for my Canon 350D. I have narrowed it down to either;

Canon EF-S 10 - 22mm f/3.5 - 4.5 USM or
Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye

They are both similar priced but with the Tokina I won't need to buy another port for my Ikelite housing.

I have no experience with Tokina lenses so have no idea whether it would be worth getting this lens. Also with the Canon lens being to 22mm instead of 17mm should I just bite the bullet and get the Canon and a new port?

Any advice welcome please.

Phil

[KenByrne]

I use a Tokina macro lens and have no qualms about the quality. I have a Tokina 10-17 on order.

The Tokina and the Canon are very different lenses. The Tokina is a fisheye lens so gives a distrorted image that at the 10mm end covers 180 degrees. The canon is a rectilinear lens that gives a relatively undistorted image that is 107 degrees at 10mm. The fisheye is also capable of focusing closer which can be an advantage underwater.

I'm a Nikon shooter and already own the Nikon 12-24 which is similar to the Canon lens and I've used it a lot and land as well as underwater. I've seen shots taken with fisheye lenses and think they make for interesting shots particualry underwater where there are few straight lines. I expect to carry on using the 12-24 on land and occassionally underwater with the fisheye being an almost exclusively underwater lens.

More than the decsion of Canon versus Tokina or considering the need for a new port you need to decide whether it's the extreme wideangle of fisheye or the rectilinear Canon.

[Phil Durow]

Thanks Ken. I didn't realise the Canon wasn't a fisheye lens to be honest. Thanks for pointing it out. Looks like the Tokina then. As I hadn't heard of the company before I just wanted reassurance that they were good lenses for the money. I am glad to hear they are.

Thanks,

Phil

[KenByrne]

The fisheye zoom is one of their ATX range which is their higher quality lenses. This one was originally developed for Pentax and has been on the market for several months as a Pentax lens.

The best price I could find for it was at Microglobe photographic equipment retailer in London UK Digital slr nikon canon accessories tripods film cameras and that's where mine is on order but they don't have stock yet.

There are some samples and discussion here Tokina 10-17 FE test fotos I - Wetpixel :: Underwater Photography Forums

[Phil Durow]

Thanks again Ken. That is a lot cheaper than I have found so far. I will email them and find out when they expect delivery. If not more than a month then my order goes in.