Tokina 12-17 lens for Canon

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Rick Murry

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Location
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
# of dives
100 - 199
Some time ago someone was looking for a Tokina 10-17 lenses and I just saw a Tokina 12-17 lense on craigslist. Is that the same lense or does anyone know the practical differences for wideangle U/W photography. I am not that familiar with Tokina lenses.

Rick Murry
 
Excuse me...I just looked again and it was a Tokina 12-22 lense. Would that have the same application to do the job as well as a Tokina 10-17

Rick Murry
 
I think you mean tokina 12-24. It is a rectilinear lens and will be very different than the 10-17. The 12-24 focuses to 30 inches while the 10-17 focuses to 6 inches or less. They are designed for different things but both will be fine for general reef scenes.
 
Thanks for the insight....I have heard that the 10-17 is hard to come by. I appreciate the feedback. Does the Canon wide angle lenses measure up to the Tokina??? Just wondering

Rick Murry
 
Thanks for the insight....I have heard that the 10-17 is hard to come by. I appreciate the feedback. Does the Canon wide angle lenses measure up to the Tokina??? Just wondering

Rick Murry

The Tokina 10-17 is a full frame fisheye lens (as to opposed to a circular image fisheye). A fisheye lens by definition renders straight lines that cut across anywhere other than the center of the field as curved lines. A fisheye lens will have a FOV of up to 180 degrees diagonally, typically 150 to 180 degrees.

The 12-22 is a rectilinear lens, straight lines are rendered as straight lines and the FOV diagonal is in the range of about 100 degrees maximum or so.

Many people enjoy using a fisheye lens like the Tokina because they can get very close to their subject and still get a huge FOV to encompass the subject and scenery and thus minimizing the water column between the lens and the subject and getting in close enough to allow a strobe to be effective. This is true be it a compact with a wet lens fisheye such as made by Inon or a dSLR with a fisheye lens such as the Tokina. The curved lines and fisheye effect are not objectionable because there are usually very few straight lines underwater helping to disguise the severe distortion.

Fisheye lens test for my new camera, not a Tokina but the result would be similar if not more extreme:

IMG_0024.jpg


They are completely different lenses.

N
 
Thanks Nemrod,
thats why I love this forum....you get thoughtful advice without havin to surf all over the place.

Rick Murry
 
Nemrod: Is there a Tokina 12-22? I think I am pretty sure that it is a 12-24. Of course you are right about the lenses. There is no Canon lens that is comparable to the 10-17 at all, it is unique and hard to find although you can get them occasionally on ebay or in Hong Kong. If you can find one get it.

Bill
 
Nemrod: Is there a Tokina 12-22? I think I am pretty sure that it is a 12-24. Of course you are right about the lenses. There is no Canon lens that is comparable to the 10-17 at all, it is unique and hard to find although you can get them occasionally on ebay or in Hong Kong. If you can find one get it.

Bill

I have a Canon mount 10-17, yeah, I don't know the focal length of the other lens, just that it is a rectilinear lens because I looked at it when I bought this one.

For about a week I also had a Canon T1i until I decided to return it. I played around with it with the Tokina, the FOV is somewhat larger FOV than the image displayed above from the Inon UFL165AD fisheye lens but very similar, very similar. The Inon lens above is working at a disadvantage, it is UW corrected and actually gets wider underwater. So, with the obvious limitations of a P&S vs dSLR, it would, nonetheless, give the Tokina a run. Oh, BTW, I kept the Tokina 10-17 for a rainy day, the camera was, however, a clunker. It was so clunky it burned my hands in disgust. Canon S90, good, Canon T1i, not so good.

N
 
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What about the T1i didn't you like? In my hands at least, the DSLR cameras including the T1i have quite a bit better IQ than the S90, so I am interested in your comments since my brother wants to get into an UW system but isn't very serious. On the plus side, if you want to sell the Tokina, you can probably make a bit of money on it since there are none available at all in the states right now that anyone can find.

Bill
 
What about the T1i didn't you like? In my hands at least, the DSLR cameras including the T1i have quite a bit better IQ than the S90, so I am interested in your comments since my brother wants to get into an UW system but isn't very serious. On the plus side, if you want to sell the Tokina, you can probably make a bit of money on it since there are none available at all in the states right now that anyone can find.

Bill

I do not want to sell the lens--I may need it.

Just me, but I used to own cameras like the Olympus OM-1 and the Nikon FMIIT and the Leica rangefinders and Nikonos III. I like knobs for shutter and a lens ring for f stop. I like cameras that I can turn on and shoot without pushing buttons. The T1i required me to push buttons, it would get into some sort of mode that it would not come out of without me turning the camera off. Twice I had to use reset to get it to behave. Beats me :idk:

The other thing, I like looking at an LCD underwater and the Live View was slow, clunky and not all practical. I am no longer big on optical vf now that I wear glasses, I cannot see through them, sorry, just me maybe.

The camera, the T1i, was too thick and heavy, why are they so big? Why are there no knobs for basic controls--like the S90 and a film SLR?

The IQ, based on what, the printing equipment, tele, laptop screen are more limiting that almost any camera today.

Sooo, seriously, I took it back like a busted toaster oven and got me a S90 to tide me over until the EVILs entice me. I think I am off the SLR camp for good.

Look, if you want or like an SLR, please don't allow me to influence you any or even at all, I am very particular about things and use a different criteria for judgment than most (small size, control knobs, I am not a pro, do not want to be a pro, do not sell or intend to publish) so take what I say with that in mind, just a guy who wants what he wants and a dSLR just is not it unless they make it work like an OM1.

Another thing while I rant, cameras today are party indoor cameras, my old Nikons would work in the rain, in the snow, on top of a mountain or below the sea, they required no batteries and I could focus, shoot and set exposure nearly as fast if not faster than some of these auto doodads that sit their and rack back and forth trying to focus on something which I might not want in focus??????? WTH. Can I just have a digital SLR with ONLY manual focus, manual exposure, knobs, one switch to turn it on and off and one simple auto mode like Av and gasket-ed controls and shock proof construction and freaking nothing else--thank you.

OMV

N
 

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