Hi. Been absent from school for awhile. Do I need to bring a doctors excuse?
I recently sold off 2 digital bodies, 3 film bodies, and several lenses to help finance a new Fuji S5. I could have easily got a D300 instead... newer technology and such, but I've lusted after the S5 for so long I stuck with my gut.
My lens collection is pretty lean as far as "fast" glass is concerned, so now I'm looking at practical (meaning practical for me) choices to start putting a small arsenal of lens' together. To be frank, all the talk of... "you
must have f/1.2", or ... "you
must have f/1.4" ... or, ... "you
must spend US$1000 to US$1500 on one lens" ... is really putting me off, so I'm feeling rebelious towards the elitist masses. I say... f/1.8, f/2, f/2.8, f/4 is
not bad. Then the question I always have to ask them (in my mind), and myself is... are you making money at this, to afford such fine "Pro" glass, or are you just reading to much into what gets posted on forums and Flickr groups, and just feel you need to keep up with the gearheads.... you actually believe you really need to spend that much money on one lens when for the same amount you could get 2 or possibly 3 fine lens', granted maybe a little slower, but would better cover the range or genre in which you wish to devote your imagery too?
Hence, I've started to look at Tokina's line of lens', and specifically the 12-24mm f/4 as my first acquisition. I'm asking here if anyone has owned this lens, as opposed to the Nikon 12-24mm which costs twice as much or more, and what their experiences have been with, well... to be fair, either actually.
I've heard some good things about Tokina recently, one that really impressed me being about the history of the company in that they are ex-Nikon lens engineers.