Swapping Sigma 10-20 for Tokina 11-16, right decision?

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Smokes

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Hi, I'm shortly off on a trip to catch the northern lights and I'm wondering whether to swap my Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 for a Tokina 11-16 f2.8. I currently have a D5000 and I know the Tokina won't autofocus on this body but this shouldn't be a huge problem as it'll mainly be on infinity. I also currently use the sigma on my storm chasing trips taking pictures of supercell storms getting the landscape in the same shot and then lightning at night, again I can't see an issue manually focusing on this. I'll hopefully be upgrading the body at the end of the year too.

I'm just after some peoples experience in using the Tokina in low light situations and the results that they have. The f2.8 is going to be a great help with the lights and exposure time and will help save my batteries in the freezing conditions!

Any thoughts much appreciated :)
 
Ive not used the Tokina lens, but before you swap lenses, how often do you use the Sigma lens and would you not miss it when you're back ?

Have you thought about hiring the Tokina for you trip ?

Hope you have a great trip
 
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Funnily enough I've just looked at hiring and comes in at £50 odd for 7 days. I would say I use the Sigma 50% of the time when I'm chasing and swap to a bigger lens when I have time and want to get closer shot. Sometimes this is quite difficult in the heat of the moment chasing though as you can image!
 
If you use your Sigma that much, I wouldn't be swapping. I'd hire one for the trip.

Have a good one :-)
 
I guess that would make sense and maybe swap when I change the body to take advantage of the autofocus. It's just if I can get what the sigma offers and better in daylight AND then have better night time shots thanks to the f2.8 then I'm quite happy to swap now...gah decisions!

Anyone else have similar experience?
 
I had the Tokina 11-16mm and absolutely loved many aspects of it. It's sharp, fast-focusing and well-built.

However, I did ultimately end up swapping it for the Nikon 12-24mm as I found the focal range of the Tokina to be very limiting. It basically goes from very wide to insanely wide!

I found myself swapping lenses very, very often as I wanted to shoot some images very wide and others at a more 'standard' focal length.

So, before you take the leap, just ask yourself if you'll be happy using a lens that is always very wide indeed? Do you need something more flexible?
 
Smokes said:
I guess that would make sense and maybe swap when I change the body to take advantage of the autofocus. It's just if I can get what the sigma offers and better in daylight AND then have better night time shots thanks to the f2.8 then I'm quite happy to swap now...gah decisions!

Anyone else have similar experience?
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Why will night time shots be better because of F 2.8?
 
I see what you're say SummerSound. From last years experience stormchasing I found I was mainly using the sigma at the 10mm end and rarely zooming in, I would swap if I wanted to get closer so in theory the way I work won't change, I'll still swap the lens over for something bigger when I want. I really should get another body I guess! :D

Kestral, sorry I meant better for the lights, f2.8 will hopefully mean shorter exposure times, saves my batteries and I won't get blurred images of the lights...in theory :)
 
SummerSound said:
I had the Tokina 11-16mm and absolutely loved many aspects of it. It's sharp, fast-focusing and well-built.

However, I did ultimately end up swapping it for the Nikon 12-24mm as I found the focal range of the Tokina to be very limiting. It basically goes from very wide to insanely wide!

I found myself swapping lenses very, very often as I wanted to shoot some images very wide and others at a more 'standard' focal length.

So, before you take the leap, just ask yourself if you'll be happy using a lens that is always very wide indeed? Do you need something more flexible?
Click to expand...

If you are using full frame it is super wide and wide.But the OP is on crop sensor I think so it will not be as wide.

The Tokina is a very good lens I have one and use it on my D7000 and D90 a lot for night shots around the city.
 
kestral said:
If you are using full frame it is super wide and wide.But the OP is on crop sensor I think so it will not be as wide.

The Tokina is a very good lens I have one and use it on my D7000 and D90 a lot for night shots around the city.
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I suspect Summersound meant on a crop sensor as I'm pretty certain the Tokina is DX only.

I love mine. It's sharp from wide open and by 5.6 it's just superb but... I do agree that it is sometimes just too wide. I sometimes find that I'm faced with a shot where it is very difficult to decide whether to use a standard zoom or the Tokina. If there were a little bit of cross over, the Tokina would get a lot more use. Maybe it's a price worth paying for the sharpness and a near total lack of distortion.
 
gad-westy said:
I suspect Summersound meant on a crop sensor as I'm pretty certain the Tokina is DX only.
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Not entirely DX only. It will happily work at 16mm on FX, (and wider if cropped to 5x7 or 8x10 ratios).

Tokina is far better lens than sigma. That one is mega sharp and well worth swapping over.

MF is very easy - mostly infinity, or 2m with some stronger foreground interest.
 
Lovely stuff, thanks for the info guys. I've just sold an old camera on the bay that more than covers the difference to swap the lens so I think I might just do it, it can't be any worse than the sigma, which isn't half bad anyway! Think I'll look for a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 to replace the kit lens too!
 
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