Superwide Angle Lens

snips86x

snips86x

snips86x

Soldato
Joined
14 Nov 2012
Posts
17,955
Location
Close to Swindon, but not Swindon
I've purchased a superwide angle lens, Tokina 11-16 AT-X Pro, and was wondering if you should be able to zoom into the image and still expect it to be nice and sharp?!
 
You've bought arguably the best performing ultra wide angle lens for crop bodies so yes you can expect the shot to be sharp.

I'm a little unsure about the reason you felt the need to ask though, have you tried it at all?
 
ManCuBuS said:
You've bought arguably the best performing ultra wide angle lens for crop bodies so yes you can expect the shot to be sharp.

I'm a little unsure about the reason you felt the need to ask though, have you tried it at all?
Click to expand...

Yes and it's no where near as sharp as I anticipated.

I took it out yesterday and when I put them through Lightrooms this morning, they were blurred like you wouldn't believe.

Don't know if I need practice using it or it's defective. I'm going to try it again later, but I'm not convinced.
 
theheyes said:
Is it blurred in the centre or the edges? Or both? You could do with posting an example with your exif data.
Click to expand...

It's the entire image. I was using the AF for taking shots of the river & the snow, it looked spot-on, AF working perfectly, multiple AF points, but on the PC, it was so distorted, I was actually shocked.

2ilznva.jpg

Data:

2yuaoid.png
 
I have this lens and i can tell you its sharp, sweet spot is in the mid F's like f8/f11.
I usually take 2-3 pics of the same scene just so i know i have a few to play with, i find if its blury its bcos i never focused properly!
 
adbp1 said:
I have this lens and i can tell you its sharp, sweet spot is in the mid F's like f8/f11.
I usually take 2-3 pics of the same scene just so i know i have a few to play with, i find if its blury its bcos i never focused properly!
Click to expand...

I was using AF and it's fine on my macro. Not sure what to do here.
 
It also says the focus distance is only 1.5m giving you a DOF of 1m to 2.5m leaving the picture with a depth of only 1.5m in focus which accounts for the lack of focus everywhere else. it looks like it focused on the branches/twigs right infront of you rather than the river which is what you were trying to focus on by the looks of it.

On my 7D is use single point AF (or even Spot) on a pic like this (with things infront of where you want to focus) as the multiple AF points focus on the closest thing to the camera (i.e the twigs infront of the river) but through the viewfinder it looks like it's focused on the river instead (even though it hasn't).

Here's your pic with the area thats in perfect focus (the branches) highlighted with a red square -

focuspic01.jpg
 
Last edited:
ianh said:
It also says the focus distance is only 1.5m giving you a DOF of 1m to 2.5m leaving the picture with a depth of only 1.5m in focus which accounts for the lack of focus everywhere else. it looks like it focused on the branches/twigs right infront of you rather than the river which is what you were trying to focus on by the looks of it.

On my 7D is use single point AF (or even Spot) on a pic like this (with things infront of where you want to focus) as the multiple AF points focus on the closest thing to the camera (i.e the twigs infront of the river) but through the viewfinder it looks like it's focused on the river instead (even though it hasn't).

Here's your pic with the area thats in perfect focus (the branches) highlighted with a red square -

focuspic01.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know what you mean and it's possible, I'd not thought of that. I'll take it out later and try again. I'll try spot and use single AF point.

Addicted said:
Looks like user error if you ask me, I've got the same lense and it's ultra sharp!
Click to expand...

Well....since I've only really used this lens on 2 occasions as I've not had it long, I would not be surprised at all.
 
I use http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html (and a phone app when not on the PC) to give me a rough guide of DOF.

The far river bank looks to be 20-30m away from you so using the tables above at F3.5 and 16mm on a 7D everything from 3.5m away to infinity should be in focus so the branches will be out of focus (and maybe the trees framing the shot on the left) but the river, river bank and everything on the right side should be in focus.

If you drop the Aperture to F8 it drops the focus to only 1.7m away from you (so everything from 1.7m to infinity will be in focus) and at F11 it's only 1.2m to infinity.

Of course if I've got the rivers distance wrong it puts all the other focus figures out :D

Let us know how it goes!
 
Last edited:
Definitely try the single AF point and a narrower aperture. Don't forget your exposure compensation as well in those snowy scenes. :)
 
Nothing wrong with the lens, incorrect use of the camera... I never understand why people use multiple focus points, especially for landscape. I leant my old 400D to my daughter once and forgot it was on multiple points, 90% pictures were out of focus.

Use centre only, then if you have an off centre point of interest manually choose the focus point YOU want it to use...... Multi point mode is like program mode, point and shoot attempt to capture something when the user doesn't know how to use the controls.
Landscapes = single point, aperture prority and exposure compensation, the key tools to perfect.
 
9designs2 said:
Nothing wrong with the lens, incorrect use of the camera... I never understand why people use multiple focus points, especially for landscape. I leant my old 400D to my daughter once and forgot it was on multiple points, 90% pictures were out of focus.

Use centre only, then if you have an off centre point of interest manually choose the focus point YOU want it to use...... Multi point mode is like program mode, point and shoot attempt to capture something when the user doesn't know how to use the controls.
Landscapes = single point, aperture prority and exposure compensation, the key tools to perfect.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I never really took that much notice of the multiple AF points, I saw it as a easier option than using single AF. I'll go back to using single and see how it goes. I've been using AP for most of my shots, unless low light or night shots, anyway. Appreciate your replies.
 
ianh said:
I use http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html (and a phone app when not on the PC) to give me a rough guide of DOF.

The far river bank looks to be 20-30m away from you so using the tables above at F3.5 and 16mm on a 7D everything from 3.5m away to infinity should be in focus so the branches will be out of focus (and maybe the trees framing the shot on the left) but the river, river bank and everything on the right side should be in focus.

If you drop the Aperture to F8 it drops the focus to only 1.7m away from you (so everything from 1.7m to infinity will be in focus) and at F11 it's only 1.2m to infinity.

Of course if I've got the rivers distance wrong it puts all the other focus figures out :D

Let us know how it goes!
Click to expand...

Here are some I took earlier. Looking better I think:

1enfh4.jpg

154fs48.jpg

11i32h4.jpg

Still not convinced by the landscape of the river, still looks out of focus when you zoom in a little.

Not the best day either.
 
You're focusing on the wrong items, you need to either change the focus point or focus yourself, it's off on them all tbh!

I'd say that combined with perhaps the wrong shooting mode/incorrect settings is causing it.
 
I made the same mistake yesterday, went out in the snow to try and take some scenic snow shots with my new camera, got back and all but 2-3 aren't blurry, I checked the settings and I had the camera on multi AF :(

On the bright side I have lots of pics of in-focus branches!!! :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom