Blog of Kim Loon

Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 Fisheye Effect

Finally, I have the opportunity to try out Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX over a weekend.

I had been thinking of buying this Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX for quite sometime, because there was a few occasions when I wished I had an ultra wide angle or fisheye lens. When I was covering events, I wish my lens was wide enough to cover the crowds. Or when I was capturing a beautiful scenery, I wish my lens was wide enough so that I would not have to use photo stitching software to get the panorama effect.

The first impression when I mount this Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX on my Canon DSLR camera, was the zoom rotation. I am used to rotating anti-clockwise for telephoto on my Canon and Sigma lens. However, I had to rotate clockwise for Tokina lens. It took me quite some time to get used to it. I believe Nikon users would have no problem on this.

The beauties of Fisheye lens are the barrel distortion and the ultrawide angle. At the widest angle with focus length of 10mm, Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX produced both the diagonal fisheye effect and the wide angle coverage. Now I had to learn how to frame my pictures at this angle. Many occasions, I even captured the railing or the windows frame.

Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 Fisheye DX at 10mm

At 17mm, the distortion was hardly noticable. In fact, I could not tell the photo was taken using the Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX or my Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC IF Macro Lens at 17mm.

Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 Fisheye DX at 17mm

Because of the ultrawide angle, I did not have much problem taking photos at night without using a tripod. The f3.5 aperture was not a concern. And most of the pictures came up clear and sharp.

Night shot with Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 Fisheye DX

Close shot using Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 Fisheye DX

During my few days of playing this Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX, I usually took pictures either at 10mm or 17mm. I hardly made use of any focus length in-between. So, I do wondered, which would be a better choice, a dedicated prime fisheye lens with wider aperture or this zoom fisheye lens. Maybe, the zoom feature would be useful for tighter framing during event coverage.

The fisheye lens could be a very fun lens to have because of its extreme barrel distortion. I took a few portrait pictures with this lens very closed to the face. The outcome was the extremely big nose, distorted face and triangular body.

After the weekend, I wished I did not have to return this lens. I had so much fun with this lens. I just wonder, how does this Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX compared to the recent announced Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM zoom lens. Anyway, till I got a choice to try the new Canon lens, Tokina ATX107PRODXC 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish Eye ATX Pro DX shall remain in my wish list.