Wide angle lens decision (Tokina 11-16 or Laowa 12mm)

[Julen De La Serna]

Hello people!

I need to buy a wide angle lens for my Scarlet-W for an upcoming music video. I'm fan of not having a very heavy camera setup, because Sigma 12-24 has very goods reviews but it seems to be heavy and dark (f4).

I have been testing the Irix 15mm f2.8 for some commercial shootings, the quality is ok, but on S35 is not so wide for me. So right now my decision is to buy a Tokina 11-16 f2.8 or a Laowa 12mm f2.8

I haven't seen any footage from Red or coments from the Laowa in the forum, and from the Toking the people complain about the flaring.

Any recommendations?

 

[Dan Kanes]

The Laowa is pretty awesome.

I'd skip the 11-16 Tokina and go for a Tokina 11-20 - superior image quality in every way, and having the extra long end is useful.

Frankly, at this price it's an incredible bargain:

http://amzn.to/2eDqZCq

 

[paulcurtis]

I had the sigma 12-24 and you're right, it's too big. I have the irix and Laowa. I have a 12mm Voigtlander too.

I think the laowa is the best of the bunch.

Can't speak of the tokina though and irix have an 11mm now that I've not seen

Cheers
Paul

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Canon has a FF 11-24mm rectilinear stills zoom for $3,000USD that I suggest you test before buying any other wide zoom. It's not right for every use case, but it's a modern design with well controlled hyper-correction and good build quality.

Cheers - #19

 

[Michael Hastings]

The Laowa is pretty awesome.

I'd skip the 11-16 Tokina and go for a Tokina 11-20 - superior image quality in every way, and having the extra long end is useful.

Frankly, at this price it's an incredible bargain:

http://amzn.to/2eDqZCq

The Tokina is a great lens, I have a new one in open box that I would sell you for $425 (plus ship and it should have full warranty as a demo unit since we are a reseller as well) as it was only opened to run one test to determine how we need to set up our underwater housings for use with it. I used the 11-16 for quite a while with my Scarlet-W that a got in March 2016 (just sent it to RED today for Epic-W upgrade trade-in)

I use the Canon 11-24 for underwater these days because it has a little more zoom range that lets us do some macro underwater even when we are setup mainly for wide angle and the F4 maximum aperture isn't much of a limitation for us, and I can rent it out for use on full frame sensor cameras as well.

For general use, like your music video (besides the vast difference in price) the constant 2.8 aperture is a little nicer.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Instead of buying. Rent a 8mm Zeiss UP you will not be disappointed.

 

[Guy Staley]

The Laowa is pretty awesome.

I'd skip the 11-16 Tokina and go for a Tokina 11-20 - superior image quality in every way, and having the extra long end is useful.

Frankly, at this price it's an incredible bargain:

http://amzn.to/2eDqZCq

Thanks for that link Dan! I just snatched one up. What an amazing price!

 

[Adam Rook]

I have both the 11-16 and the 11-20. There is a noticeable difference in sharpness between the two. The 11-20 being sharper.

 

[Julen De La Serna]

Hello everybody and thanks for the info. Here in Spain the difference in price between both of them is huge, laowa doubles the cost of the tokina 11-20. I only want to buy one lens, and use the money to make a good investement, for not regreting about it in the future. (In the past I have owned Samyang 14mm and sold it because of the distortion and look). I have also seen that the flare on the Tokina looks very good, and people are complaining about Laowa flare.

Any veredict? The double price gives twice of quality?