Tokina AT-X 14-20 F2 PRO DX Short zoom that took all the best from prime lenses
Tokina gives you a new lens that is called AT-X 14-20mm. The lens covers 14mm to 20mm of focus distance (21mm-30mm for full frame cameras) and can be regarded as short zoom lens. But actually, this is not correct interpretation. It would be better to say 17mm-18mm prime lens with a bit zoom in and zoom out ability lens. Landscapes and nature are the appropriate genres to use prime lenses. To compare with zoom lenses they create clear and sharp picture with soft, beautiful bokeh and color gradation. But prime lenses cannot allow photographer to zoom the object unless you change the location. AT-X 14-20mm is that solution when you can zoom just for a little bit in or out keeping at the same time all the optical advantages of the prime lens. You will not believe that you use zoom lens looking at that amazing quality of the image you just shot. One more thing is the speed. This time Tokina made its best to make speedy lens. F2 gives you advantages in many aspects such as faster shutter speed and lower ISO settings when shooting in dark conditions. Let s take a look at what is really AT-X 14-20mm can do.
The amazing ability to reproduce the color gradation. Blue Tokyo Gate Bridge. This is the right place and timing to check how lens can reproduce blue gradation. So, this is a result. You can see how honestly and in the most soft manner lens reproduces the gradation for blue color. Blue colors are definitely Tokina!
Let s meet the sunrise. The night is loosing its position and sun is taking over. Isn't it amazing gradation from dark night to light morning blue?
One more shot to check the reproduction of dark tones in freezing -6 degrees morning. Not to overexpose the sky we are downing exposure on the bamboo grass ahead. But as you can see - digital data is still exists, the leaves are not underexposed and one can even count the lines in them.
Red Autumn trees with soft and warm red/yellow colors mixed with a blue sky. Natural colors without red saturation is reproduced even when light and shadows are exaggerated by the strong sunlight passing through out.
Shooting autumn leaves penetrated by sunlight it often happens that outline of branches and leaves obtain visible border lines. In case with fast F2 lenses this tendency is more noticeable. AT-X 14-20mm seems to be good at suppressing it.
Green Green is one of the color that is difficult to reproduce for the camera sensor. Just let the cyan dominate in the color balance of the lens itself, the image will obtain plastic tones that is not acceptable. AT-X 14-20mm does amazing job here as well. The green looks naturally.
Resolving ability We chose this fantastic scenery at Glass Museum in Hakone (Japan) to check the resolving ability of the lens. Maximum resolution comes on F5.6-F8. Peripheral area with walls and roofs of fine texture, even the stone edge of the pool is well resolved not to say about objects in the center of the image.
And here is a prairie with cow on the center and dying trees at the corner. Either cow or branches of the trees are resolved impressively. Violent test for resolving ability in the valley with many small and fine texture objects. The surface of the rocks has a fantastic resolution.
Distorsion As you can see in this photo the distortion is corrected.
Speaking about prime lenses the only way to change the framing is to move camera. But there is no room to move forward to get that concrete base disappear. This is very simple example showing the advantage of AT-X 14-20mm. Just zoom a little bit in and concrete base will not disturb you any more. AT-X 14-20mm zoom with a quality of a prime lens will no doubt save you from falling off the bridge.
Bokeh Beautiful bokeh without loosing light at the corners.
The high quality of the bokeh seems to become a trade mark of the latest Tokina lenses.
We asked a permission to take some photos of this dog. This doggy is said to be a model for the tourists visiting Haruna lake in Gunma prefecture. Black eye in focus is sharply resolved while the background is out of focus creating a sudden but lovely gap inherent in the nature of prime lenses.
This shot is taken with 1/8000 sec shutter speed, ISO800 and F2 aperture to show the advantages of fast lens. To reach 1/8000 sec one must increase the ISO depending on light conditions. Would the lens be 1-2 stops darker and you will have to raise more the ISO setting. Regardless of the impressive ISO technology progress nowadays, the image will be kind of flat. Using F2 advantage, one can capture this solid and violent appearance of the water.
Night shooting What would be night sky look like if it is captured by AT-X 14-20mm F2? Here we go. This shot is made at ISO800 and 8 sec of long exposure. Look at the different colors of the stars. You will need 4 sec at ISO 1600 and just 2 sec at ISO3200. Amazing. Don t you wish try this lens under Aurora sky? A little bit zooming in and the trees at the corner disappeared for perfect framing.
Star sky with AT-X 14-20mm. Unfortunately, the clouds came across but inspire of this the light from the stars reaches for certain every pixel of the camera sensor.
The Moon appearing in the sky. Gradually the sky becomes brighter and we feel it through the lens
Night snap
Photographer with F2 fast lens feels confident at night in the city. Just move around without tripod and snap.
Ghosting and flare The sea of clouds brightened by rising sun. Very ensuring results.