Good to see you've started putting that thing to use right away :).

I like these a lot actually. The first shot with your infamous car is excellent. From what I can tell it looks sharp and the color is good (did you have to do any tweaking in PS? or is the color good out of the box?).

I can't wait to get mine out, starting with the film cameras on it. Hopefully soon after a couple more AlphaMount duties, I will be able to fit more serious shooting back in the mix.

-Carl

I've been using it. It has spent its life on the camera pretty much non-stop since I got it.

The saturation level was changed a tiny bit in a couple, but other than that there hasn't been any fooling around with the color. That tweaking may have been more a matter of taste than accuracy. Based on the photos I have taken so far I would say that the color is accurate out of the box, which is good to me. I don't find myself thinking that the colors ever look off.

Stopped down to f7.1-f11 center sharpness is quite good and it maintains a good level of sharpness to the edges. It would be interesting to see how it performs with film if you're able to post pictures.

I like those Brian, thanks for sharing those and letting us know how it's going with the lens. I like those plains shots quite a bit. It would be interesting to see how it turns out with film as you mention.

Here are some full sized and un-cropped examples

Full size - 3.4mb processed from cRAW in ACR. No sharpening applied, but it has been tweaked to bring out the sky. Medium quality JPEG.
http://www.cramptonstation.com/tokinalarge1.jpg

Full size - 3.4mb processed from cRAW in ACR. High pass sharpening applied. Medium quality JPEG.
http://www.cramptonstation.com/tokinalarge2.jpg

The good news is..

That the 19-35mm (I have the Tamron version, but I am sure the optical design is the same), does very well on a 35mm film body.

f5.6 @19mm

Obviously, wide open..you wont get hard as nails corners, and will get a bit of fall off (though, its still not bad at all), stopped down a bit, it holds to the edge of the frame very well indeed. Its a great lens for 35mm work, as you really do have an ultra wide angle.

I have been shooting a lot with the 19-35mm lately, and..I like it a lot. For the meagre cost of the lens, its a def keeper IMO. It does well on digital also..
It will be interesting to see how lenses such as this hold up on the A900, if they do..then you could get some bargains for that machine ;-)

I like that shot, it does indeed seem like one of the great bargins, maybe we should give away more of them for prizes :-D.

Haven't seen a picture of the Tamron one I'll have to check it out, thanks for posting this.

Hi Barry,

That is a really neat image and has some really cool perspective in it. I think you are right on it being better suited to 35mm work as it's a more useful range on that. Certainly works well for you, the shot's great. The boy's expression is priceless!

Cheers
Andrew

I've been a fan of that lens for quite some time now and really like using it so far. I originally thought that picking that lens for a prize might not go well recieved, but it has always recieved better than average reviews and praise from those who own it.

Barry, have you tried the Tokina 24-200 yet? It's kinda got a gritty sort of western feel to the images I really like when you do mono or duo with it. I took this shot with it, stopped down plenty sharp for my taste and a bargain as well. Color images will suffer from massive CAs wide open so be wary, stopped down they match up to the highly popular Tamron 70-300 LD Macro, so not bad. I like it as a b/w lens tho primarily.

Heck a couple more, why not-

Got mine for about $125.00 :) like new condition from B&H which I will not recommend for used lenses other than new and like new condition any longer.

C

I think picking that particular lens as a prize was a good choice. It even gets praise from Canon users! It will be interesting to see how it performs on the A900.

I have been tempted to pick up a Tokina 28-70 f2.8-4.5. I think there is also a AT-x pro version that is constant f2.8 but I haven't seen one of those on ebay yet.

It's been very popular with Canon users, as a replacement (and cheap one), to the iffy 18-55mm kit lens. I bought 3 on ebay for C users, and they have all been very happy with them. I paid about £65 for mine boxed, as new..never used. That's not bad really. It's more appealing for film use, being a real UWA lens, but it's still wide on digital..and performs well.

The tamron version does not have the build of the Tokina one (it's ok though build wise), I think the design is the same. Though someone said one has more aperture blades or something. Anyhow, it's a must have for either flm or digital users. Might even pick up another one. I have seen them sell for as little as £30 s/h

Nice Dolphin shots...

It out performed my copy of the 18-70 kit lens at the wide end . It also feels much better built than the Sony kit lens. For $100-$150 you'd have to be REALLY nit picking to find faults with it IMO. I know there are more expensive wide angle lenses in every mount that perform worse.