Tokina AT-X PRO DX 11-20 mm f/2.8 review - Vignetting

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Tokina AT-X PRO DX 11-20 mm f/2.8

8 September 2015

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

Let’s glance at those thumbnails and check how the Tokina fares in the vignetting category on the sensor of the Canon 50D.

Canon 50D, 11 mm, f/2.8	Canon 50D, 11 mm, f/4.0

Canon 50D, 16 mm, f/2.8	Canon 50D, 16 mm, f/4.0

Canon 50D, 20 mm, f/2.8	Canon 50D, 20 mm, f/4.0

At the most difficult combination of 11 mm and f/2.8 the brightness loss in the frame corners amounts to 25% (−0.82 EV). It is a better result than that of the Tokina 11–16 mm which reached a level of 33%, and still it compared favourably with its rivals. On stopping down to f/4.0 you see the vignetting decrease to 15% (−0.47 EV), and by f/5.6 it becomes almost imperceptible (11% and −0.34 EV).

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The middle of the focal range is simply sensational. It would be difficult to notice any traces of vignetting even by f/2.8 where it reaches 18% (−0.59 EV). By f/4.0 and f/5.6 apertures it is respectively 13% (−0.40 EV) and 10% (−0.30 EV).

Practically there are no problems at the maximum focal length either; by f/2.8 the vignetting reaches 16% (−0.52 EV) and it decreases to 12% (−0.38 EV) on stopping down the lens to f/4.0. By f/5.6 that aberration already becomes imperceptible (8% and −0.25 EV).

The performance in this category should be assessed very positively. Compared to its predecessor the tested lens has a wider focal range and its aperture fastness remained on a very high level, that of f/2.8, especially for an UWA device. We were afraid that it might have an adverse effect on vignetting but the Tokina surprised us very positively here and the new model, more difficult to correct, controls that aberration even better than the old one – a round of applause! You have to pay for this excellent performance though – the filter thread diameter, compared to the 11-16 mm model, increased from 77 to 82 mm.