the 12-24 gets a workout

Well, I've finally posted a cople of tests I did with the 12-24 lens. OK, one was for a client. But the shot directly into the sun was just a test.




1/4000 second at f/5. Note the absence of the usual string of sun circles, and that there is minimal flare even right close to the sun. Very impressive performance. Sharp, too!




1 second at f/8 ( to get both near and far in focus). This is a great lens for interiors!

The closet is far from level, it's an old building. But distortion is pretty mimimal, needing maybe only a setting of 1 in the Lens Correction feature of Photoshop. You could pretty much ignore it for most applications.

Both shots taken at 12mm, the widest the lens will go.

So I'd say we have a winner here!

I find the carpet in the foreground a little out of sync with the reflection in the mirror.

We're looking at what would be an 18mm view on a full-frame camera. The camera was placed pretty far back, so the wide-angle effect continues on via the mirror. I thought it was extreme, but that's what I saw in the viewfinder. The bed fills the foreground, but the mirror shows the carpet between the closet and the bed.

Do some experimenting with mirrors and wide angle lenses. You'll find some pretty weird effects. I happen to like to use mirrors in photos, so I'm getting used to it by now.

I want one
Looks fabulous - that flare test is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind, and the minimal distortion is superb. Having had a go on the Sigma 10-20 on a Canon 20D, I think I'd much rather save up the extra and get the Pentax.

Thanks for those tests Arthur Dent

I think Don is getting confused, as I initially was, by the bed. It's the bed in the foreground, not the carpet.

Matt

confused was I it most certianly is the bedspread...lol

Thanks for pointing it out Don, I saw the bed-spread right away but didn't notice the reflection anomoly........funny how we see different things isn't it?
You could certainly be very creative with a lens like that

Excellent test BTW.

Juxtapositions...Wonderful creative element for any photogs.
I have a great one of an old boat, the ms keenora that I had been on, on Lake of the Woods Ontario as a child, it now sits in the marine museum here in Selkirk (you Brits may remember him, or was he a scott? we called him "Lord Selkirk, right up till about the time my ancestors started hanging around with some charactor named Louis Reil), Anyhoo, The boat is on display ata local park, near the river, accross from a coal power generating plant. I lined the smokestacks from the ms keenora up with the stacks fron the plant and low and behold, the old boat seems to be running...