[delsol456]

I've been looking to get a wider lens and I've read up on quite a few, so I know just about all there is to know about the technical aspects of these lenses, but I was looking for some people who own/have used them, to get a better idea of actual picture quality/usability.

Heres what I've been considering:
Nikon 10-24mm
Nikon 10.5mm (possibly)
Tokina 11-16mm
Nikon 12-24mm

If anyone has any personal experiences with any of these, or perhaps some photos taken with them, that would be great to see. Or if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd like something 14mm or wider, and around $800. Thanks.

[delsol456]

No one? I just got a D300 and I need some new glass.

[itstherealest]

I can't believe no-one has answered you. I own the Nikon 12-24 and I believe its a good lens. My favorite featured are good build, wide-ultrawide zoom range and constant aperture. I payed $900 back when I bought it about 5 years ago and I guess the 2 main problems I have with it are that its max aperture is F/4 and that open the lens could a bit better. I do find that sometimes its hard to focus (which I tend to do manually), but I don't think that will be an issue with the AF on the D300.

Overall I prefer a Nikon brand lens over any third party so I'm happy with my purchase, however, I think you may want to buy the 10-24 which is wider, cheaper, and the pictures on the Nikon website tell me this is a good one. Go to the camera store and try them out.

I've also played with the 10.5mm and it is a fisheye so there is distortion that comes with that. Nikon NX has the fisheye-correction tool to convert to ultrawide and I think it works just fine and I've found this lens to be one of the sharpest ones I've played with, even @ f/2.8. Hope my info helps!

[gh0st]

Tokina 12-24 is/was half the price of the Nikon equivalent...but the newer version, I'm not sure. I loved my Tokina 12-24