This may be old news to some, but I recently stumbled upon an article in photographyblog.com showing the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Mark II lens. It is estimated to launch in March (for the Nikon version) and July (for the Canon version). According to Photography Blog's article, the new Tokina lens will have a new quieter focusing motor and a new magnetic AF sensor similar to the one found in Tokina 16-28mm FX. The new lens will also have an improve multi-coating. Looks like the lens is pretty much the same as the first one with a few improvements. I still use the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Mark I lens and I don't think I need to upgrade, but it's very good to know that Tokina is improving there already awesome line-up of lenses. 

Click here to see the article from photogragphyblog.com.

I'm super excited! I recently purchased the famous Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle lens! The lens cost me $820 CAD new and even though it's a lot of money, it's money well spent. The Canon version (10-22mm) is selling for over $900 before taxes and the build quality, optical quality, and even the aperture is well below the standards of Tokina. The Tokina lens is all metal (barrel) whereas the Canon is plastic. Tokina's optical quality is on par if not much better than the Canon counterpart. And most importantly, to me at least, is the fact that the Tokina lens is a CONSTANT APERTURE lens meaning my maximum aperture stays at f/2.8 throughout the zoom range! Compare that to Canon's variable aperture setup starting at f/3.5 at the wide end of the lens at 10mm and stopping down to f/5.6 at the "tele" end of the lens at 22mm! So overall I'm very happy with the Tokina lens and cannot wait to bring this lens outside and take some great wide angle shots of the city! This Tokina lens is winning! As for a test location, I'll probably go back to Casa Loma here in Toronto and capture some low-light wide angle interior shots of the castle. The castle had lots of dark but great looking rooms =D. Excited! Now all I need is a day-off from work =D

*** Image above courtesy of Tokina ***

After months of searching in the internet I finally found a Canon EF 35mm f/2 lens used and for a really good price! Yeah, I'm not rich so I can't really buy lens from stores, they're just too expensive! The lens came with an official lens hood from Canon and a Tiffen UV filter. The entire package for $300. A pretty sweet deal when you consider the price of the items I got individually in retail stores. I haven't used the lens fully yet but I know I'm going to have a lot of fun shooting with this photo. When mounted to a crop sensor like the Canon Rebel XS, the focal length is effectively about 56mm which is pretty close ( a bit narrower) to what our eyes can see. This means that walking around downtown Toronto for some candid street photography will be much easier than before. I used to use the nifty-fifty (50mm lens) when doing street photography and I just found that lens to be a bit too narrow to frame the shots properly especially in crowded places downtown. So here's hoping for an awesome-tastic summer photography awesomeness with this new lens and all my other lenses! Woot!

If you want to see what the lens looks like, check out the "My Equipment" section under the "About Me" tab. 

This past Friday, I bought the awesome Canon 55-250mm IS from someone and it came with a lot of goodies! I still can't believe I got all that stuff for such a low price. Here's what I got:

• Canon EFS f/4-5.6 55-250mm IS lens (costs $400 in Canada)
  
• Canon 58mm UV filter (costs $40 in Canada)
• Canon ET-60 lens hood (costs $35)
• Canon/Lowepro Rezo 190 AW camera bag (costs $100)
• Lowepro Toploader Zoom 50 AW (costs about $50)

Adding the costs up, it adds up to about $650 before taxes. However, I only paid $250 cash, flat, no tax. That's a $400 saving! Shopping online is indeed a great pleasure especially when you see deals like this. Everything was used of course but it was BARELY and I mean BARELY used! No scratches or anything! I even got the entire box and paper documents for the lens! This weekend was truly a great weekend. 

Head's up, I'm going to try to review my gear one-by-one over the next few months. We'll see how that goes.