New Gear

The UPS man dropped by on Tuesday in his magical brown truck and brought me a new photographic toy, an ultra-wide-angle lens. Right off the bat I gave Abby the wide-angle-lens-to-the-face treatment.

The lens is a Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16mm (IF) DX. I sold my Nikon D40 camera and couple of lenses back in April to fund the purchase of this baby. The damn thing is hard to get. It’s been out of stock at all the reasonable outlets for the last four months. Many of your more sketchy camera dealers have been offering it for $100 to $500 over the regular price, but I knew if I waited long enough I could get the non-gouging deal eventually. I could have gotten one mail order from Hong Kong, but that didn’t seem wise. I finally caught it in-stock at B&H Photo in New York last week. I guess I got my order in soon after their Web site was updated because they were out-of-stock the next day. The lens is supposed to be one of the best ultra-wide-angle lenses for the smaller sensor DSLRs, especially when you factor in the price compared to similar lenses offered by the major camera companies. But apparently the quality varies from copy to copy, which is apparently de rigueur for the off-brand manufacturers. I haven’t given mine the brick-wall test or anything, but it seems to work just fine.

I took the lens out with us Tuesday evening while we ran a couple of errands. Abby and I hit the Barnes and Noble while Gina was getting a new iPhone next door at the AT&T place.

Gina showing off her new phone while Abby clowns it up at Moe’s Southwest Grill.

The evening sky as seen from the parking lot in front of Moe’s.