Anyone Familiar with Samy's Camera?

[Designer Dale]

Hi. I'm looking at the Tokina 11-16 2.8 DX for my Canon XSi. B&H and all of the other sellers seem to be permanently out of stock on this one. My local camera shop says they have cut to build as ordered status to cut inventory costs. There are several in stock at Amazon, all from Samy"s Camera in California. Any experiences buying from them? Has anyone been able to acquire this lens by ordering from B&H?

Links: Tokina 11-16 at Samy's Camera

Tokina 11-16 2.8 at Amazon

Dale

 

[mackmgg]

Hi. I'm looking at the Tokina 11-16 2.8 DX for my Canon XSi. B&H and all of the other sellers seem to be permanently out of stock on this one. My local camera shop says they have cut to build as ordered status to cut inventory costs. There are several in stock at Amazon, all from Samy"s Camera in California. Any experiences buying from them? Has anyone been able to acquire this lens by ordering from B&H?

Links: Tokina 11-16 at Samy's Camera

Tokina 11-16 2.8 at Amazon

Dale

They've got 1800 reviews on amazon with almost 1700 of them being positive, so they appear to be a good store. Also, you're ordering from Amazon, which (tied with B&H) has the best customer service of any company I've dealt with. If something does go wrong, they'll pretty much always help you out. In the past, they even sent us a second iMac because the first one got lost somewhere before getting to UPS! So you should be fine ordering through them, especially with Amazon

 

[Randy McKown]

I've bought stuff from Samy's over the last 25 yrs and never had a problem.

 

[Eaton Photos]

Samy's has an excellent reputation in the photography circles. They are one of 3 primary sponsors of Sportsshooter.com. I have never bought anything from them, but I have called to inquire about product, and their Customer Service is very good from my experience.

 

[Designer Dale]

Thanks for the replies. I looked back to Amazon the other day, half of the stock is sold out and the price was up $100 overnight. ~$750USD. Just a bit too high for now.

I find myself shooting at the short end of my 28-75 f/2.8 Tamron quite a bit, so I.m looking for a lens to compliment this. The Tamron 17-50 is well liked and has god reviews, but it has a lot of overlap with the 28-75 and I don's want that lens to languish in the bag too much. Sigma has a 20mm f/1.8 that is intriguing. It would give me a fast prime lens, something I lack now, and has good reviews on B&H but not on LensRentals.com. The Tokina would be a lens on it's own, and I would still have a gap between 16 and 28mm. That's another lens right there.

f/2.8 is a minimum for me. I like to use manual focus.

Tokina-$739
Tamron-$459 ($649 Stabilized)
Sigma-$629

Reference lens: Canon 24mm f/1.4-$1,669

Dale

 

[TheReef]

I find myself shooting at the short end of my 28-75 f/2.8 Tamron quite a bit, so I.m looking for a lens to compliment this.

I'd look at the Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 (I had the similar Pentax 12-24mm f/4.0 paired with my Tamron 28-75mm) - the extra length gives it application in many more scenarios I found.

 

[Designer Dale]

I'd look at the Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 (I had the similar Pentax 12-24mm f/4.0 paired with my Tamron 28-75mm) - the extra length gives it application in many more scenarios I found.

Thanks. I just finished looking at this lens before I logged on. If I give up on the wide aperture quest, then this is the lens for my needs. I do a lot of landscape at f/8, so I guess I don't really need it. The subject matter that I find myself switching to manual focus for is closeup stuff that is best taken with either my Tamron 28-75 or 100mm f/2.8 macro.

The writeup on DPReview states that this Tokina is identical to the Pentax you mentioned.

Dale

 

[macrumormonger]

They have several B&M locations here in LA. I've bought my T2i and Zeiss 35mm from their stores. So I can tell you that they are indeed legit. They also have sales tax-free promotions for their entire stores. If I remember correctly, the promotions are during around the holidays.

 

[gnd]

The question is, what would you use a ultra wide angle f/2.8 lens for?
If you're outside shooting landscapes in low light then you're on a tripod. Shallow DoF shots with a UWA lens don't work, the background never gets blurry enough. Architecture, interiors in low light, use a tripod.
I think fast UWA lenses are most useful for outside low light action shots at very close distances and interior event photography, all cases where you need fast shutter speed. If these types of shots are not what you want to do with this lens then just go for a bit more zoom range and smaller aperture.

 

[mofunk]

Sammy's a Authorized dealer.

fyi You can google Canon or Nikon Authorized dealer to find the list that the manufacture puts out. I don't deal with a lot of manufactors but most of the majors will put out a list. ie canon, nikon, apple, sony etc.

 

[TheReef]

The writeup on DPReview states that this Tokina is identical to the Pentax you mentioned.
Dale

The 12-24mm was my favourite lens before I had an accident with it, all aspects of IQ were superb, super sharp.
You will notice corner aberrations at wider focal lengths but that's to be expected.
You won't be disappointed with the Tokina.
I'm with gnd, I don't think the 11-16mm f/2.8 is what you're after here Dale, given that your stopping down anyway for landscapes, but that's just my opinion

Alternatively, sell your body and buy a used 5D and your 28-75mm will shine.
For the price of a new lens + what you'd get for the body, you could do this.

 

[sjinsjca]

My son is a professional photographer, so as a family we've done many thousands of dollars of business with Samy's, dealing directly with their store in Santa Barbara mostly.

Great group. I can't say enough good things about them.

 

[Designer Dale]

The question is, what would you use a ultra wide angle f/2.8 lens for?
If you're outside shooting landscapes in low light then you're on a tripod. Shallow DoF shots with a UWA lens don't work, the background never gets blurry enough. Architecture, interiors in low light, use a tripod.
I think fast UWA lenses are most useful for outside low light action shots at very close distances and interior event photography, all cases where you need fast shutter speed. If these types of shots are not what you want to do with this lens then just go for a bit more zoom range and smaller aperture.

The 12-24mm was my favourite lens before I had an accident with it, all aspects of IQ were superb, super sharp.
You will notice corner aberrations at wider focal lengths but that's to be expected.
You won't be disappointed with the Tokina.
I'm with gnd, I don't think the 11-16mm f/2.8 is what you're after here Dale, given that your stopping down anyway for landscapes, but that's just my opinion

Alternatively, sell your body and buy a used 5D and your 28-75mm will shine.
For the price of a new lens + what you'd get for the body, you could do this.

I think I was enamored with the 11-16 because it was hard to get...
What I want is a lens that will go a bit wider than 28 without pushing my 28-75 into my bag, which is what any 17-50 would do. The Tokina 12-24 looks to be the lens that I am looking for considering what and how I shoot. It's also under $500. And widely available.

Thanks to all for the references to Samys. NYC is a bit far, even for online ordering.

Dale

 

[Flash SWT]

My wife and I have bought all our gear from Samy's for the past four or five years, no complaints.

At work we've been buying from Robert's Camera with no complaints either.

 

[stevendphoto]

Samy's is fine, the only thing that bugs me about them is that if you look at their web site for a price, it is higher when you walk into an actual store...

They explain the reason why, but I still don't like that type of policy...