I have forgotten how long I have been raving about the next lens I would be adding to my arsenal which consists of just the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D. Pathetic I know. It is the widely popular Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X and after months and months of saving up, it is finally in my hands.
On most occasions, my photography is based on guidelines which I am prepared to break at the right time. And one of them is shooting at a shutter speed of 1/(Focal Length x Crop Factor)s when I am without a tripod to prevent getting blurry photos. For e.g. if I am on the 50mm f/1.8d, I would never go below 1/75s.
With the 11-16mm, I could go even slower. The 1.5x crop factor meant I could be shooting between 1/17s to 1/24s depending on the zoom and still have my photos looking sharp.
I was alerted to the many cases on the Web where not all the 11-16mm are sharp copies.
At first, I was getting photos which were rather noisy and blurry despite shooting at an ISO of 500 and at reasonable shutter speed.
I was given another unit to test with, and this time it was much sharper compared to the previous but it was still on the noisy side. After reviewing the photos taken with my 50mm and the 11-16mm, I had concluded it was the D90 at work.
Is it time for me to change my body? Since I wouldn’t be doing large prints, I was fine with the noise, it would become invisible when I resize it for the Web.
Apart from the lens, I got myself a Hoya 77mm UV filter and a lens pen.
Total damage: SGD $950 + SGD $85 + SGD $15 = SGD $1050.
Though I did do some test shots with the 11-16mm, it wouldn’t be till the weekend where I would be able to see it in full gear. I’m already getting excited for I won’t be restricted as much and always trying to back off drastically to squeeze a landscape scene into my viewfinder.
22 year old fitness enthusiast currently pursuing a Bachelor in Computer Science at the University of Adelaide and aspiring to become a Web Developer in the near future. 
Omgosh, I was just thinking of getting like 3CDs + a few DVDs which will set me a aside $100 TOPs and you just whallaop a 1000 odd dollars like that.
Sigh, I’ve unofficially ORD-ed yet I won’t be getting income.
I have been saving up for months now and it was about time I added a new lens to my collection.
You are still getting your income, wait till you reach the last month when you will have nothing to survive on.