Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excelent purchase
Comment: I was hesitating between the sigma 10-24mm and this lens. There is a big difference in price but after reading all the Amazon reviews and some more I decided to go for the Nikon. I own a Nikon D200 and have the 18-200mm VR lens, the 80-400mm Nikon VR lens and the Sigma 105mm macro lens. Talking about optics I can not complain about the sigma macro lens but talking about look and performans I really prefer Nikon lenses. This wideangle zoom lens I consider was the lens I was missing to have a complete set of shooting options. It feels good, looks good and most important of all it performs outstanding.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Crazy Good DX Wide Angle
Comment: A friend suggested I get this wide angle lens for my D40. At first I was reluctant because of the price. I'm glad I took his advice however. I've taken about 600 shots on this lens so far, and every one of them is clean. Zero blurry or fuzzy or vignetted shots.
The color is excellent, and 12mm is wide enough to have some serious wide angle fun. The lens has not gotten in the way of taking crazy shots.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny
Comment: This lens is the best!!!! It is definitely worth the money. I'm relatively new to digital SLR, but I do interior design and mural painting and have to do all my own photography, marketing, advetising, etc. I used this lens on the D80 and my photos will stand up to any professional. I can use them enlarged for portfolio work, brochures and anything else. The lens takes incredible wide angle shots with no distortion at the edges. Even with my limited camera knowledge and auto settings, I'm amazed at the quality every time I use it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Lens but it's not worth $920
Comment: I bought this lens from B&H two weeks ago. I returned it yesterday.
First off, the lens is not cheap. $920, as of today, seems to be the best price around for the USA model. For $920 you get a plastic body, F4, and a lens that performs it's best at the long end.
I used to own a consumer grade 18-200. The 12-24's plastic body somehow feels "better" than the plastic on the consumer grade lenses. The zoom ring has two nice solid clicks at 12 and 24. The focus ring is not bad either...much better than the 18-200 focus ring which for some reason I always thought was going to snap one day.
This is a wide angle lens so 2.8 is really not an issue but F4 for $920 is pushing it especially considering the competitors are almost 50% less.
I don't know about you but I bought the lens to go ultrawide. I already have a 17-55 so I was hoping the 12-24 to perform quite well at 12mm. Center sharpness at 12mm is excellent. The corners at 12mm really do look soft when you view your images at 100%. You can help the situation by stopping down to f8 but I would really like to shoot this lens wide open. I took this lens to Liberty State Park and I also shot a birthday party with it. My prints look great. Center sharpness is excellent and the colors seem to jump out at you. I never found CA's to be a problem. at 12mm in certain images, I can see them. This lens will also flare when you have the sun shining directly at you. Oddly, I took a picture of my car with the sun all the way in the corner and it didn't even make it into the scene and I got some nasty flare on the opposite corner in the shadows of my car front bumper.
I'm not a pro only a well-seasoned hobbyist so money is a major issue as I don't have lots of opportunities to make money with my equipment. If you are not making money off of your equipment, I would say skip this lens and go with the Tokina which a lot of people seem to buy or the Sigma if you want to really go ultrawide. 10mm and 12mm is a HUGE difference. I plan on going this route.
This lens has the gold ring so it is considered a pro lens. It just does not have the feel of the Nikon 17-55, my 70-200 or my 35-70. Usually with most of my purchases I never look back. For some reason, I always regretted this lens since the day I bought it. My reason was price/performance ratio. This is why I sold it.
Regarding re-sale value, Nikon lenses will hold more value compared to off brands. But with the introduction of the FX sensor, I don't know what the future of the DX sensor will be. 10 years from now will this lens be worth even $700? I think most pro's have dumped this lens for a D3 and 14-24.
These are all things to consider before making this specific purchase.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Objects closer than they appear!
Comment: There is noticeable barrel distortion at the edges on the wide end but this can be corrected in Photoshop. The build feels solid and it has some weight to it so it can get tiring carrying it around all day. If you need to use a flash you will need a speedlight. An on camera flash will cast a shadow at the bottom of the image most noticeable at 12mm.
Despite that, this lens is my favorite. It is nice and sharp, especially around f/8. AF-S is fast and silent and the manual focus override is nice. The focus ring is behind the zoom ring. It will focus fairly close although it doesn't necessarily look that close in the viewfinder @ 12mm. Make sure to look up every once in a while before you run into your subject! I use a 77mm Hoya UV filter and have had no problems with vignetting @ 12mm. Get the thinnest filters you can to be safe. A circular polarizer is probably not a great idea with this lens because of the thickness and, you may get weird results on the wide end.
This is a great wide angle lens for the DX format, a bit pricey but worth it if you like to shoot wide angles. I know I do!
Summary: Excelent purchase
Comment: I was hesitating between the sigma 10-24mm and this lens. There is a big difference in price but after reading all the Amazon reviews and some more I decided to go for the Nikon. I own a Nikon D200 and have the 18-200mm VR lens, the 80-400mm Nikon VR lens and the Sigma 105mm macro lens. Talking about optics I can not complain about the sigma macro lens but talking about look and performans I really prefer Nikon lenses. This wideangle zoom lens I consider was the lens I was missing to have a complete set of shooting options. It feels good, looks good and most important of all it performs outstanding.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Crazy Good DX Wide Angle
Comment: A friend suggested I get this wide angle lens for my D40. At first I was reluctant because of the price. I'm glad I took his advice however. I've taken about 600 shots on this lens so far, and every one of them is clean. Zero blurry or fuzzy or vignetted shots.
The color is excellent, and 12mm is wide enough to have some serious wide angle fun. The lens has not gotten in the way of taking crazy shots.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny
Comment: This lens is the best!!!! It is definitely worth the money. I'm relatively new to digital SLR, but I do interior design and mural painting and have to do all my own photography, marketing, advetising, etc. I used this lens on the D80 and my photos will stand up to any professional. I can use them enlarged for portfolio work, brochures and anything else. The lens takes incredible wide angle shots with no distortion at the edges. Even with my limited camera knowledge and auto settings, I'm amazed at the quality every time I use it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Lens but it's not worth $920
Comment: I bought this lens from B&H two weeks ago. I returned it yesterday.
First off, the lens is not cheap. $920, as of today, seems to be the best price around for the USA model. For $920 you get a plastic body, F4, and a lens that performs it's best at the long end.
I used to own a consumer grade 18-200. The 12-24's plastic body somehow feels "better" than the plastic on the consumer grade lenses. The zoom ring has two nice solid clicks at 12 and 24. The focus ring is not bad either...much better than the 18-200 focus ring which for some reason I always thought was going to snap one day.
This is a wide angle lens so 2.8 is really not an issue but F4 for $920 is pushing it especially considering the competitors are almost 50% less.
I don't know about you but I bought the lens to go ultrawide. I already have a 17-55 so I was hoping the 12-24 to perform quite well at 12mm. Center sharpness at 12mm is excellent. The corners at 12mm really do look soft when you view your images at 100%. You can help the situation by stopping down to f8 but I would really like to shoot this lens wide open. I took this lens to Liberty State Park and I also shot a birthday party with it. My prints look great. Center sharpness is excellent and the colors seem to jump out at you. I never found CA's to be a problem. at 12mm in certain images, I can see them. This lens will also flare when you have the sun shining directly at you. Oddly, I took a picture of my car with the sun all the way in the corner and it didn't even make it into the scene and I got some nasty flare on the opposite corner in the shadows of my car front bumper.
I'm not a pro only a well-seasoned hobbyist so money is a major issue as I don't have lots of opportunities to make money with my equipment. If you are not making money off of your equipment, I would say skip this lens and go with the Tokina which a lot of people seem to buy or the Sigma if you want to really go ultrawide. 10mm and 12mm is a HUGE difference. I plan on going this route.
This lens has the gold ring so it is considered a pro lens. It just does not have the feel of the Nikon 17-55, my 70-200 or my 35-70. Usually with most of my purchases I never look back. For some reason, I always regretted this lens since the day I bought it. My reason was price/performance ratio. This is why I sold it.
Regarding re-sale value, Nikon lenses will hold more value compared to off brands. But with the introduction of the FX sensor, I don't know what the future of the DX sensor will be. 10 years from now will this lens be worth even $700? I think most pro's have dumped this lens for a D3 and 14-24.
These are all things to consider before making this specific purchase.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Objects closer than they appear!
Comment: There is noticeable barrel distortion at the edges on the wide end but this can be corrected in Photoshop. The build feels solid and it has some weight to it so it can get tiring carrying it around all day. If you need to use a flash you will need a speedlight. An on camera flash will cast a shadow at the bottom of the image most noticeable at 12mm.
Despite that, this lens is my favorite. It is nice and sharp, especially around f/8. AF-S is fast and silent and the manual focus override is nice. The focus ring is behind the zoom ring. It will focus fairly close although it doesn't necessarily look that close in the viewfinder @ 12mm. Make sure to look up every once in a while before you run into your subject! I use a 77mm Hoya UV filter and have had no problems with vignetting @ 12mm. Get the thinnest filters you can to be safe. A circular polarizer is probably not a great idea with this lens because of the thickness and, you may get weird results on the wide end.
This is a great wide angle lens for the DX format, a bit pricey but worth it if you like to shoot wide angles. I know I do!