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COLOR RENDITION
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Nikon 12-24mm Tokina 12-24mm Sigma 10-20mm Tamron 11-18mm

Nikon 12 - 24 mm f/4, Tokina 12 - 24 mm f/4, Sigma 10 - 20 mm f/4 - 5.6 and Tamron 11 - 18 mm f/4.5 - 5.6.
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Lenses can vary slightly in their color transmission. Some have very slight tints. This has been rare since multicoating became common in the 1970s.

I haven't seen any major difference among these in regular shooting. Here is a deliberate example shot with the same white balance and no filters. Each lens was at its longest focal length.

I preset my white balance using the Nikon lens as reference. It will look neutral by definition.

Color saturation hasn't varied by lens since single coating was introduced in the 1940s. Only if you have a lot of flare will you lose color saturation.

I've set the background of this page to the same gray (B9B9B9 hex, 185/185/185 decimal) as a neutral reference.

Nikon

MEASUREMENTS

I set my Photoshop info pallet to Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV or HSB) to analyze the color shift. It says the Tokina is the closest to the Nikon. They are all well matched. I couldn't see any difference until I set the page background to the exact same gray for comparison. If I have to resort to this to see anything I'll never see any difference in real photography. A skylight filter adds more pink color shift than anything you see here between these lenses.

This is typical and good for modern lenses.

Nikon
Tokina
Sigma
Tamron
HSV (HSB)
270º 0.5% 73%
30º 1.5% 72%
15º 2% 74%
20º 3.5% 72%

OBSERVATIONS

The Tamron seems a bit warmer than the Nikon and Tokina. This is personal taste. I wouldn't choose one over the other based on this. A click of the White Balance setting will swamp any of this.

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