Tokina 12-24 f/4 work on a nikon D5000?

I heard the tokina 12-24 lens is great for landscapes though just wonderring if this will work on my nikon d5000 as some websites said that it was not 'recommended', why? And also if it dosent work on my nikon d5000 what would be a good lens for landscape photography? In a price range of $500 AUD.

As seen here
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...X_124.html
the latest model should be able to autofocus with the D5000. However, an earlier model would not.

An earlier model will not autofocus. Since with landscapes you tend to shoot stopped down and focussed at or near infinity this is no real issue.

The version with built-in motor is fine (otherwise no AF) just remember to get it in Nikon mount.

As everyone has already posted, provided you get the AF-S varient (focus motoe in the lens assebly) it will work fine.

The reason some sites will advise against this lens is that for some time they used a slightly odd coating on the lens that tended to dull color a little when compared to it's competition. Any AF-S version is not going to have that inferior coating and should work fine.

You need to be sure that the Tokina lens has its own focus motor. If it doesn't you are stuck with the intensely annoying Nikon "feature" that you will have to focus manually.

Nikon have it the wrong way round! Pro's and high end amateurs will be happy to focus manually whereas beginners and lowly amateurs such as me like to have (need?) autofocus. So what do Nikon do? They give full autofocus across their entire lens range to the top end users and leave beginners floundering in the "will it, won't it" zone of confusion. They compound their folly by providing the top end users with a plethora of focusing screens to aid in manual focus while the bottom end users have to suffer a plain screen. Crazy! Why do you Nikon users tolerate it? Start a campaign - "Come down off the fence Nikon - a focus motor in every lens or a focus motor in every body"

There are actually two versions of the Tokina 12-24mm.

DX and DX II

The DX version is less expensive, and will only focus on advanced Nikons, such as the D90, D7000, etc.

The DX II (DX 2) version has an internal focus motor, which is more-or-less equivalent to an AF-S lens, and will autofocus on all Nikons, including the entry-level D3100, D5100 etc.

The DX II is Tokina's moniker for a lens with internal-focus motor. As of date, there's only one Tokina lens that is DX II (the 12-24mm). However, Tokina has also announced the 11-16mm lens will also be made in DX II, but won't be available until this fall.