Tokina AT-X 300 AF PRO AF 300mm f/2.8

about | support

Full AF path takes a lot of time to scan in and out, and a bit loud on my copy which is well used but still works fine and accurate.

A great, nicely priced fast telephoto prime that has everything that a keen amaterur would ever need. It has great detail resolving power, nicely blurred bokeh with thin DOF, nice colours. Can be used with converters I use a 2x on mine - image quality suffers when aperture is fully opened but around F4 (effective F8 - kenko does not report the real aperture on my 20d) it is great - anyway I strongly recommend to use such a combo with a sturdy tripod with remote and MLU otherwise there is a great chance to make the pic unusable thanks to camera shake. This is not a big deal IMHO.

BTW when used itself it is more than usable wide open but sharpens up marginally when stopped down.

There is slight CA but nothing to worry about.

tendency to flare ,a little slow on non PRO bodies as Nikon D70 and Canon D30,10D ..and alike..gets much better and workable on Nikon D1H, D2H, D2X ,and Canons 1D series.

Tokina keeps on to surprise me positively;it started once with the little famed >fat boy>Tokina 17mm F3,5 ATX pro which for a long period served me well on a Canon 10D and 1D cam(s) and did make super good pics for the money.But then The super lens Canon 17-40 did turned up and that was end of this story,..So dear folks..
I was in the market to search for a good soccer lens but didnt had the money for a super 300mm from the big companys(Nikon and Sigma) so i lend this one from a colleague which i heard had this 3 party lens from Tokina in his arsenal.

What a good surprise !---it was on the same level as the famed Nikkor 300m F4 if ED (non afs )but with a stop better and wih better bokeh and out of focus ,only colours could have been a little better but was easily corrected in PS.

It is a very good lens But,you have to work w the Nikons D1 or D2 series cams or Canons 1D to do it right for fast action like soccer and so on,to get the snappy pix right.

If one has the money then buy the Sigma 300mm HSM version or the high end-brands from Nikon and so on.IF not..then the alternative is this pearl.

Tokina 300mm F2,8 STX2 is a very good lens.

CA on almost every daytime shot on the 5D. Not compatible with Canon extenders. 112mm filter. Cheap case.

I bought this copy from Jayhawker below. It is the ATX II not the AF PRO. Lens is super sharp, which is only part of the story. Unless you plan on taking indoor shots with no bright areas of contrast, don't bother buying this lens. It exhibited nasty purple fringing through the range of f stops from 2.8 all the way up on my 5D. It could be on anything from white area highlights, for instance a blue and white shirt where the white meets the blue to branches where the blurred branches became purple. Luckily, shaysphotography purple defringing action in PS took care of about 95% of the purple, but the other 5% of the time, the CA could leave a purple cast on areas that the action couldn't really resolve without affecting the entire image.

Also, no Canon extender is compatible with this lens due to the location of the rear element. Since the rear element is not recessed as with Canon telephoto lenses, the Canon extenders cannot be physically mounted - therefore Kenko ones are required. While the 1.4x is comparable to the Canon 1.4x, the 2x is a bit softer. The body will not recognize a change in f-stop, rather the body shows a one stop difference in shutter speed for the 1.4 and 2 stops for the 2x. The exif data in PS does not show the use of a Kenko extender, while with the Canon extenders, the exif data does (very inconvenient). Lastly, the 112mm lens will create some cost issues if you want to put a polarizing filter on the lens and the case is a pretty cheap 70's looking brown vinyl hard cas.

If you can get over these issues, there are definitely some positives about the lens. The lens focuses fairly fast, about the speed of the 75-300 IS, maybe a bit quicker but is noisy in doing so. The build quality is impressive with the black armalite finish. The images produced from this lens are definitely sharper than the Canon 300 f4 that I used to own although the color saturation is not quite as good.

But ultimately, due to the CA and the fact that the lens was not giving me the reach for wildlife photos, I decided to sell the lens. Fortunately, I was able to sell it to someone outside of FM. I considered keeping this lens for sports with my young son, but the CA issue killed that idea. Perhaps it was my copy, but all in all, I can't recommend this lens to anyone. And if you can find one super inexpensively, it would ultimately be up to you to decide how much CA you're willing to tolerate in your photos. (I thought about getting the 300 f4 again, but decided to get the 300 f2.8 IS after all the positive reviews about the lens.)

I don't know how this lens would act on a 1.6x crop body, but since CA was exhibited all over the frame, I can't imagine the results would be that different. It's no wonder the lens has been discontinued by Tokina. If the lens didn't show CA, my rating for this lens would be 9 overall, 9 build, and 9 price.

Bad support,Tell you they will call you Still waiting for there call

Noisy Heavy definitely need a monopod/tripod for good sharp pix

Needed a faster lens for shooting symphony pictures and had to part with my Canon 300mm f4. Stumbled across a brand new Tokina 300mm f2.8 lens for $1375 and decided to go for it as they sell for $2099 new at B&H Video. Definitely worth the dollars if you can plunk down $2500 for a Canon model if you can find one at that. Came with a 122mm filter/hood/tripod adapter/case. The tripod mount is solid while mounted on a monopod. This lens is very sharp down to f2.8. I've only owned this lens for a short period but so far I'm very impressed with it. The pix seem to match the performance of my Canon 300mm f4. Here is a photo I shot from the other day with this 300mm. http://www.geocities.com/jay1hawker/violaplayer.jpg
I am very happy with the lens so far and will update this review as time goes by with some updates.