I know they are not canon L lens but then I only make so much money. there sure is alot about Sigma and Tamron. But I was wondering from my fellow users how their experiences have been with various lens from Tokina. Please just list you lens and any comments.
Thanks in advance for information and educating myself and others.
The 20-35 2.8 was the most consistently good and damn effortless lens I have ever had. Build is superb. Why are L's thought to be better built? I just ordered a Tokina 12-24 f4 too and I have yet to see a poor image from it. Tokina lenses are cheaper and if you choose carefully on the SH market you can get a real bargain. Not many L bargains around!!
Tokina 12-24 - great results. sharp edge to edge, good build. Still getting used to AF clutch, but not a big issue in wide lens. Flare about the same, possibly a little worse, than 10-22S and 16-35L. 12-24 comes out of the bag, other wides don't.
Tokina 17mm ATX Pro; excellent well built lens, with good results. Much smaller than some of those huge w/a zooms at a length that nicely complements the 28mm lower end of many mid range zooms. IMHO lower cost primes are far less of a compromise optically than lower cost w/a primes.
I had a 24-200. Excellent cost benefit. It was at least as good as the tamron 28-200 I had. I have some center crops of the tamron up against the canon 24-70 and the 28-135 at several apertures if you're interested in looking at them.
I concluded that much of what you are paying for with the more expensive lenses is of course sharpness, especially the further you go from the center. But the additional quality comes at a cost not necessarily proportional to the added benefit. If your are using the lens for candid snapshots for example, then it might not be all that important to you.
I have the Tokina 12-24 and 24-200. They both perform quite well on my 10D and 350D. The 12-24 is designed for 1.6 crop cameras so it is not too good on my 1D MK2. The 24-200 works well on all my Canon cameras and, IMHO, is a great lens for the price. About $260.00. The zoom range is especially useful to me. I use all my "L" glass on the 1D2 and Tokina does not trail too far behind these lenses.
Regards, Fred
I have the Tokina 20-35mm and used to own the Tokina 300 f2.8.
The 20-35mm is very nice. Not had a bad picture from this lens yet.
The 300 f2.8 is an amazing lens. Very sharp and good contrast. The only drawback to this lens was the fact that it would not accept any teleconverters as the back end had the gel holder right by the mount. But in all, very nice lenses. I sold it and got the Sigma 300 f2.8 which is just as good and faster and lets me use the canon teleconverters for some very sharp pictures.
the Tokina "plastic fantastic" isn't so bad either....
Plastic Fantastic is the nickname given to the Tokina 19-35. I bought one a couple of years ago for around $200 and it hasn't disappointed....its no "L" but it is a great value for the money...
by the way...spelling may be wrong, but the nickname was coined by this fellow: http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/Whats_new/a_Recent_changes.html
Another vote for the 12-24. Very sharp, has some limits (mainly some CA) but all around a great lens for the money. I don't know how I did without it on my 20D before it came out
12-24, Excellent. The 24-200 was my first ever digital slr lens, I used it
for three years, liked it a lot. At the price, it's hard to beat. Consider, it's a $250 ultra zoom, so it's not going to equal high end glass. And it's built to last.
12-24 is great. Sharp with some CA. Built like a tank. Feels good on your camera. Had a little old lady tell me that she liked the thing on the front of my camera. (Lens Hood)
I have used the Tokina 19-35 on my 10D and it gave good results. Not as good as my 17-40 L but good enough for a $140 lens. I also have used the Tokina 28-70 ATX-Pro 2.6-2.8 and the 28-80 2.8 ATX-Pro on Nikon bodies and thsoe were superb... Although focusing is noisy and slow, they gave excellent image quality.. Also build quality of the 28-70 ans 28-80 was second to non. All metal construction so well built you could use it as a hammer to drive nails...
from my fellow users how their experiences have been with various lens from Tokina. Please just list you lens and any comments.