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china2k
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Registered: Nov 8, 2005
Location: Ukraine
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 27, 2009
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Recommend? |
Price paid: $780.00
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Pros:
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build quality, zoom & focus fings handling, sharpness, focus range, bokeh blur
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Cons:
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MFD too long (1m could be better for e.g. 50mm lens), focus limit bang sound, a bit softer at 135/2.8, AF is slow to recover if you miss the target once
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Hi, got this awesome lens this week, based on FM, SLRGear, Optychne, and Photozone reviews. Many thanks to all, the recommendations are just fair!
Overall impressed with the lens. I wish it would focus closer, cause over 1m at 50mm limits the creativity a bit. In particular, my intention is to use the lens as all-round portrait.
AF is casual but fast enough, no worries here. Ofc it could be better with USM, I wish it was. I wish the IS would be there, too - at 100-135mm this quite heavy combo challenges the steadiness of handheld photography. When it comes out, it could be an ultimate one.
Nothing moves or rotates, including MF focus ring during AF. I was searching for this aspect before, and it is not covered anywhere over internet. My 5 cents then.
The field of view changes a bit with focusing - not sure if this is good or bad. Just noticed this phenomenon.
The AF buzzes a little but nothing critical. When the AF hits the limit on both close and infinity ends, it bangs the limiter quite loudly - that is more important and can be irritating at times.
Overall I feel confident and I'm looking forward to real shots!
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 Sep 27, 2009
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tanglefoot47
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Registered: Oct 12, 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14887
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Review Date: Sep 26, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp, light weight, 2.8, hood included, built is great
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Cons:
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Little slow AF but not bad
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Boy was I shocked with this lens it is tack sharp even sharp at 2.8. Today I shot a baseball game LL and it was every bit as good if not better than the 70-200 2.8. Maybe not as fast but not bad. Feels great in the hands
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Sep 26, 2009
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china2k
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Registered: Nov 8, 2005
Location: Ukraine
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 25, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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build quality, zoom & focus ring handling, bokeh blur, sharpness
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Cons:
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minimum focus distance 1m (compared to fix lens e.g. 50mm, 85mm, etc), non-removable collar (why?), a bit softer at 135mm, amplified focus limit bang
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Hi, got this awesome lens this week, based on FM, SLRGear, and Optychne.pl, and Photozone reviews. Many thanks to all, the recommendations are just fair!
Overall impressed with the lens. I wish it would focus closer, cause over 1m at 50mm limits the creativity a bit. In particular, my intention is to use the lens as all-round portrait.
AF is casual but fast enough, no worries here. Ofc it could be better with USM, I wish it was. I wish the IS would be there, too - at 100-135mm this quite heavy combo challenges the steadiness of handheld photography. When it comes out, it could be an ultimate one.
Nothing moves or rotates, including MF focus ring during AF. I was searching for this aspect before, and it is not covered anywhere over internet. My 5 cents then.
The field of view changes a bit with focusing - not sure if this is good or bad. Just noticed this phenomenon.
The AF buzzes a little but nothing critical. When the AF hits the limit on both close and infinity ends, it bangs the limiter quite loudly - that is more important and can be irritating at times.
Overall I feel confident and I'm looking forward to real shots!
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Sep 25, 2009
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yxl122
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Registered: Nov 28, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 197
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Review Date: Jan 12, 2009
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Recommend? |
Price paid: Not Indicated
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Pros:
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f2.8, sharp wide open, build quality
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Cons:
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not for full-frame cam, focus can be an issue at low light, a bit heavy
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its extremely sharp @ f.28 across focus length, except for 135mm. Sharpness is still very good @ center of 135mm. Color rendition is also good. As a Canon user, I think this lens can beat the famed 70-200/2.8 zoom lens at every focus length, though the tokina one extends only to 135mm. 
if you are using a crop camera, tokina's focus length is 80-216 mm equivalent to 35mm camera's angle of view. 80-216 or 70-200 mm range is mostly used for portrait photography. Canon 's focus range on a crop camera will be 112 - 320 mm which gives you more reach, but a bit too long for portraiture.
And f 2.8 stop gives you more edge for freezing moving objects and creating shallower Depth of Field and pleasing background blurriness, compared to the ones with f 4 stop.
the Tokina 50-135 mm is only used for crop camera. If used in a full frame camera, you will see lots of dark area around the edge of photo. So if you are planning to go full frame in the near future, then you may like to pick up Canon's 70-200 mm.
with this relatively heavy tele lens, it is hard but not impossible to hand hold for indoor shooting. autofocus is a bit slow and noisy, compared to HSM and USM version lenses. yet it is still reasonably fast, accurate, and consistent.
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Jan 12, 2009
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yxl122
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Registered: Nov 28, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 197
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Review Date: Jan 12, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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f2.8, sharpness wide open, build quality, price
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Cons:
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only for crop sensor cam, focus could be an issue under low light condition
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if you are using a crop camera, tokina's focus length is 80-216 mm equivalent to 35mm camera's angle of view. 80-216 or 70-200 mm range is mostly used for portrait photography. Canon 's focus range on a crop camera will be 112 - 320 mm which gives you more reach, but a bit too long for portraiture.
And f 2.8 stop gives you more edge for freezing moving objects and creating shallower Depth of Field and pleasing background blurriness, compared to the ones with f 4 stop.
with this relatively heavy tele lens, it is hard but not impossible to hand hold for indoor shooting. autofocus is a bit slow and noisy, compared to HSM and USM version lenses. yet it is still reasonably fast, accurate, and consistent.
the other thing you need to consider is the Tokina 50-135 mm is only used for crop camera. If used in a full frame camera, you will see lots of dark area around the edge of photo. So if you are planning to go full frame in the near future, then you may like to pick up Canon's 70-200 mm.
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Jan 12, 2009
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Sambru
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Registered: Jun 6, 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 749
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Review Date: Nov 12, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Built Like a Tank - I just like this lens alot it is just perfect for my needs. The IQ is spectacular.
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Cons:
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None
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Works so well on my D300, in fact it's my main go to lens.
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Nov 12, 2008
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Hillmont
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Registered: May 25, 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jul 15, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $540.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Very sharp right from f2.8, good colour and contrast, very usefull range on a crop, great build quality
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Cons:
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none
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I've had this lens twice now, the first time was in a Canon mount and the one I have now is in a Nikon mount.
It's a great lens with a solid build quality, feels much more solid than the Canon 70-200L lenses, it's tack sharp right from f2.8 thoughout the range, on my Nikon D300 it covers a range from 75mm to 202mm in 35mm terms.
It's also a quite compact lens with a good hood and a smooth zoom
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Jul 15, 2008
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DavidWEGS
Offline
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Registered: Apr 15, 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Apr 3, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $650.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp, contrasty, smooth in all operations, small and light relative to its coverage.
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Cons:
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Slightly slow to focus on the long end.
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What can I say. Very good lens covering a most useful range on a crop body like the D300.
Almost as sharp as the 70-200/2.8 is L lens I have in the Canon mount and sharper than my 70-200/2.8VR. Slight softness at the extreme edges at 2.8 but very strong in the center.
As the cons say, it is slow to focus compared to AF-S or USM, but respectable non the less. I use this BEFORE I reach for the 70-200's even with IS unless stuck with dark areas and non moving subjects that would benefit from the IS more.
Love this one.
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Apr 3, 2008
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ptys
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Registered: Jul 6, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 135
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Review Date: Sep 11, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $699.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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sharpness, build quality, included hood and tripod mount, one-touch focus switch
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Cons:
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focusing speed, flare
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I’ve had this lens for a few months now and I use it on a Canon XTI. I got it mainly for photographing people/kids, but as it is the longest lens I have, I end up using it for all sorts of stuff when I need longer reach. I have to say that I never tried the equivalent Sigma, but at the time I was making the purchase I really didn’t have time for returns or back and forth with Sigma service because of focus problems. This was my experience with one other Sigma lens I own. Also, this lens was rated higher in optical quality in all the reviews I had seen before I pulled the trigger so that made the decision much easier. Full frame 70-200 equivalents were too large, too long on the short end (70mm), and too pricey (and white).
I’ve rented and handled Canon L lenses before and it terms of build quality this lens is in the same league. The body is metal and the focus and zoom rings are smooth and well damped. Even the built-in tripod mount is damped. When you loosen the tightening screw it turns smoothly on the lens body just like the focus and zoom rings. The mount cannot be detached from the lens, but one can either find a spot where it doesn’t get in the way, or simply loosen it and let it turn and get repositioned as needed. I’ve gotten used to it being there.
I must also say that I dig that Tokina “one-touch” switch in the focus. I find it more useful than Canon/Sigma full-time manual focus. You can use this thing completely without taking your eye off the viewfinder. I never even knew how useful the focus on/off switch can be!
In terms of optical quality, I have no complaints other than flare. This review http://www.optyczne.pl/index.php?art=57 covers pretty well all the pros and cons and what I have seen matches their findings pretty closely. The flare can get bad in some conditions, but because the angle of view is pretty narrow and the included flower hood is effective (in which BTW it’s possible to turn a circular polarizer, provided that yours is serrated in the front not just the side), I don’t find this to be much of a problem. Otherwise this lens is perfect as far as I’m concerned – I had a hard time telling apart test shots between f2.8 and f4 in the 50-100mm range. Beyond 100mm wide open it’s visibly softer, but it’s not too bad. Stopping it down even one click starts bringing a lot of detail back. At f4 and up this lens produces an amazing amount of detail at any focal length.
The last thing is focus – and here is where Tokina folks have to start paying attention. The lens uses a micromotor (in Canon mount at least) and it is not a speed demon by any means. For me, tracking a running kid hasn’t been a problem, but the competition is better in this regard and I can see how this aged focusing mechanism could be a deal breaker for some in a $700-$800 lens.
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Sep 11, 2007
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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25
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131890
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Mar 11, 2015
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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84% of reviewers
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$621.14
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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10.00
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9.48
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9.8
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