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- Andy
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(N.B. See post #9 for link to better example photos).
I'm posting this thread to assist anyone who, in the future, finds themselves in the same position that I was in two weeks ago and tries (in vain) a forum search to find answers. I know that this is a (rather long) Nikon-biased post, but it should be stressed that Tokina make this lens for Canon cameras as well and that the whole design is shared with Pentax, who manufacture almost the same lens for their bodies. Anyway, if you tire easily
, skip the first 12 or so paragraphs and go straight to the part (below, in bold) about my experiences with the lens. Otherwise, if you're curious/bored, please read on from here 
...
Essentially, I was looking for a "DX" (crop sensor) version of a fast 70-200mm constant f/2.8 zoom to use with my crop sensor family of (Nikon) camera and lenses. It suddenly occurred to me, once I started shopping around, that I'd never seen any lens matching that description - certainly not from Nikon and surprisingly, not even from the competition! A trawl through the websites of Nikon, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina confirmed my worst fears - none of them currently offer such a lens.
I was perplexed
. I own a full frame DSLR (D700) and have lenses which go; 17-35mm, 28-75mm, 70-200mm - all at f/2.8. My first two crop sensor lenses roughly mirrored those FF focal lengths, being 11-16mm and 17-50mm (again, at f/2.8), but then I hit a hurdle - in the range of pure DX lenses, I could only find a 55-200mm (Nikon) zoom lens which (despite being, portable, sharp, having VR and giving excellent value for money) only had an aperture range from f/4 to f/5.6 :|. I bought it, but all too often I just couldn't use it with the light that was available! Hence the quest for a faster replacement.
Well, I (foolishly) tried a forum search using, "55-150mm f2.8", just in case Tamron, Tokina or Sigma had made a pseudo 70-200 zoom at some point, but I found nothing. Then I started this thread (Link ...). I'm glad that I did. A couple of people kindly pointed out that there were in fact a couple of candidates, but they both started at 50mm, not 55mm, hence the reason why my search turned up zilch.
Armed with the knowledge that both Sigma and Tokina had (previously) made exactly what I was looking for, I set about scouring the WWW for reviews and opinions. I was surprised (again) - a lot of people really rated both lenses! With this in mind, I couldn't understand why on earth nobody was making such a lens now (let's face it, crop sensor cameras are a long way from extinct :shrug
.
Well, I own one Sigma (50mm f/1.4) and one Tokina (11-16mm f/2.8) and both of them really do outshine my (YMMV) copies of the full-frame Nikon versions that I own in those focal lengths (the 17-35mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.8). So, I went into this potential purchase with no strong prejudice against either of those third party brands, although I did prefer Tokina's aesthetics and build quality to those of the Sigma brand (if I'm honest).
It was a tough call, but the Tokina won through in the end, as its strengths (IQ, primarily) were more important to me than its weaknesses (noisy, slow AF, non-removable foot and sharpness issues at f/2.8 and 135mm, in a nutshell
). Anyway, you can find reviews of both all over the Internet, so I won't get into that here.
Finding one of these lenses was not going to be easy though
. Although released, I believe, in 2006, Tokina have now dropped it from their range and very few places carry new stock now. In fact, I struggled to find one single European supplier who had even just one unit in stock. In the interim, I looked to ebay and the For Sale ads from various forums. What I discovered was that there were relatively few for sale and that they fetched very high prices (compared to their original purchase prices). It was as though there were armies of photographers out there who, like me, wanted this specific lens to fill the last, vital gap in their lens collections.
To make an already very long story a little shorter, I am pleased to say that I sourced a new one, in the end. It came from an Internet-based company called, "Purely Gadgets". When I stumbled across their website and saw that not only did they have (by far) the lowest price for this lens that I'd ever seen, they also showed 15 units of stock :nuts:!? You know how, when something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't? Well, I instantly had the same, sinking feeling. It didn't get any better when I Googled "Purely Gadgets" and found countless links to threads from disappointed customers. Whilst not accused of being an out-and-out 'scam website', a lot of people were bitterly disappointed by paying for "In Stock" items, which were never actually delivered and had to be refunded, or took a minor eternity to show up.
But, you shouldn't believe everything that you read (especially on the Web) and I decided to contact them by phone and see what the situation really was. Their sales guy swore blind to me that the stock level was (about) correct and that the stock was sitting in one (or possibly two) of their two UK warehouses, just waiting to be sold. He said that, if I were a UK resident, I'd have it within 3 days of paying for it. Well, based on his assurances, I went ahead and ordered one. What followed was a week long saga, where I had to chase them every step of the way. Firstly, they didn't send me the (promised) order confirmation and when the lens still hadn't been picked for delivery after two whole days, I began to hassle their Customer Service people into giving me a full explanation. In the end, the lens (which was ordered and paid for on Monday morning) was not actually dispatched until Friday afternoon. The CS people blamed a backlog from Xmas, caused by snow and bad weather
. After that, it took 4 days to arrive in Germany.
Well, all things considered, I'm glad that I dealt with PG. They weren't entirely honest with me, but then they did get me what I wanted, for a fraction of the price that it might have been had I been able to source one another way. Even now, they are showing 14 units of stock on this lens (albeit only in the Nikon mount version) and the current price is £410 (Link ...). They really don't deserve this plug from me, but I'm doing it for the potential benefit of my fellow TPers, not for PG's profits :razz:.
And now, the important bit - Is the lens any blummin' good!!!?
I think so. I'm not being coy here, it's just that I only took the lens out for the first time today and didn't have much light to play with. So, I struggled a bit with hand holding at the shutter speeds I could muster.
These images are just a few tasters - I'll try and post some better ones here, as soon as I have them. I also intend to test it out with my Kenko PRO300 tele-convertor (1.4x), as it fits and focuses perfectly at all focal lengths. You might be better off clicking on these images, BTW, as the auto size reduction of the forum tends to make them all look soft.
So, here's a 'contre jour' shot at f/4 and focused on the guy with his hand to his mouth (smoking). The sun was largely shaded by the platform, but even so there's no ghosting and very little CA visible along the edge of the roof (CA is reportedly a weakish point of this lens).
Next is a wide open, full zoom shot, through slightly misty air. Focus point was the cockpit, but at this distance, there's not going to be much in the way of bokeh, I'm afraid.
On the way home from work (when it was already dark), I whacked the ISO up to 640 and tried a couple more. Here's a shop window display, shot at f/4 again and hand-held at 1/100th sec (a tad slow for a the focal length), through a window and without a polarizer. I think that this looks at least as sharp as most of my primes, never mind the zooms)!
Finally, just for a laugh, here's a shot that I took of a nicely lit building. By rights, this should be a blurry, grainy mess. The ISO was at 640, the aperture at f/4 (a bit of a favourite of mine), the focal length was 50mm (the fat end), but the shutter speed was a mere 1/15th sec!!! All that considered, it doesn't look too bad, I think (although I'd still rather have VR than not ).
All of these images have had a very moderate amount of sharpening applied (as I have sharpening to set to either 0 or 1 out of 9 in my camera bodies) and the building shot has had some distortion control added to it, to correct the slight barrel distortion visible at 50mm. Other than that, what you see is what you get from this lens.
As I said, these are not stunning shots or conclusive proof of anything much. But, given that this lens appears to be so unrepresented in the world of digital photography, I just wanted to give it its 15 mins of fame. If anyone else owns, or has used, one of these Tokinas and wants to add their views, please, please feel free to post them here.
Thanks for reading!
Andy
I'm posting this thread to assist anyone who, in the future, finds themselves in the same position that I was in two weeks ago and tries (in vain) a forum search to find answers. I know that this is a (rather long) Nikon-biased post, but it should be stressed that Tokina make this lens for Canon cameras as well and that the whole design is shared with Pentax, who manufacture almost the same lens for their bodies. Anyway, if you tire easily
, skip the first 12 or so paragraphs and go straight to the part (below, in bold) about my experiences with the lens. Otherwise, if you're curious/bored, please read on from here ...Essentially, I was looking for a "DX" (crop sensor) version of a fast 70-200mm constant f/2.8 zoom to use with my crop sensor family of (Nikon) camera and lenses. It suddenly occurred to me, once I started shopping around, that I'd never seen any lens matching that description - certainly not from Nikon and surprisingly, not even from the competition! A trawl through the websites of Nikon, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina confirmed my worst fears - none of them currently offer such a lens.
I was perplexed
. I own a full frame DSLR (D700) and have lenses which go; 17-35mm, 28-75mm, 70-200mm - all at f/2.8. My first two crop sensor lenses roughly mirrored those FF focal lengths, being 11-16mm and 17-50mm (again, at f/2.8), but then I hit a hurdle - in the range of pure DX lenses, I could only find a 55-200mm (Nikon) zoom lens which (despite being, portable, sharp, having VR and giving excellent value for money) only had an aperture range from f/4 to f/5.6 :|. I bought it, but all too often I just couldn't use it with the light that was available! Hence the quest for a faster replacement.Well, I (foolishly) tried a forum search using, "55-150mm f2.8", just in case Tamron, Tokina or Sigma had made a pseudo 70-200 zoom at some point, but I found nothing. Then I started this thread (Link ...). I'm glad that I did. A couple of people kindly pointed out that there were in fact a couple of candidates, but they both started at 50mm, not 55mm, hence the reason why my search turned up zilch.
Armed with the knowledge that both Sigma and Tokina had (previously) made exactly what I was looking for, I set about scouring the WWW for reviews and opinions. I was surprised (again) - a lot of people really rated both lenses! With this in mind, I couldn't understand why on earth nobody was making such a lens now (let's face it, crop sensor cameras are a long way from extinct :shrug
.Well, I own one Sigma (50mm f/1.4) and one Tokina (11-16mm f/2.8) and both of them really do outshine my (YMMV) copies of the full-frame Nikon versions that I own in those focal lengths (the 17-35mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.8). So, I went into this potential purchase with no strong prejudice against either of those third party brands, although I did prefer Tokina's aesthetics and build quality to those of the Sigma brand (if I'm honest).
It was a tough call, but the Tokina won through in the end, as its strengths (IQ, primarily) were more important to me than its weaknesses (noisy, slow AF, non-removable foot and sharpness issues at f/2.8 and 135mm, in a nutshell
). Anyway, you can find reviews of both all over the Internet, so I won't get into that here.Finding one of these lenses was not going to be easy though
. Although released, I believe, in 2006, Tokina have now dropped it from their range and very few places carry new stock now. In fact, I struggled to find one single European supplier who had even just one unit in stock. In the interim, I looked to ebay and the For Sale ads from various forums. What I discovered was that there were relatively few for sale and that they fetched very high prices (compared to their original purchase prices). It was as though there were armies of photographers out there who, like me, wanted this specific lens to fill the last, vital gap in their lens collections.To make an already very long story a little shorter, I am pleased to say that I sourced a new one, in the end. It came from an Internet-based company called, "Purely Gadgets". When I stumbled across their website and saw that not only did they have (by far) the lowest price for this lens that I'd ever seen, they also showed 15 units of stock :nuts:!? You know how, when something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't? Well, I instantly had the same, sinking feeling. It didn't get any better when I Googled "Purely Gadgets" and found countless links to threads from disappointed customers. Whilst not accused of being an out-and-out 'scam website', a lot of people were bitterly disappointed by paying for "In Stock" items, which were never actually delivered and had to be refunded, or took a minor eternity to show up.
But, you shouldn't believe everything that you read (especially on the Web) and I decided to contact them by phone and see what the situation really was. Their sales guy swore blind to me that the stock level was (about) correct and that the stock was sitting in one (or possibly two) of their two UK warehouses, just waiting to be sold. He said that, if I were a UK resident, I'd have it within 3 days of paying for it. Well, based on his assurances, I went ahead and ordered one. What followed was a week long saga, where I had to chase them every step of the way. Firstly, they didn't send me the (promised) order confirmation and when the lens still hadn't been picked for delivery after two whole days, I began to hassle their Customer Service people into giving me a full explanation. In the end, the lens (which was ordered and paid for on Monday morning) was not actually dispatched until Friday afternoon. The CS people blamed a backlog from Xmas, caused by snow and bad weather
. After that, it took 4 days to arrive in Germany.Well, all things considered, I'm glad that I dealt with PG. They weren't entirely honest with me, but then they did get me what I wanted, for a fraction of the price that it might have been had I been able to source one another way. Even now, they are showing 14 units of stock on this lens (albeit only in the Nikon mount version) and the current price is £410 (Link ...). They really don't deserve this plug from me, but I'm doing it for the potential benefit of my fellow TPers, not for PG's profits :razz:.
And now, the important bit - Is the lens any blummin' good!!!?
I think so. I'm not being coy here, it's just that I only took the lens out for the first time today and didn't have much light to play with. So, I struggled a bit with hand holding at the shutter speeds I could muster.
These images are just a few tasters - I'll try and post some better ones here, as soon as I have them. I also intend to test it out with my Kenko PRO300 tele-convertor (1.4x), as it fits and focuses perfectly at all focal lengths. You might be better off clicking on these images, BTW, as the auto size reduction of the forum tends to make them all look soft.
So, here's a 'contre jour' shot at f/4 and focused on the guy with his hand to his mouth (smoking). The sun was largely shaded by the platform, but even so there's no ghosting and very little CA visible along the edge of the roof (CA is reportedly a weakish point of this lens).
Next is a wide open, full zoom shot, through slightly misty air. Focus point was the cockpit, but at this distance, there's not going to be much in the way of bokeh, I'm afraid.
On the way home from work (when it was already dark), I whacked the ISO up to 640 and tried a couple more. Here's a shop window display, shot at f/4 again and hand-held at 1/100th sec (a tad slow for a the focal length), through a window and without a polarizer. I think that this looks at least as sharp as most of my primes, never mind the zooms)!
Finally, just for a laugh, here's a shot that I took of a nicely lit building. By rights, this should be a blurry, grainy mess. The ISO was at 640, the aperture at f/4 (a bit of a favourite of mine
), the focal length was 50mm (the fat end), but the shutter speed was a mere 1/15th sec!!! All that considered, it doesn't look too bad, I think (although I'd still rather have VR than not ).
All of these images have had a very moderate amount of sharpening applied (as I have sharpening to set to either 0 or 1 out of 9 in my camera bodies) and the building shot has had some distortion control added to it, to correct the slight barrel distortion visible at 50mm. Other than that, what you see is what you get from this lens.
As I said, these are not stunning shots or conclusive proof of anything much. But, given that this lens appears to be so unrepresented in the world of digital photography, I just wanted to give it its 15 mins of fame. If anyone else owns, or has used, one of these Tokinas and wants to add their views, please, please feel free to post them here.
Thanks for reading!
Andy
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