|
| sent on 08 Giugno 2015
Pros: The only true DX equivalent to a 24-70mm f2.8, build, solidity, weight when compared with Nikon, Price, Sharpness, constant aperture, decent lenshood, smooth zoom/focus, Made in Japan, 'Standard' 77mm filters
Cons: Discontinued, scarcity in Nikon fit, old style AF, Zoom creep, CA against the light at f2.8
Opinion: Upgrading from my little and plasticky Tamron SP 17-50mm f2.8, this Tokina offers no cutting edge technology. Big, chunky and with 77mm filters, it is noticeably bigger and more 'pro' looking than the little Tamron. But still 150g lighter than the Nikkor 17-55m f2.8 that I aspired to, but cannot afford! Handles and balances well on the D7000. Tokina discontinued this lens a while ago and finding good Nikon examples can be difficult, finally found this good value example at 249 English pounds sterling, which was one hundred pounds less than other examples I'd seen, in Canon fit. My example suffers from quite bad zoom creep that affects shooting at long end and at angle steeper than 45 degrees. I don't know if this inherent in its design or just mine. Performance is excellent, at least from f4 down; at f2.8, it's like any similar lens, very usable, but only when you need that aperture, due to low light or for shallow depth of field. Corners at 16mm f2.8 are a bit soft, but not so noticeable and we are talking about a wider angle of view, after all. F16 is about the minimum usable aperture, it gets soft all over beyond that. AF is engaged by pulling the lens barrel back, hardly modern technology or that quick but the AF, despite being old technology only makes a noise if it travels through a large portion of the focus scale. In normal use, where it is picking up small changes, it is quick, quiet and accurate. Tokina state that the front element has a special coating which allows easy cleaning, but haven't tested this yet. Barrel distortion is slightly high at 16mm, (but still less than my Nikkor 18-200mm, at 18mm) but again, not so surprising considering the angle of view and it's not bad enough to be visible in the viewfinder, and is easily correctable, of course. Slight pincushion at 50mm, which again, is par for the course. Tried lens wide open in dark church for stained glass windows; CA's not noticeable, only when viewed very large on computer. So, overall, a very valid and usable pro quality lens for landscape, street and live music shooting until the time I can afford a Big Boy Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8. For value, quality, build and usability, 10 out of ten, but I have to knock a point off for that zoom creep and for the old style AF, so overall 9/10 |
The following opinions have been automatically translated with Google Translate.
JuzaPhoto contains affiliate links from Amazon and Ebay and JuzaPhoto earn a commission in case of purchase through affiliate links.
