Sharp, small, light, strong

Full open is soft in corners.

Is inexpensive for its performance.

Similar Products Used:

28-70 f/2.8 Sigma

Images are very sharp and contrasty. Build quality is very high. AF is good with Canon A2. Price is absurdly low, if you can find one to buy.

Prone to vignetting at the wide end with open arpeture, but stop down to f/5.6 - f/8 and it's not a problem. It's sturdy build may make it a little heavy for some, but I like the heft.

Tack sharp optics, sturdy build, and very good AF. An ideal all around lens for a very reasonable price.

Customer Service

No needed so far.

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Nikon 35 - 70mm Canon 28 - 105mm Tokina 28 - 70mm ATX Pro

Sharp pictures throughout the focal range. No Noticeable distortion at 28 mm. f-3.5-4.5 range also makes it attractive enough for taking hand-held low light portrait shots. I took several of these at f-3.5 and all of them came out quite sharp. Takes good close-up pictures.

Rather heavy lens. Noisy focussing. But since I take take most of my pictures outdoors, I hardly mind the noise. Slightly warm, but nothing that can't be corrected by an 82A or 80B or C filter.

A heavy, noisy lens that takes sharp, undistorted pictures. A great buy for under 200 bucks.

Customer Service

None required

Similar Products Used:

None

Reasonably fast for its class of zoom. Solidly built all metal frame, sharp optics. Excellent price.

Fairly heavy. Vignetting on 62mm polarizer, slow focus (compared to canon's USM)

Good, tough, sharp lens that for the price is great if you can get past its probelms.....

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

Canon 35-135mm USM, 28-105mm USM, Tamron 28-200mm (piece of junk)

Sturdy construction. As soon as I took it out of the box I could feel the quality. SUPER SHARP for under 200 bucks!!

Very noisy in a darker room. Almost sounds like it's going to blow up. But I'm told it's normal. Maybee it would be different in a camera other than canon because canon's autofocus motors are in the lenses. (this is just my guess).
This lens takes an uncommon filter size (62MM)

I spent some time looking for a lens in this price range and in this zoom range. I have found that for about 170.00 You won't get sharper glass. I have dropped this thing on a rock and have also swung it on a stone wall. Still works perfectly. If you don't mind a noisy lens. Buy it.!

Customer Service

never needed. I did get my rebate in a timely manner.

Similar Products Used:

sigma 28-80, sigma 28-200. canon 70-300 IS

Quality construction, low distortion thruout range and fairly sharp.

Disappointingly heavy. Tokina's own data sheet for this lens claims 15 oz., but lens weighs 18 oz.! Considerable light fall off at 28 mm wide open.

If you don't mind the weight, it's a good choice for a medium speed 28-105 zoom.

Customer Service

None required.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-80/3.5-5.6

Solid construction

Drains batteries

I bought this lens largely on the strenght of the reviews I read here. What a hugh dissapointment. Maybe I got a lemon but after 16 rolls shot on vacation in Ireland I returned it to B&H. The AF was awful and it sucked lithium batteries faster than the Irish drink stout.

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Canon 35-105

very sturdy (metal!); sharp pictures, particularly at wide angles; although not a macro lens, good close-up pics (12/1999 Pop. Photo review was IMHO overly critical of this ability)

ok pictures wide open (need to step down - see 12/1999 Pop. Photo review for detailed info.)

a great lens for its price range (less than $200), if you can find one (had to buy mine used)

Customer Service

Not needed

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numerous Pentax, Tamron lenses

Outstanding build quality, as good as Nikkors.

Minimal distortion throughout the focal length range and at all focusing distances. The all-glass aspherical element really seems to help.

Low field curvature, even when focused close.

Very sharp.

Excellent flare control, no small accomplishment for a zoom of this range.

Peoplehave said that the AF is slow. It's fairly quick on mine, using an N65, N50, and N90s. But, yes, the focusing throw is fairly long and the lens is heavy, so there's some inertia to overcome. AF is considerably faster, for example, on my N90s than my N50.

Takes 62mm filters, a standard Nikon size.

Focusing ring turns in opposite direction from Nikon glass, a minor problem when focusing manually.

I sometimes wish for closer focusing - nothing a #1 diopter doesn't fix.

The matched bayonet-mount hood (BH-621) does not come standard with the lens. The hood, like the lens, has been discontinued, and is rather hard to find. Fortunately, the lens itself has excellent flare control.

The photo shown at the top of this review is a Tamron ... so don't be too surprised that the Tokina 28-105/3.5-4.5 Aspherical looks different. A call to Tokina revealed that the Nikon-mount version of this lens is completely Nikon D-compatible. It's fairly heavy at 19 ounces by my postal scale. Distortion is minimal all the way around, with very slight barrel at 28mm and slight pincushion at 105mm. It has less linear distortion than, say, the Nikkor 24-85 or 24-120 exhibit at their extremes. It has adequate speed with 100-speed slide film - I would recommend against choosing one of its less-expensive f/4-5.6 brethren if you typically shoot chromes. Sharpness is terrific as is flare control. Even straight-into-the-sun shots are crisp with no extraneous images floating around. Close focus is adequate at less than 2 feet, but it would be nice if it focused even closer. I like to carry a #1 diopter with this lens. Despite its bulk, it works quite well with the N50 and N65's built-in flash units.

Customer Service

Telephone query was promptly answered.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 24-120/3.5-5.6D (wider and longer, but larger and shows more distortion)

Nikon 24-85/2.8-4D (wider, faster, focuses closer, but larger and shows more distortion)

Nikon 28-85/3.5-4.5 AIS and AF-N (yuck! avoid!)

Built like a tank. Amazing metal construction for a lens in this price range. Low distortion across the entire zoom range. Genearlly good flare control.

In extreme side or front lighting situation some flare can be seen, but note only in extreme situations.

The lens in my opinion is an outstanding value. Value aside though the lens performs very well with little distortion at the extremes of the zoom range. I cannot reiterate enough about the great construction of this lens. Other manufacturers need to step up to Tokinas build standards in this price range. This lens proves quality is available in compact, strong, affordable packages.

If you are a photographer looking for a good lens in this range I would highly recommend this Tokina. Couple this with a good quality 70-300 ED Zoom and you have a neat little kit on your hands, light enough with enough quality to satisfy most of your needs.

If you happen to be a Nikon user such as myself, Nikon's 70-300 ED Zoom also has a 62mm Filter diameter making cross lens filter compatibility a real convenience.

All in all...great stuff.

Customer Service

No problems

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-200 (Arghhh)
Sigma 28-70 2.8