Built solidness, 24mm-200mm, all in one lense, I thought about the 24-135, but needed more telephoto, so I choose this one..

Heavy

I purchased this lense at the suggestion of the owner of the camera store, when I purchased my new Nikon D100 in July of 2002.The lense is built like a professional lense, strong solid, and very good looking. The 24-200mm has been very useful for me and has been a great factor in me keeping my camera sensor clean.The lense is sharp and fast enough for all for serious sports action.I have other lenses, but if I were to have just one, it would be this one.24-200mm is hard to beat.

Customer Service

Have no need to use it

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 18-35 Nikon 70-300ed Nikon 50mm Sigma 50mm ex macro Sigma 170-500mm

All metal built. Looks and feels great. operates fast and smooth. Can be bought cheap on eBay.

Don't find any, other than mine just broke up !

I thought long and hard before chosing an all-around lens for my Nikon D100. I shoot dogs and horses and need a good zoom range, but I also like some scenery and candid portraits so I wanted some wide angle as well. First the 24mm does make a difference compared to a 28mm. Second the lens is beautifully built, stick it on a D100 and people actually stop you on the street !! Some reviewer wrote it was a "sexy" lens, I entirely agree, gorgeous all metal built, quality is here in and out. I habe no sufficient experience to judge the quality of the optics, but I can say operation is very good, very fast and easy. I like the contrast, sharpness and color rendition even though the D100 is known to be soft, and it is, but I don't blame it on the lens. It's also know to underexpose, which mine never did. Overall I love this lens, even though it is now being serviced as the electronics contacts let me down in the middle of a shooting session ! I'm having it repaired because I love this lens and plan on using it many more years.

Customer Service

Don't know

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 70-300 DL Nikon 70-300 D

Very well built and finished.

Very soft at the edges and towards the corners at any focal length and any F stop

This lens is very well built, rivals any of the high-end original brand lenses or even better. It is beautifully finished, very heavy but balances very well on the camera body. The story unfortunately ends here. The performance of the lens is so poor in comparison with any other lens I compared with, that is not even funny. The vignetting makes any image totally unusable until F 8, but the sharpness is very poor even with F 11, especially towards the corners and I did not even test it on a full field camera but on a Canon EOS 1D which has a cropped field of view. As a conclusion, the lens performance was so poor at any focal length and any F stop that I had to pack it up and send it back for a refund. It is a pity since it was such a beautiful lens.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135 EF IS, Canon 70-200 F4L

Build and price

Optics. I sent it back as it was very, very soft. So bad that no amount of sharpening was acceptable.

A well built and chunky lens, with a very useful zoom range. Used on a Canon 10D

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-90

Very well built (metallic barrel), nearby professional level. Right weight for good stability Petal shaped lens hood and fine electric-blue velvet-like pouch

Vignetting (max. - 3 f-stops @ 24mm, f/3.5) Distortion (max. 9% barrel @ 24mm, becomes pincushion over 50mm 'til 200mm) Soft images Too far closest distance

The lens is strongly built, the external barrel is almost all alluminium, and the rubber on rings has a very good grip. It's heavy enough for good stability, and the package includes a very good hood and a soft blue velvet-like pouch. But the good ends here. Optically, it's quite poor. Especially at the focal length of 24mm (the one that, I think, Tokina should have cared better in this lens), at full aperture (f/3.5), vignetting is a true problem: from the center, there are 3 f-STOPS (!) of difference. Pictures look like been taken with the wrong lens hood. With the polarizer, things get worse, too! Distortion is heavy (9%!) at 24mm (barrel) and at 200 is evident (pincushion). The pictures are not so sharp. The AF motor (mine was a Canon version) was fast enough, but far from Ultrasonic Motor. The closest focusing distance is very poor for the focal length of 24mm and for close-ups.

Customer Service

Never used, but known as poor, at least in Italy.

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (far better) Canon EF 35-350mm f/3.5-5.6 L USM (far better from everything!)

Great looks, solid build. This is one sexy lens. [People notice this.]

Doesn't close focus enough -- forget tight portraits (which I love)!

Might sound crazy, but when I first saw how the lens looked like in the magazines, I fell in love with it and ordered one immediately. And it DOES look great. Aesthetics-wise, far better than the Tamron "look." Solid, hefty and serious-looking. Well, I've been using it for over a year now with my two Maxxum 9xi's and Maxxum 7, in most every concievable situation (I'm a corporate photographer.) It's my fault for assuming it would perform like a "pro" lens optically (it doesn't) but, to be fair, Tokina never claimed it to be such. My major complaint: Minimum focusing distance of close to 3 feet is a drag, with only 1:6 magnification. For its intended market, it wouldn't be a bad deal (if the weight won't bother most amateur shooters). [PS: I'm waiting now for my new Tamron 24-135.]

Customer Service

Had to send it back for electronic refitting: originally wasn't compatible with my Maxxum electronics. OK now.

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 28-300 (first generation)

Great range: 24-200mm (or 38-320 using D30's 1.6multiplier), good build quality, above average focussing speed

colors tend to be warm

I used the Tokina 24-200 ATX with my Canon D30 digital body. It gives a good range altogether, from 38mm "wide" angle to 320mm telephoto. The build quality is very good, but the colors can be slightly warm at times, but which can be easily corrected in photoshop. Focussing is surprisingly fast; not as fast as a USM though, but sufficient enough. Weighing only around 700g, this makes a perfect companion for the D30, and makes a excellent travel lens.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-105, Canon 50mm, Canon 100-300mm, Tokina 20-35 ATX

Sharp, 24mm FL, circular polarizator effect.

Distortion, flare, light vignneting at 24mm when using filter, quiet heavy, meter index too short (only 3 meter), manual focus ring too loosely

I'm very interested on this lense because its range; I can bring only one lense during travel. Another thing I like from this lense: it can give effect of blue color like a circular polarizer filter gives. Like many other reviews, it is true that this lense give sharp image. According to my experience I do not get any difficulty in focusing in low-light condition and moving object. It does have a lot of distortion. At 24mm you can recognize barrel distortion (fish eye/turning-out) but longer than 35mm you'll got pincushion distortion (turning-in). Minimal distortion can be reached by setting it at about 28mm (this number is not printed but it is about in the middle of 24mm and 35mm. This lense is also irresistable to flare, flare can already begin if the sun about 30 degree from your front side. You'll also probably get vignetting if you are using filter, it is almost invisible on print film but on slide I can recognize it clearly. Don't forget to use its sun-shade when taking picture, the sun shade is really well designed to minimize vignetting Manual focus ring is so loosely that I'm not sure whether it can stand any shake/vibration.

Customer Service

Never yet

Similar Products Used:

Minolta AF 28-80, 70-210, 100-300

All in one, having 24mm is better than having 300mm focal

Distorsion, lines turning on the left and on the right...see lines at 50mm, it's a show, eheh

A lot of distorsion, but no matter with vignetting....in my opinion; you can use 24mm focal, If I could I gave you some samples at 24 (stopped down or nearly). You can see a comparison with Tamron 28-200 at www.photozone.de (tests / super zooms)

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

none

Build quality and zoom range. Sharpness. Non rotating front element.

Vignetting... 62mm makes filters a bit expensive, even more if you use ultra-slim filters. Flare. Not a fast lens, you'll better use ASA 400.

Great lens if you need such extreme range. A little bit heavy but you only need one lens, so the total weight of your equipment is quite less than with a 24-70 + 70-200. The main problem for this lens is vignetting (very noticiable at 24mm), and flare, but the build quality is good, and the sharpness and contrast is really impressing for a lens with this extreme zoom range.

Customer Service

Not needed.

Similar Products Used:

none with this zoom range.