Here are all of our Tokina lens reviews, listed alphabetically. Tokina AF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 Aspherical AF ZOOM. Do a bit of research to check that you don’t lose too much image quality, but otherwise, you’re pretty safe with a good third-party lens. And for the extra $75, you get much better build, optical, and autofocus quality. The lens doesn’t employ any extra-low Dispersion (ED) elements like the more modern 300mm f/4 designs which means it isn’t very good at correcting for chromatic aberration. By using our service, you agree to our use of cookies. Except…no. It’s perfect for a lot of different kinds of photography, from sports to portraiture. Built for Full-frame and Crop Sensors Tokina produces some of the sharpest lenses. As our review shows, the Tokina 16-28mm is a hidden gem. The lens offers a broad manual focusing ring with a fine grip, and dust and weather-sealing. Tokina Co., Ltd is a Japanese lens maker. There’s often a lot of manual work as well which pushes the cost up further. Meet the Game Over Half of U.S. The most remarkable things about Tokina optics are that they are sharp, really fast, and well-built. Sigma also makes a 70-200 f/2.8 for the same price. Designed for Nikon and Canon full-frame cameras, the Tokina Opera 50mm f/1.4 FF is a well-balanced lens that perhaps isn't the lightest, but still handles smoothly. Tokina Cinema AT-X 16-28mm T/3 - This is one of Tokina's newly designed wide-angle lenses, redesigned from older... 3. Top 6 Best Tokina Lenses Reviewed 2020 1. Focussing is performed internally, and the filter thread doesn't rotate, making the lens ideal for use with graduated filters. In fact, as compared to rivals, the features offered by this Tokina product is simply astounding. It doesn’t have as long of a zoom range as the Tamron, but it makes up for that by costing less than half the price. In a nutshell, it can be rightly asserted that the benefits offered by the Tokina … Focus is performed internally and finds its target quickly and accurately. Tagged with . You’re not saving thousands of dollars, but you’re not saving an insignificant sum either. Tokina AT-X 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6. We awarded the lens 5 stars and an editor's choice award for its excellent sharpness, smooth bokeh and fast, silent and accurate AF. Any of the lenses featured in this guide offer a viable ultra wide-angle option. Take this Opteka 500mm f/8 lens with a built in 2x teleconverter; it costs just $89.95. This is another video-friendly lens, redesigned from their most popular wide-angle lenses for cinematic use. Depending on the light source angle, there might be some very small signs of flaring, but it is very easy to remove them in post processing. It's optical performance is as good or better than the best from Nikon and Canon, and this Tokina's ergonomics, due to its unique focus clutch, is also better than any of Nikon's or Canon's 100mm or 105mm macro lenses. While so far, I’ve been focusing on the positive side of third-party lenses, there is also utter crap out there. Tokina Opera 50mm f/1.4 FF - Designed for Nikon and Canon full-frame cameras, the Tokina Opera 50mm f/1.4 FF is a... 2. The lens is currently available for Canon EF and Arri PL mounts. There’s more than one good choice of Tokina ultra wide-angle lenses under $500, as you can see from this list. This is an ultra wide angle 2.3x zoom lens for crop sensor Canon and Nikon cameras. Since I only own this one copy and I don’t plan to open it I can’t tell you how reliable it will be, only how solid it “feels”. As long as you buy from a reputable third-party manufacturer like Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Samyang/Rokinon, or Zeiss, you’re not likely to go too far wrong. You’re also giving up some image quality as you can see in the video review above. Feb 24, 2021. RELATED: How to Take Good Photos of the Starry Sky. While Nikon lenses won’t work on your Canon camera, there are third-party lens manufacturers—such as Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Samyang (also sold as Rokinon), Opteka, Yongnuo and Zeiss—that make lenses for Canon, Nikon, and sometimes Sony and other cameras. Another similar lens is the Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8. Let’s look at an example. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. Even at less than $90, it’s a ripoff. We awarded the lens a 4.5 star highly recommended rating for its very good sharpness, outstanding build quality and parfocal ability. Nikon, Canon, Pentax and Minolta are like the others in that they make various quality lenses, but usually don't make the worst lenses, and often make the very best lenses. ePHOTOzine, the web's friendliest photography community. Tokina AF 16-28mm f/2.8 AT-X PRO FX Lens Review Full frame format … We gave the lens a recommended rating for its excellent sharpness, fast focus and very good build quality. Tamron offers a similar lens, the SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC for $1,299. You don’t have to spend a fortune since this third-party manufacturer offers lens quality that easily rivals other producers. How to Take a Screenshot on Oculus Quest 2, How to Use the Chrome OS Phone Hub with Your Android Handset, What Is Roblox? Their 24mm f/1.4 is just $549.00. Support this site by making a Donation, purchasing Plus Membership, or shopping with one of our affiliates: Being a Fujifilm photographer, I was recently approached by Tokina to form my opinions about two of their new lenses for Fujifilm X-Mount - Tokina atx-m 23mm f/1.4 and atx-m 33mm f/1.4. The case is even more obvious with Sony’s recent mirrorless camera range. Also, since it’s a manual focus lens, you won’t be able to react quickly to any situations, which makes it useless for sports or wildlife photography—the two situations where photographers normally use long telephoto lenses. For good astrophotography, you want a wide angle lens with a wide aperture. You can find more lens reviews in the ePHOTOzine lens review section. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t price differences, though. Nikon provides good backward compatibility, so that legacy Vivitar lenses in Nikon mount can often be used on modern cameras. Tokina AF 100mm f/3.5 Macro AF PRIME. Not only are the image and build quality poor, but the maximum aperture of f/8 just isn’t wide enough to get the sort of shutter speeds you need to use such a long telephoto lens. When people buy a Canon or Nikon camera, they often assume that they can only buy Canon or Nikon lenses. The lens feels well built, with the lens barrel being made almost entirely from metal. Sigma, Tamron and Tokina all make some acceptable lenses, some really good lenses, and some not acceptable lenses. I own and use around twenty Sigma lenses, and almost as many Nikon (Nikkor) lenses, all on Nikon cameras. APS-C-format users can include the FX and DX models in their kit. Canon’s own 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II retails for $1,949. However, third-party lenses are not universally a good deal. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, comics, trivia, reviews, and more. Inspirational in the name, opera new series of next generation premium full-frame lenses for high-end DSLR cameras aims to canalize the photographer's creativity into real "works of art". While modern lenses have become increasingly good at mitigating chromatic aberration, this cannot be said for the now 26-year-old design of the Tokina 300mm f/4. If you want the absolute best lens, you have to buy the Canon; but if price is more of an issue, then the third-party lenses start to look very tempting. Tokina Prime Lenses top. The new Tokina SZX 400m F8 Reflex lens has the same modern and sleek design looks of all the latest Tokina lenses of the last t hree years. Canon’s equivalent lens, the EF 24mm f/1.4L II, since it has autofocus, is a lot more versatile; but at $1,549 it’s almost three times the price for no real improvement in image quality. This lens is available to fit Canon and Nikon full-frame cameras. It also has extremely low distortion for the focal range. Harry Guinness is a photography expert and writer with nearly a decade of experience. At $580, this lens is a wonderful value. The latest version of this classic wide angle optic is for Canon and Nikon APS-C DSLRs and has a fast, smooth autofocus monitor in addition to the constant f/4 maximum aperture. Build Quality, Lens Handling & Design. There are a lot of incredibly finely made optical parts that go into a lens. Check prices. This lens is lightweight for its size, but still feels solidly built. Tokina Monthly Photo Contest 2020 – January winner announcement. ebay UK. The lens has a small size (check comparison image with Tokina firin 20mm AF and Tokina atx-i 11-20mmF2.8 CF) and it fits nicely with the camera body. Get the latest photography news straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter. Tokina make excellent lenses at budget friendly prices. Tokina 11-16mm T/ 3 Cinema MF ZOOM. In particular, legacy F-mount lenses can be mounted on all cameras, but only the higher end Nikon bodies will meter with them (with other Nikon bodies, the lenses have to be used in stop-down mode). Take a look at the full reviews by clicking on the links included below. Tokina AT-X 107 AF DX 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fish-Eye NH AF ZOOM. It doesn’t have autofocus, so it’s not great for anything other than astrophotography or landscape photography, but it’s a wide angle lens with a really wide aperture. Here is a round-up of the highest-scoring Tokina lenses reviewed on ePHOTOzine. If you’re prepared to give up on certain features like autofocus or image stabilization, or buy a prime lens rather than a zoom lens, third-party manufacturers give you a lot more options. What a deal! Official homepage; Canon EOS Technoclopedia: Tokina AF Lenses for Canon EF - a lens chart with technical data, comments and test references, including discontinued models This page was last edited on 13 June 2020, at 13:23 (UTC). Tokina 17mm f/3.5 AT-X 17 AF PRO Aspherical. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Amazon UK, There are small sacrifices but if you can afford costlier lenses you wouldn't be looking here. Visit our Competitions Forum, where you'll find our monthly competition and other external competitions to enter. The lens also provides a good degree of color definition without being too saturated. Jan 25, 2021. Wideangle zoom lens | Canon EF-S, Nikon F (DX) | AT-X 116 Pro DX. Tokina MF SZ-X 28-105mm f/4.0-5.3 SD MF ZOOM. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. Like most products, there are good ones, and incredibly cheap ones that we wouldn’t recommend. Check out the entire Catalog of Tokina photo lenses for Sony, Canon, and Nikon Cameras. Like all 3rd party manufacturers, Tokina makes a good range of compatible lenses for other brands like Canon & Nikon. Matte black body and white markings (not engraved) on the outer shell. Amazon CA, It's an ultra wide-angle zoom with a fast f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. Here, we round up the top 6 best Tokina lenses reviewed on ePHOTOzine, from wide-angle zoom, to bright prime lens. Learn more. RELATED: How to Take Good Photos of the Moon. The unfortunate reality is that no matter what, good lenses aren’t cheap. This is one of Tokina's newly designed wide-angle lenses, redesigned from older lenses and geared up for cinematic use. They can offer features that Canon or Nikon doesn’t offer, such as longer zoom lenses, faster apertures, or better bang for your buck. Calibrate your monitor so you can see 16 different shades : Cookies help us deliver our service. If you want to, you can purchase/find more information about each lens listed by clicking the green Amazon buttons featured below each product. That’s super cheap and it’s not an awful lens, but a genuine Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 is only $125. Ultimately, if none of the other wide-angle lenses above suit your needs, the 14-20mm f/2 is a very sharp option, with the benefit of having the widest aperture and most cost-effective price point. While the cameras are awesome and incredibly popular, they just don’t have every lens you could possibly need. At 2.8 it can handle most lighting situations admirably and depending on your camera you can really get a lot of quality out of this lens. The Tokina Firin 20mm F2 offersgood but not perfect build quality. Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X116 Pro DX II Digital Zoom Lens (AF-S Motor) Review First up is an excellent example of... 2. You can often, but not always, tell which is which by the price. While the Tokina lens reviews are a bit sparse here, Tokina's full line is comparably sparse also. We gave the lens a 4.5 star highly recommended rating for its excellent sharpness, solid build quality and low CA levels. Tokina MF SZ-X820 80-200mm f/4.5 MF ZOOM. All Rights Reserved. His work has been published in newspapers like The New York Times and on a variety of other websites, from Lifehacker to Popular Science and Medium's OneZero. The lens is made from textured black plastic, making it very sturdy. Sure, you can do some street photography, but if you’re just interested in shooting the Milky Way, that isn’t a selling point. In all cases, the best thing to do is research the lens you want to buy before spending any money. We gave the lens a 4 star recommended rating for its very good sharpness, low distortion for the type of lens and excellent build quality. Nikon Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR Review, Ricoh Imaging Introduce New Pentax FA Limited Lenses, Meike 50mm T2.1 S35 Prime CINE Lens Announced, Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN L-Mount E-Mount Lens Announced, Leica APO-Summicron-SL 28mm f/2 ASPH Announced, Panasonic Lumix S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Macro OIS Lens Announced, Reach 1.6 million Photographers; Advertise on EPZ, Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD Review. 1. It comes in versions for Nikon and for Canon. External links. Kids Play, How to Change Your Spotify Profile Picture, How to Pin a File or Folder to Your Chromebook’s Taskbar, © 2021 LifeSavvy Media. Sliding the manual focus ring back and forth engages and disengages autofocus in one touch, making access to manual focus quick and intuitive. Find out how these lenses perform. The lens is currently available in Canon EF and Micro Four Thirds lens mounts, and promises crisp 4K footage. Tokina AT-X Pro 11-16mm f/2.8 DX. Amazon US, Tokina … Tokina Co., Ltd. 株式会社 ... Kenko (company) - produces lenses under the Tokina name; References. This Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro is a fantastic lens. We gave the lens a recommended 4-star rating for its very good sharpness performance and low falloff levels for this kind of lens. Smallest M-Lens: Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH. The odds are if you’re looking for a common enough lens, there will be an original manufacturer option as well as a few third-party ones. Markings are not engraved, only printed. This is repeated across lots of different categories. Full frame format DSLR camera owners should consider only FX models for compatibility reasons. Tokina is a Japanese lens vendor that was established in 1950. Similarly, you can get a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 for $49.99. Tokina Prime Lenses Tokina Zoom Lenses. Focus Ring The focus ring travels around 100 degrees from 0.28 m to 1 m and a further 30 degrees … With a fast T3 aperture, equivalent to f/2.8, the lens is relatively bright. Crazy, right? But that isn’t true. For these reasons, Rokinon makes some of the most popular astrophotography lenses. The short answer is that, yes, in some cases, third-party lenses are well worth buying. I consider the two brands to be about equal in quality, sharpness and reliability. There is a constant maximum aperture of f/4, and virtually silent internal focussing. But are they any good? One thing you don’t need, however, is autofocus; it just doesn’t work at night. My experience with Tokina's lenses show them to be contenders for your kit. The good third-party lenses will still be expensive (expect to pay somewhere north of two thirds of the price of the manufacturer’s offering), but are probably better value for money. Learn more. By going with the Tamron or Sigma, you’re saving $650, but you’re still spending a lot on the lens as a whole. 16-28mm f/2.8 AF The short answer is that, yes, in some cases, third-party lenses are well worth buying. Thanks to Tokina’s Exclusive Multi Coating technologies, the Tokina atx-m 23mm F1.4 X lens performs very good when shooting against very bright sources of light. ⁣A couple of things to consider, it is fully manual like almost every vintage lens, is Nikon focus way, zoom internally what it is good but at the same time bad because the lens moves inside the barrel producing dust with the time and it is heavy.⁣ Learn about Tokina lenses: The new opera 50mm f1.4 for Canon and Nikon AND the new FiRIN 100mm f2.8 for Sony full-frame E-mount cameras For example, the 70-200mm f/2.8 is a very popular zoom lens. They can offer features that Canon or Nikon doesn’t offer, such as longer zoom lenses, faster apertures, or better bang for your buck. Tokina is exhibiting at the CP+2021 ONLINE. And though they are not the cheapest option among the three, their built quality may be compared to the lenses produced by Nikon and Canon. I thought about buying the Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, as everyone seems to be raving about how good it is, and there is really no competition to it, but I'm one of those "twice shy" ones myself. About the only thing this lens is good for is taking bad photos of the moon. Tokina 24-70mm f/2.8 Review. However, some limitations apply. While Canon and Nikon both have very mature lens product lines, there are still a few gaps where, if you want a certain kind of lens, you need to go third-party. See the FAQ section of the Nikon lens … Top 7 Best Tokina Lenses For Canon & Nikon Cameras! It seems to be mostly made from metal and feels solid enough but not quite as well made as the very best lenses. Upload photos, chat with photographers, win prizes and much more. For all Nikon and Canon 35mm and DSLR cameras, 82mm filters, 35.8 oz./1,016g, 1.3'/15"/0.38m close focus. To me I'd say pick this up if you want to dabble in wider focal lengths or if you want to get creative with a new … Tokina OPERA 50mm F1,4 for Canon EF mount, TOK50CEF, Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X 124 Pro DX MkII. Tokina AT-X 70-200mm f/4 PRO FX VCM-S AF ZOOM. Feb 16, 2021. Search for all the latest photography gear and services in our dedicated photography directories. for DX and 1.6x cameras only, but it does work on full-frame from 16~20mm. The lens is very solidly built, and autofocus is powered by a new SD-M motor, which focuses really quickly. Minimum focus is is 28cm from the sensor plane, allowing you to film in claustrophobic environments with no issues. atx-m 23mm F1.4 X. The company was established in Shinjuku, Tokyo in May of 1950 as Tokyo Optical Equipment Manufacturing.Early lenses were marked with Tokyo Koki, a shortened version of the phonetic translation into English of the company's name, Tokyo Koki Seisakusho (note that there is another company that used the English moniker Tokyo Koki.) It doesn't cost you anything extra when you press our Amazon buttons but by using our Amazon Affiliate links when ordering anything online, you are supporting the site - thank you. When it comes down to it, good third-party lenses offer you more options at competitive (although still expensive) prices; bad third-party lenses aren’t worth the cost of shipping. For astrophotographers, Rokinon has wide angle, wide aperture manual focus lenses available with focal lengths of 8mm, 14mm, 16mm, 24mm, and 35mm. Are Third Party Camera Lenses Worth Buying? However, third-party lenses are not universally a good deal. This is true whether you’re buying a lens from Canon or Tamron. RELATED: How to Take a Good Portrait Photo. The Tokina 17mm seems to be a very fine lens, and I have a Tokina 12-24 on order. After going through the above-mentioned Tokina 100mm Macro Review, it must now be evident that the most significant highlight of the lens happens to be the image quality with a maximum aperture as well as against the bright sunshine. You just can’t beat that kind of choice. Canon’s EF 85mm f/1.4L IS is $1,599 and Nikon’s AF-S FX NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G is $1,596, while the incredibly well regarded Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is $1,199 for both Canon and Nikon. This means a lot of people turn to third-party manufactuers. The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. The manual focus ring can be engaged and disengaged by sliding it backwards and forwards, giving access to manual focus in an innovative fashion. Summing up the Best Tokina Zoom Lenses Under $1000 At the other end of the focal range, both the Nikon and Tamron versions offer greater resolution compared to the Tokina, which although good in the center of the frame, tails off in … On the other hand, if you buy from the likes of Opteka or Yongnuo, you’re probably going to be disappointed. Fast, Small and Wide. Telephoto zoom lens | Canon EF, Nikon F (FX) | AT-X 840 AF D. $769.95. Tokina’s ultra wide angle lenses are among the best while Tamron is famous for their general zoom which had set a certain benchmark for quality & useability while Sigma is top for Super Telephoto zoom lenses. The reason the lens is so cheap is because Opteka cut some serious corners.