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Third-Party Lenses
BEST LENS IN THE WORLD AT THIS PRICE is .............
the TOKINA 100mm f2.8 Macro Pro Lens
the TOKINA 100mm f2.8 Macro Pro Lens
I must first start this review by saying that Amazon were unable to match the price that I paid for this lens, which was unfortunate, as I have come to trust them. My brand new lens was over £100 cheaper than Amazon and did not come from Hong Kong or Japan.
That said, I felt that I had to leave my thoughts on this lens on Amazon, so that other DSLR users don't fall into the trap of buying only Nikon or Canon lenses. Tokina are one of the best makers of optical lenses on the planet and still manufacture them in Japan, unlike Nikon, who have switched to China and elsewhere. It is well known amongst serious photographers that Hoya filters do not distort or lessen the image qualities of a lens and guess what - Tokina lenses are part of the same group of companies and in fact are manufactured in the same factory as Hoya filters. The overall company name is Kenko Tokina Co. Ltd. and apart from Hoya/Kenko, other well known photographic names such as Slik and Cokin come under the same umbrella. By the way, I bought with this lens a Hoya 55mm lens protector filter and the images below were taken with it fitted.
Ok, so forget about the Nikon/Canon one upmanship that their lenses are the best, as in this instance, Ken Rockwell, who is a top American pro photographer and highly respected Internet reviewer of Nikon products, agrees with me that the Tokina AF 100mm f2.8 Macro AT-X 100AF Pro D is "the" best lens he has ever fitted on a Nikon camera, bar none. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/100mm-f28.htm
My humble findings concur exactly with Ken's and this lens is definately the D's B's and MUST NOT be overlooked !!
Apart from the superb 1:1 macro ability (see image 1 below) this lens, although sporting no VR capability, produces tack sharp images as either a portrait or telephoto lens - the second image below is 25% cropped top left of the full original and shot hand-held wide open at f2.8. Whenever I can, I mount my camera on a tripod anyhow, or at a pinch use a monopod, so the non VR element is not such a problem as it seems. Of course, ALL attempts to get the best macro shot MUST include mounting the camera on a rock solid support and focusing manually. However, even the macro image sample below was taken wide open and hand-held at 1/200 sec shutter speed !!
On the subject of focusing, the Tokina's unique push/pull manual or AF action works superbly and Ken Rockwell wishes that Nikon adopted that approach too. This lens is definately up to Pro standard and is a quality piece of kit - the equivalent, less dynamic f2.8 Nikon lens, would cost mega bucks and also gives worse results. All mechanics on this lens are very smooth and the metal mount gives assurance of longivity.
Finally, like Ken, I wholeheartly recommend this lens and hope you buy one - Tokina are a very underrated manufacturer and deserve to be up amongst the Sigmas of the photographic 3rd-party world.
(c) Paul Simmons 2015
Below is what other people think
That said, I felt that I had to leave my thoughts on this lens on Amazon, so that other DSLR users don't fall into the trap of buying only Nikon or Canon lenses. Tokina are one of the best makers of optical lenses on the planet and still manufacture them in Japan, unlike Nikon, who have switched to China and elsewhere. It is well known amongst serious photographers that Hoya filters do not distort or lessen the image qualities of a lens and guess what - Tokina lenses are part of the same group of companies and in fact are manufactured in the same factory as Hoya filters. The overall company name is Kenko Tokina Co. Ltd. and apart from Hoya/Kenko, other well known photographic names such as Slik and Cokin come under the same umbrella. By the way, I bought with this lens a Hoya 55mm lens protector filter and the images below were taken with it fitted.
Ok, so forget about the Nikon/Canon one upmanship that their lenses are the best, as in this instance, Ken Rockwell, who is a top American pro photographer and highly respected Internet reviewer of Nikon products, agrees with me that the Tokina AF 100mm f2.8 Macro AT-X 100AF Pro D is "the" best lens he has ever fitted on a Nikon camera, bar none. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/100mm-f28.htm
My humble findings concur exactly with Ken's and this lens is definately the D's B's and MUST NOT be overlooked !!
Apart from the superb 1:1 macro ability (see image 1 below) this lens, although sporting no VR capability, produces tack sharp images as either a portrait or telephoto lens - the second image below is 25% cropped top left of the full original and shot hand-held wide open at f2.8. Whenever I can, I mount my camera on a tripod anyhow, or at a pinch use a monopod, so the non VR element is not such a problem as it seems. Of course, ALL attempts to get the best macro shot MUST include mounting the camera on a rock solid support and focusing manually. However, even the macro image sample below was taken wide open and hand-held at 1/200 sec shutter speed !!
On the subject of focusing, the Tokina's unique push/pull manual or AF action works superbly and Ken Rockwell wishes that Nikon adopted that approach too. This lens is definately up to Pro standard and is a quality piece of kit - the equivalent, less dynamic f2.8 Nikon lens, would cost mega bucks and also gives worse results. All mechanics on this lens are very smooth and the metal mount gives assurance of longivity.
Finally, like Ken, I wholeheartly recommend this lens and hope you buy one - Tokina are a very underrated manufacturer and deserve to be up amongst the Sigmas of the photographic 3rd-party world.
(c) Paul Simmons 2015
Below is what other people think
Images mentioned in review above.
