I was all set to go out an pick up the Nikkor 20-35f2.8AF when I read Moose Peterson's comments about the Tokina. As the lens is not an ESSENTIAL piece of kit for me, I would like to draw on the wealth of experience in this forum to help make a decision. If the Nikkor is just a tad quicker than the Tokina, I can live with it, as its purpose will be mainly landscapes and old buildings. I hate to ask another "this lens vs that lens" question, but the difference in dineros compels me too strongly to hold back. Thanks in advance for your help.

-- Jeff Thomsen (jesper@mozart.inet.co.th), February 09, 1999

Answers

JEFF, THE FOLLOWING IS A REVIEW OF THIS LENS POSTED BY DAN BROWN LAST YEAR ON PHOTO.NET. I WAS ASLO CONSIDERING THIS LENS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE NIKKOR EQUIVALENT, WHICH WAS OUT OF MY PRICE BRACKET. PERHAPS IT MAY BE OF HELP.

I received the new Tokina 20-35mm/f2.8 AF lens this week and hot a quick test roll of Sensia II. This is my report for those interested in this lens.

Feel. The lens is all metal and has some heft in you hand. The feel is one of quality. It has a crinle paint finish the exudes a sense of quality. The zoom ring is well damped and has the feel of thick grease, smooth in its motion. The aperture ring, which is plastic, moves smoothly and has firm positive detents for whole stops. The focus is AF, but there is a "focus clutch" which is used to engage and disengage the focus ring from the internal helicoid. This is dome by pushing and pulling the focus ring up and doen the lens barrel. Not a bad design. When disengaged, the AF is fast and responsive, and I liken it to performance of the brand lenses. When engaged, the AF drives the manual focus ring, which is damped for smoothness, so the AF motor struggles to turn the ring. Obviously, the AF mode is to be disengaged on the body. Then, MF is very smooth and has that grease feeling mention above. Very fine feel indeed. The focus and zoom rings have a rubber gripping surface, very nice.

The lens includes a bayonet mount sculptured hood (plastic) which mounts in reverse for storage. The lens caps are fine, and there is a leatherette case included which has a belt loop. OK, but I'll probably never use it.

The lens takes 77mm filters, I put a Tiffen on it, which has 7mm length and noticed no vignetting, so it looks like any single filter will work well. I doubt 2 filters could be stacked at the wide end.

I shot pictures of a clear sky for testing light fall-off and a brick will for sharpness and barrel/pincushion distortion. Light fall-off, 20mm. At f2.8 noticeable, maybe 1/2 stop. At f4.0 slightly less. At f5.6 very slight, at f8 nil.

Light fall off at 24mm. At f2.8 slight, at f4.0 very slight, gone at f5.6. Light fall of at 35mm. At f2.8 slight. At f4.0 very, very slight. Gone at f5.6 I think this is a very good performance and wouldn't be concerned about it for the vast majority of images, unless the scene was very uniform and a slide image.

Sharpness. I only had a 4x quality loop and and 8x plastic loop. I think there was a little softness wide open at 20mm, but this could have been partly due to the wide angle effect. At f4 and smaller at all focal lengths, the image looked sharp corner to corner. At 28 and 25mm, it look sharp to the corners wide open. Remember, I wasn't using a quality 10x loop. For me, the sharpness seems more than acceptable, I'd call it excellent, but shy of the Brand prime of 24mm.

Distortion. I had a real hard time seeing it, but I think there is a wee bit of barrel distorion at 20 and 24mm. I was following the lines in the bricks, and the bowing was very slight. Maybe 1% of so, but that is a guestimate. I would think the lens is good enough for architecture, except for very long straight lines at the widest angles near the edgeof the frame.

Durability. Time will tell, but my first impression is that it will stand up over time.

Conclusion. At $640, after rebate, versus the brand's $1600 price tag, it's a no-brainer. The Tokina stays in my bag, as a pro-grade ultra-wide fast zoom.

-- Dan Brown, July 17, 1998

-- Omar Khan (thepond7@netscape.net), February 09, 1999.

Omar, thanks. You just helped me save a hunk of cash. Fortunately it seems I'll even have the opportunity to try the lens for a period before having to make a final decision, although "no brainer" does come to mind. Jeff

-- Jeff Thomsen (jesper@mozart.inet.co.th), February 10, 1999.

A few days ago I discussed the Nikon versus the Tokina in a Camerashop in Oslo. The manager had done som extensive testing of both. His conclusions were: the Tokina had slighly better contrast, b sharpness and color. The Tokina was also better in backlight situation. The Nikon was better built and gave a better feel in his opinion. I didnt see any of the photos he had shot, but his report stopped me from buying the Nikon right now. In Norway you can get 3 Tokinas for the price of one Nikon.

-- Pel Brenne (misjonskirken.def@os.telia.no), February 15, 1999.

The Photodo web site (www.photodo.com) contains a set of MTF tests for various lenses, and according to this site, the Tokina doesn't test nearly as well as either the Nikon or the Canon 20-35/2.8. The "weighted MTF" results are Nikon: 3.6, Canon: 3.5, Tokina: 2.5 (all out of a possible 5).

I was surprised because I too have seen positive remarks for this lens on the photo.net site and in magazine tests. Anyone care to comment?

-- David Longerbeam (david@nightfire.com), February 15, 1999.

I'm also surprised by the above test results, as all I've read is very positive comments and reviews on this lens. If anyone has actually used the Tokina and could provide some actual insight the information would be most appreciated. Here in Thailand, you can also get roughly 3 Tokina lenes for the price of 1 Nikkor.

-- Jeff Thomsen (jesper@mozart.inet.co.th), February 16, 1999.

Yes, but don't put too much stock in those tests. The tokina 20-35 f3.5 tested out at a score of 3.3

They are just mtf, there is no measure of distortion such as it is.

-- Omar Khan (thePond7@netscape.net), February 17, 1999.

Cool, I'm picking the lens later today for a 2 week trial. I appreciate all your help guys, thanks a lot. Jeff

-- Jeff Thomsen (jesper@mozart.inet.co.th), February 17, 1999.

I have the Tokina lens and this is my opinion. The clutch is a pain in the ..... The large curvature of the front ellement makes it prone to flare. The optical quality is not as good as the Nikon equivalent. But otherwise it is a great lens, especially for a 1/3 of the price of the Nikon.

-- Nico Mostert (mostert@es.co.nz), September 02, 1999.