[WRB]

I have an option to purchase one or the other to use for wildlife. Looking for quality experiences and opinions before doing so.

[roentarre]

You could try asking Scott Rylance regarding this lens. He was actively looking for this lens in the past but got tokina 400mm f5.6 instead

He would know about this a lot more.

I heard that this lens produces sharp images and reliable for wildlife photography. It is not heavy and producing great colour. The only problem is that it is rare and hard to come by.

So you must have found a great treasure! If I go for a overseas travel, I hate to travel with so many heavy lenses. If you have the chance to get this lens, you should not miss it!

[roscot]

I don't have personal experience with the Tokina, but it does have a good reputation.
Which K mount 400 are you looking at?

[clarenceclose]

I don't have one and covet one but for my choice, all things being equal optically or reasonably so, I would go for the flexibility of the 80-400. Reasoning: Many times I have seen bird shots where the photographer did not have the option of backing up, as the bird flew toward them, and the wing tips or tail were outside the shot.

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Last edited by clarenceclose; 01-11-2007 at 11:46 AM.

[WRB]

SMC PENTAX 1:5.6/400 is the Kmount option and/or the AT-X 840 AF (not the 840 AF II) new in the box. I appreciate the comments so far, I am leaning to the Tokina for many of the reasons stated, but question is regarding IQ.

[tcom]

I have the Tokina 80-400 ATX-II lens. I purchased this lens because I wanted a smaller and lighter lens as the Sigma 170-500. I am very pleased with this Tokina lens. The lens is built like a tank and the image quality is very good.

The lens can be quite easily hand held thanks to the SR of the K100D. But autofocus is quite slow making it difficult to follow a bird in flight.

I had the Tokina 80-400 on travel on a safari in Botswana. The photos are under Botswana Photo Gallery by Dominique Schreckling at pbase.com.

Hope this helps.

[WRB]

Great gallery and answers the question of quality. Nice shots. Do you know if ATX-II vs ATX will allow such quality? Thank you.

[tcom]

All I know is the ATX-II has a tripod collar which the first version did not have. I do not know if there are any more differences.

[roentarre]

Tcom! A great gallery there.

I can find out from your shots with following points:

1. Tokina wide open at 400mm requires great full blown sun for the image to be sharp and clear like leopard shots etc. Or stop down to at least f8

2. The rest of focal lengths are working fantastic

3. Colour and details are amazing at 200mm.

[tcom]

Thank you Roentarre.

The Tokina is a very good "compact" travel tele lens and it delivers high quality pics. Sure, to some points, it remains a consumer level tele zoom and there are some compromise, such as maybe a bit soft on the far end on wide open aperture, but I do not want to miss it anymore.

My Sigma 170-500 was already at 400mm softer than the Tokina, not to speak about at 500mm..

[WRB]

Do you use the tripod collar is it necessary in your opinion?

[tcom]

The SR of the K100D is good enough to hand hold the Tokina 80-400 in normal light situations. But should you need the tripod, the collar will be a big plus to balance the whole thing.

[betsypdx]

I've got the "II" version as well - the tripod collar is nice when you have your tripod along, a bit of a pain when you don't. I've read elsewhere that the second version does have improved optics (search dpreview and I'm sure you'll find a bunch of posts about this). I've been pleased with mine, though never having had bigger lenses, it seems like a bit of a beast to me, as opposed to my nice compact Pentax lenses. Some pics in this gallery and more in others.

Tokina 80-400mm Photo Gallery by betsypdx at pbase.com

[WRB]

Thank you neighbor. Nice shots. I will search DPR for the improved optic info.

[larugl]

Some posters in this thread may remember that a Tokina representative told me that if Pentax continues to fare well with the new K-series, they might very well decide to offer the new (and improved) D 80-400 in K-mount. If so, they recon they will anounce it at PMA in March and that the lens will become available soon after.

Just something to ponder on when considering zoom lenses in this range...

Good luck!

Best regards,
Lars