[discharged]

I owned a tokina, got an offer on a pentax FA* and tried to find someone comparing them head on. I found noone and decided that because I felt the tokina got a bit weaker at 60-70mm I wanted to try the Pentax out for size.

Now that I've owned them both for a while I feel ready to share my findings with you.

First here are pictures of the lenses, taken with the other lens.





Feeling:

Tokina has this hands down. No plastic, The pentax actually feels flimsy compared to the tokina. and that's not how I usually comment on pentax gear especially not the * lenses.

manual focusing:

Tokina again, pentax feels finicky, there is no resistance at all when fine tuning the focus. but all is not great with the tokina, if you have the body on AF and the lens on MF the camera can actually still focus with AF but the resistance that is added will probably burn the engine out very fast, be careful! I've done it once by mistake but the screwdrive motor survived that time atleast.

Automatic focusing

I'd be lying if I would say we have a clear winner here, the Pentax might be a bit more accurate, but the tokina is alot faster. I would say we have a tie.

Zooming:

I hate to say it, but once again it's the tokina. It might be my copy of the Pentax, but here there is a bit too much resistance instead.

Features:

This round goes to Pentax, the switch between manual and automatic focusing is alot easier than the tokina, where you have to find the same place that you disengaged AF to engage it again, with the pentax you can just move it any time. Also the pentax has PZ - not that any DSLR body can use it... and it has zoom locking aswell.

Construction:

Sorry Pentaxians, this one is tokinas once more. Internal focusing and zooming on the tokina, and the front element of the Pentax moves, so pol-filters are quite a bit more challenging.

Near focus

This one is pentax, i actually had to redo the shooting done below because I had the bottle too close for the tokina to focus properly. Moved it back a few inches and started with the tokina for the final pictures, just to be certain.


But enough of that, lets see how they compare. all shots made at wide open.

@28mm


28mm Pentax


28mm Tokina

@35mm


35mm Pentax


35mm Tokina

@40mm


40mm Pentax


40mm Tokina

@50mm


50mm Pentax


50mm Tokina

@60mm


60mm Pentax


60mm Tokina

@70mm


70mm Pentax


70mm Tokina

and at 70mm with a few different apertures.


pentax F2.8


Tokina F2.8


Pentax F4


Tokina F4


Pentax F5.6


Tokina F5.6

---

Last edited by discharged; 03-01-2015 at 12:38 PM.

[Rimfiredude]

I like the colors of the Pentax but the exposures fluctuate making it difficult to compare. Sharpness is also difficult to declare a winner because of the exposures but the Pentax does appear to be sharper probably because of the contrast. Just my 2 cents for what it is worth. I love the old Tokinas.

[discharged]

th difference in exposure is actually the tokina letting in more light, they are all shot with exactly the same settings 1/60, 2.8 iso 100.

[discharged]

added a few different apertures

[starjedi]

I owned a tokina, got an offer on a pentax FA* and tried to find someone comparing them head on. I found noone and decided that because I felt the tokina got a bit weaker at 60-70mm I wanted to try the Pentax out for size.

Now that I've owned them both for a while I feel ready to share my findings with you.

First here are pictures of the lenses, taken with the other lens.





Feeling:

Tokina has this hands down. No plastic, The pentax actually feels flimsy compared to the tokina. and that's not how I usually comment on pentax gear especially not the * lenses.

manual focusing:

Tokina again, pentax feels finicky, there is no resistance at all when fine tuning the focus. but all is not great with the tokina, if you have the body on AF and the lens on MF the camera can actually still focus with AF but the resistance that is added will probably burn the engine out very fast, be careful! I've done it once by mistake but the screwdrive motor survived that time atleast.

Automatic focusing

I'd be lying if I would say we have a clear winner here, the Pentax might be a bit more accurate, but the tokina is alot faster. I would say we have a tie.

Zooming:

I hate to say it, but once again it's the tokina. It might be my copy of the Pentax, but here there is a bit too much resistance instead.

Features:

This round goes to Pentax, the switch between manual and automatic focusing is alot easier than the tokina, where you have to find the same place that you disengaged AF to engage it again, with the pentax you can just move it any time. Also the pentax has PZ - not that any DSLR body can use it... and it has zoom locking aswell.

Construction:

Sorry Pentaxians, this one is tokinas once more. Internal focusing and zooming on the tokina, and the front element of the Pentax moves, so pol-filters are quite a bit more challenging.

Near focus

This one is pentax, i actually had to redo the shooting done below because I had the bottle too close for the tokina to focus properly. Moved it back a few inches and started with the tokina for the final pictures, just to be certain.


But enough of that, lets see how they compare. all shots made at wide open.

@28mm


28mm Pentax


28mm Tokina

@35mm


35mm Pentax


35mm Tokina

@40mm


40mm Pentax


40mm Tokina

@50mm


50mm Pentax


50mm Tokina

@60mm


60mm Pentax


60mm Tokina

@70mm


70mm Pentax


70mm Tokina

and at 70mm with a few different apertures.


pentax F2.8


Tokina F2.8


Pentax F4


Tokina F4


Pentax F5.6


Tokina F5.6

Great comparison. Pentax 28-70 sounds to be better at wide open.

[Driline]

Pentax looks much sharper and better contrast. Pentax wins.

[sholtzma]

I don't have the Tokina and can't make the comparison myself, but the Pentax is very, very good. Someone, I assume with a less than stellar copy of the lens, gave it an "8" the other week. Any normal copy of this lens is not an "8"; it's at least a "9" and easily a nine-point-something, at least in terms of sharpness. Am still working on a range of test shots to post on the lens evaluation thread for this lens.

[discharged]

Great comparison. Pentax 28-70 sounds to be better at wide open.

The Tokina do have crappy contrast at 2.8 especially towards the long end, but contrast is quite easily fixed in PP. I do think that it holds it's ground when it comes to sharpness even at 70mm.(despite my own thoughts before about the lens and what everyone else says, I think becuase there is such a huge loss of contrast you mistake it for being unsharp).

That said. With a APS-C DSLR I cannot really name a winner. each has it's pros and cons. The Tokinas con is quite obvious fully open it loses contrast especially at it's longer focal lenghts while the pentax never quite reaches the same sharpness as the Tokina once stopped down, also we do have quite a difference in the amount of light. zoomed out to 28mm that should be anticipated since the Tokina is actually F2.6 there, while the pentax is 2.8 but at 70mm we still see 1/3 of a stop less light on the pentax. I was not prepared to notice such a "huge" difference.

But, at the end of everything the lens that will probably be attached to the body the most is still the Pentax, simply because there is less PP work with that lens. Atleast until the FF comes out. At that time I will investigate corner sharpness in more detail... Then I will (despite really really trying not to) look at the reviews on the new lens, hopefully someone will compare it to the FA* and maybe, just maybe I will have a third large aperture 24/28-70 to add to the collection

I don't have the Tokina and can't make the comparison myself, but the Pentax is very, very good. Someone, I assume with a less than stellar copy of the lens, gave it an "8" the other week. Any normal copy of this lens is not an "8"; it's at least a "9" and easily a nine-point-something, at least in terms of sharpness. Am still working on a range of test shots to post on the lens evaluation thread for this lens.

I'm not that sure about that. My lens is as sharp as any other FA*28-70 I've seen. And the test shots here above proves it. But the Tokina is sharper once stopped down and that means that it cannot be a 10 and since the tokina is no 10 either I would say in terms of sharpness that placing the FA* at an 8 is reasonable and the tokina at 9... They are comparable to mid-high range primes from the same era in terms of sharpness, Lets face it, a zoom will never be even close to 10 in sharpness, atleast not across it's zooming distance. it might be close at some point though.

And here is the curve ball. when it comes to zooms they are both very, VERY sharp.

[discharged]

I just noticed a major flaw with my bottle test... I copied settings in lightroom, but it did not change the color temperature or tint, now I set the temperature and tint on a image and copied settings again and gave it another go. Now all images has the same color temperature aswell

[uttam.hathi]

two thing pentax is designed like other dslr to kill competition (a dumb concept) as the software is not designed to read tokina at-x pro, it will front focus, use a split glass and see the wonder.
further what u need is a better hood, like the hood made for 80-200/2.8 at-x pro , use this along with manual focussing and see the difference.

wish the japs understand

[pepperberry farm]

wish the japs understand

I understand that English may not be your primary language, but this could have been stated differently, without the ethnic slur or the generalization of the Japanese culture....

[uttam.hathi]

thats no slur, but a business model being followed. Simple lightroom analysis will reflect, Suppose a Dslr manufacturer moves in with a software which mapps all lens in, well that might be generational shift.
Imagine Pentax-ricoh moving out of screw drive.