[osv]

Tokina ATX AF 400 is my favorite wildlife lens. Yes, it does take some stopping down, but it is so small and light - very convenient on the trail. Here are some recent photos taken with the Tokina:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/12-post-your-photos/308352-nature-autumn-critters.html

that was a fine set of pics, nice job.

[elektrolitr]

Let's add a bit of color to all-white snowy day!

Blue Tit in front of Tokina SD 400/5.6@6.7. These are not the sharpest images I have from this lens, but looks like I've missed focus a bit.

[elektrolitr]

I used two above mentioned lenses extensively last year- a Tair 3 300/4.5 (the version twice as old as me) and Tokina AF SD 400/5.6

I think that pictures speak better than words in photography, so look at these:

Greater White-fronted Goose (Tair)



Common Rosenfinch (Tair)



Whinchat (Tair)



Eurasian Treecreeper (Tair)



Tree Sparrow (Tair)



Northern Showelers among other shorebirds @ Latvian coast (Tair)



Waxwing (Tokina)



Fieldfare (Tokina)



I started year ago with the Tair. It's a surprisingly good lens for it's class. It's as bright as F300/4.5, can be pixel-sharp on K-3 (stopped down to f8 and if you nail-in focus), is useable from wide open (f/4.5) and very good @f/5.6, has all-round aperture (of about 15 blades or so) and it gives the "old-school appearance" to every picture (read- low contrast and a bit dreamy look). On the other hand, it's HUGE and HEAVY (larger than DA*300 and almost twice as heavy despite having only 3 lenses in 2 groups!). The good side is that Tair is undestructable- a finger-thick all-metal body is made to resist anything. Picture quality suffers from CA in OOF areas (Tair is absolutely CA-less in focus zone, but everything that is out of focus is either green or purple. You can easily get green stripes of about 1/10 frame width in bokeh) and lack of AF. I had about 50-60% shots with quality good enough for documentary purposes, but only about 5% has perfect focus).

The next lense I've got was the Tokina. It's a bit shorter, about 1/2 in diameter and half the weight of Tair, has AF (lightning fast AF, you know!) and clever sliding hood. It's useable wide open if you don't want to crop images, very sharp @f/8 and has more reach than Tair. Unfortunately, my copy has a bit of haze on inner element, so it suffers from lowered contrast in certain situations. And it's slow- f/8@400 mm requires a whole lot of light in case you want some quality. Tokina has the same story with CA (no problem in-focus, but wide purple borders on anything OOF).

Tokina completely replaced Tair because of size, AF (and auto aperture, too), far better keeper rate (thanks to AF) and more reach. In a good light it can deliver great images, and K-3 helps to get recognizable snaps in those dark overcast days.

But now I have to leave this thread. I've got DA*300 yesterday (a very good local offering, I just couldn't resist) and it's another galaxy far far away, but not a budget lens in every aspect. So I'll have to sell both T's to cover at least part of my expences.

[Imp]

But now I have to leave this thread. I've got DA*300 yesterday (a very good local offering, I just couldn't resist) and it's another galaxy far far away, but not a budget lens in every aspect. So I'll have to sell both T's to cover at least part of my expences.

Oh, wow! Congratulations! It's the world I'm seeking to enter... sometime when i've got some money floating around
Please post a comparison of your DA* 300 and the Tokina, especially focusing speed.

[Scorpio71GR]

I got my old Tokina 400mm ATX AF out recently to shoot with something different. There is still alot of life in this 25+ year old lens. All were shot with the K3 hand held. This was my first time using the Tokina in about a year so I was a bit out of practice.

[Imp]

Beautiful

[Scorpio71GR]

Thank you, it is still a good lens.