Originally posted by Wheatfield It more likely means that Tokina isn't selling enough of them to warrant continuing producing them.
USM issues aside, I don't think the 50-135 is going anywhere.
It wouldn't surprise me if they release a MkII that has an improved USM, or possibly a USM only that will address the reliability issues with that lens.
I think Wheatfield is right. I use my 50-135 to shoot amateur theatre plays and it excels in that. also use it for cityscapes and tripod work at night. It has the exact range that i sell prints from most often. The 70-200 from the 3rd party vendors is much heavier and is missing the 50mm range. The photographer i shoot with on the playhouse events has a Canon 70-200 and is often changing it out for a shorter range zoom.
The 50-135 has been remarkably accurate regards its AF and the images are very good. manual focus its accurate and consistent. the lengthy hood turns out to be a blessing in the rain as it keeps droplets off the outer lens.
The only problems i see with the lens are:
a. too heavy and large for a lens on a hike
b. no tripod mount for the lens. without it, i really have to tighten on my tripod head 1/4" camera fastener to keep the lens from pivoting in the portrait orientation.
c. no SDM problems in the year since i bought it. perhaps Pentax will use this opportunity to fix that problem if not fixed already.
will likely keep the lens - just too dang good.