[wanderography]

Since first getting the K-01 I've been on the hunt for the perfect manual lens kit for it so far I ended up with this...




ya crappy picture I know but I'm doing a 365 and I really didn't want to even lift a camera today, one those days... Well onto the lenses, I'm currently at a CV20, CV40, Super Tak 55, and the Tokina SD ii 70 - 210, now all I need is a 28 but I ain't got a clue which one yet, thinking the A28/2...

But onto the lens, I did lots of research on slide to zoom lenses, I noticed a lot of them were pretty compact but a lot of them suffered from horrible image quality. The A series slide zoom lenses are supposedly good but they are also huge, same with the vivitar, and than when I was searching through ebay I had stumbled across one of these brand new for very cheap, I searched all over the internet for images taken with this lens but really couldn't find much, I read a few reviews on this site with people mentioning the contrast and it being a really good lens.

This lens is absolutely tiny for a 70 - 210, and the contrast people mentioned about is absolutely absurd, I don't know what tokina did with this lens, but it's just hard to explain, compared to every lens I own even my voigts the contrast and colors kill em all, not the fastest and it's not the sharpest lens though, it's sharp but not like my voigts, but the contrast and colors really make up for it a ton, I can't wait to take this lens out in the nature this spring.

Here's some shots of it mounted on the K-01...













here a mirror shot... before the lens hood came in the mail...

[TaoMaas]

I've got one of those Tokina zooms and I agree with you. For the size and the price, they really are a bargain.

[Na Horuk]

Oh yeah? Interesting. Usually old zoom lenses are not very good, since zoom technology is still relatively new and is making huge strides lately. Now I'm really interested in this one's contrast
The thing is, the DA 55-200 isn't exactly stellar and the only other current Pentax tele zoom is the 55-300.. (well, and the super zooms, but those are in a category of their own)

[Medium FormatPro]

Oh yeah? Interesting. Usually old zoom lenses are not very good, since zoom technology is still relatively new and is making huge strides lately. Now I'm really interested in this one's contrast
The thing is, the DA 55-200 isn't exactly stellar and the only other current Pentax tele zoom is the 55-300.. (well, and the super zooms, but those are in a category of their own)

Oops, someone may have forgot about items such as the Pentax 60-250. But it's also still up there in price a bit

[wanderography]

I've got one of those Tokina zooms and I agree with you. For the size and the price, they really are a bargain.

Ya seriously, quite a bit of them just poped up on ebay too, why I posted this. I love this lens, even though it cost me only $70 I would of paid a lot more now having it in my hand brand new and seeing what it is capable of. I've read more into it apparently tokina did something different with the SD line up of lenses, single dispersion I think it's called, something to do with how they set the class, it gives like maximum contrast, supposedly the lens flares really bad without the proper lens hood, which luckily I have...

[ihasa]

Good to see some opinions of this lens. It's quite a common one on ebay and one I've looked at many times myself. Settled for the constant f4 Pentax 75-150, which is another cheap gem.

[jimr-pdx]

My prizewinner is the Rikenon 70-150 f/4. Unless you get veiling flare from strong backlighting it always impresses me for color & contrast, and it has internal focus and a built-in shade. Love that it takes 52mm filters, looks like yours does too? The Rikenon is all manual all the time though, no 'A' setting like this one.

My best slider zoom was a Vivitar 28-105 with s/n 77xxxx, supposedly from Kobori. I later sold it then got another but it was not as crisp as the earlier copy, sad to say. Glad you're enjoying the throwback Tokina!

BTW my $35 Rikenon-P 28/2.8 is no slouch either, if you're looking in that range!

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Last edited by jimr-pdx; 01-07-2013 at 08:34 PM.

[wanderography]

The Rikenon is all manual all the time though, no 'A' setting like this one.
]

ya i forget to mention that I was wanting a manual zoom with the A setting, that was a priority for me...

[jwc77]

You talked me into pulling the trigger on this lens on the cheap. Hope I like it as we'll as you seem to on my new K 01. Have an old Vivitar push pull 28-90 series 1 that I really like. One question...this lens doesn't have a Ricoh pin I need to remove, does it?

[ScooterMaxi Jim]

Back in the day I sold the SD 70-210 4-5.6 - image and build quality on par with the Pentax 50-200 today (essentially adequate). The Tokina lens preceding that, the RMC 80-200 f/4, was much better in both build and sharpness - although the coatings were not very good; no electrical contact, so same as m-series. I have the Pentax 75-150mm, and it outperforms the others from that era - on par with the current 55-300, which isn't that hard to achieve on only a 2-to-1 zoom.

If you want something similar to the 55-300 in sharpness, but faster and you don't care that it is MF and weighs a ton (but has a really nicely balanced collar for using a monopod) - look for a cheap Tokina ATX 100-300 f/4. I paid $160 in good condition at the local shop, so don't expect that quality level for next to nothing.

[ChopperCharles]

I came to this thread with interest, but all the sample photos are broken and the photostream doesn't have tags to show which were taken with the Tokina...

Charles.