Originally posted by BrianR They'll just be licencing the optical design no? Tokina will make their own lens barrel, AF, etc? So when the outer casing of the Pentax version is hand carved by pixies using the finest unicorn horn and the Tokina version is made out of some kind of crappy plastic, people will still flock to the Pentax. Jokes on Tokina.
I posted about this some time ago, but I had both in my hands at CP+ and both lenses are very similar. However, the barrel of the Tokina feels more plasticky and smooth, compared to the Pentax, which feels more like other Pentaxes. I wouldn’t say either felt cheap though.
One thing to keep in mind is that Pentax worked with Tokina before, and during that time they were able to produce a lot of high quality lenses in a short time. If working with Tokina allows them to do that again, I don’t think many will be complaining.