| Review of: Tokina ATX AF 400mm F5.6 by Shedking on Sun March 12, 2017 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
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Reviews: 13
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A few copies of this lens have begun to appear on a well-known auction site. Most of the sellers are based in Japan where, I suspect, most of these lenses were originally sold. When import taxes are taken into account, the price seems to be firming up, despite the fact that several of the offerings are being advertised with flaws.
I had been looking for a birding lens with longer reach than my DA55-300 PLM. I took the plunge and bought a Tokina, reasoning that my local repairer could deal with the light haze that the seller had acknowledged. I'd then have a useful focal length without a second mortgage.
Only, he couldn't, declaring it beyond economic repair. I had bought a paperweight.
Annoyed, I returned to the afore-said auction site and bought a spanner wrench. The lens has a modular construction, and removal of the rear focusing group and the mid-rear group was easy enough. There is a grubscrew near the focus ring that needs to be loosened, then the entire front barrel unscrews. The front element drops out easily after loosening a second grubscrew.
The mid front group is too deep in the body, so has to be cleaned in-situ unless you want to do a full strip down. [UPDATE: I now have done a full knock-down and reassembly. If you are brave enough, this is the way to go] [Do screwdrive lenses have a tendency to oil haze?]
When you have the chance, renew the blackening on the internal surfaces with a good quality anti-reflection paint. The Tokina coating is almost grey, in comparison to Pentax. There is sufficient stray light to reduce contrast on a DSLR. On a Q or Q7, you'll think the fog has descended.
I'm really glad I got so annoyed. Colours are nice, sharpness acceptable, bokeh a pleasant surprise and aberrations easy to fix in PP. As other reviewers have noted, the lens does need to be stopped down, but the performance of the K-S2 at ISO1600 is so good I can manage.
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| Review of: Tamron Adaptall-2 SP (52B/52BB) 90mm F2.5 by Shedking on Sun January 15, 2017 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 196454
Reviews: 36
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I have had the 52B version of this lens from new.
I settled on the Tamron after an extended shoot-off with a Vivitar Series 1 90mm macro, which was a serious competitor back in the day. The Tamron handled better, had less diffraction after f/16, better colour rendition and contrast.
It still holds its own against more modern designs, and APS-C can offer a new lease of life as a fast telephoto .
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