Site Supporter Registered: November, 2017 Posts: 756 | |
Senior Member Registered: April, 2015 Posts: 130 | | Review Date: February 5, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | good IQ | | Cons: | push and pull is nice for me but anti pentax - 300 full out | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: k1 and k3
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This lens makes me question my investment in M prime lenses. In an informal test it beats the M 400. I have yet to test it against the *300 m lens.
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Senior Member Registered: June, 2010 Location: Atlanta, Ga Posts: 297 | | Review Date: July 3, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good sharpness, colors | | Cons: | Heavy | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 6
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5lls
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Was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the few shots I took. Was sharp at 75 and 300. Very heavy but not a problem for me. Well balanced. A bit of zoom creep.
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New Member Registered: May, 2011 Location: Seffner, Florida Posts: 11 | | Review Date: July 24, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Affordable, decent contrast and sharpness | | Cons: | Kind of big, AF hunts, manual focus ring barely present | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 5
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-3 and K-5
Focusing: 5
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A fairly decent and affordable 75-300mm zoom lens. Sharper than most zooms I've used in "up to 300mm" catagory but hunts a big in low light. Focus ring is almost non-existent. Even so for less than $100 it's a decent zoom lens.
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Veteran Member Registered: June, 2009 Location: Chicago Suburbs. Posts: 501 | | Review Date: January 26, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $99.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | FF sharpness on crop sensor, bokeh, balance, true zoom | | Cons: | PF, no zoom lock, rotating front element | |
The Tokina AF 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 is typical of the 1990's zoom lenses from third party companies - excellent value for the money but not the best available. This review is based on the original "version 1", not the ca. 2001 redesigned version "AF II".
Construction is excellent and feels very solid, all metal even though it is a lower-end lens. The tolerances are not up to pro standards but it should give functional service for many, many years.
Optical qualities seem to be a nice neutral color with very good contrast in the absence of flare. Without a hood, the flare can reduce contrast a bit and hood should be attached at all times outdoors. Sharpness is very consistent, typical of full-frame lenses on crop cameras (K200D in my case). Corners are soft wide open. But stopped down to f/8, corners become acceptable to very good, depending on angle of your depth of field and focus. Center sharpness straddles very-good to excellent at any setting. Bokeh is excellent, smooth and pleasing (9 blades!). Not as good ("creamy") as the better lenses but excellent and not so distracting like some others in the lenses from this era.
Handling is a bit awkard at times. The zoom is very easy to use, dominated by a huge rubberized collar that takes up half the length of the lens. And, since it is a two-touch design, you don't have to worry about ruining the focus if you want to fine-tune the composition with the zoom collar.
But it is woefully in need of a zoom lock! The zoom immediately extends downward with a "clunk". And, one must hold the zoom collar with the left hand fingers while fine-tuning the composition. But it does balance well - even though it is heavy, about 760 grams.
The rotating front element is a pain for filter use and must be used with patience. Sometimes that is not possible and you might want to ditch using a filter and add the effect later in post-processing if you can.
However, since it is not internal focusing, the zoom can auto focus at the wide end, and zooming-in will stay very close to being in focus. One extra touch of the AF means that even though it is a slow AF and hunts in low light or low contrast, one can use this technique to overcome that slowness.
It can be a purple fringing monster. You must be careful of high contrast scenes or be confident of your ability to get rid of it in post-processing!
Overall, a fine low-end lens. When it was new, the list price was higher than some of the others in its performance class. Perhaps that is why there are few of these around, not as popular as the cheaper Sigmas and Tamrons. I like using it very much and think of it as a very consistent performer, I always know how it will behave. My rating of "7" is based more on an absolute scale, so it is a very high grade considering it was not designed for digital - a very solid "7" indeed.
 Not too bad for ISO 100, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/90th sec., 100% crop, on tripod, cloudy day.
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