| Author: | | New Member Registered: February, 2019 Posts: 15
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 20, 2023 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | A good and robust performer | | Cons: | Read the review | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: Pentax film cameras
Focusing: 7
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My first manual 28mm lens. Like then it is still attractive today because it is cheaper than many other high quality 28mm or 35mm wide angle lenses. But it's still cheaper for the same reasons; it's not as good as double the price for a Pentax M 28mm or a Vivitar 28mm serial 28????? lens. It can give similar results to a Pentax A 28mm at f5.6 and f8 but it's not an equal. It's attractive to some, because it's cheap. And it is similar in output to a Vivitar 28mm 22????? lens and a Hoya wide angle equivalent. Indeed some online sources state the Tokina and Hoya are the same lens. I'm not convinced of this and suggest you test that for yourselves rather than assuming it correct; especially as so much online statements are plagiarism rather than based on actual first hand experience.
A good and solid classy performer that hits 7-to-8 out of 10 on most counts. But it lack sharpness at infinity and can produce very ordinary results around the peripheral edges when things go a bit soft and deformed outside of f5.6 and f8. It's a fine lens if you only shoot up to 20 yards away, but it lacks a neat punchy image quality rendition beyond that. So it is not a landscape lens if you want distant sharpness. Colours are nice, contrast is good. It's softish with a bit of colour fringing chromatic aberration at f2.8 but many - even expensive - 28mm lenses are like this for the 1970's and 80's. Nobody really shoots "wide open" with an old design wide angle for many shots further away than a yard or two, anyway.
I never had the flare problems some mention. Maybe that's because I never shot awkwardly into strong sunshine. The coatings are fine if you have a dirt free and fungus free and dry condensation free version. Don't forget this is a very old lens now.
The worst thing is that it's terrible to properly service and clean out as some parts are glued and some parts inside are a bit plasticy and fragile. Mine was trashed as a lump of junk came off the inside and it was impossible to get out without breaking the lens.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: North West UK Posts: 390 | | Review Date: October 18, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $12.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Well made, nice bokeh, Good contrast, nice and sharp. Dirt cheap | | Cons: | Corner sharpness at times, flare, No A on the ring. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1, K-3
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I found one of these in a second hand "flea market" in Manchester. It was one of those rare discoveries where they have lots of things and this was behind the counter, covered in dust (with no lens cap I might add!) After a little negotiation, I bought it for a mere £10 (couple of pints of beer in Manchester), cleaned it up and found that it was immaculate!
Now was it worth losing out on a couple of pints for the lens? Well Yes!
The focus ring is smooth as silk, just like Takumars of old, and the optics were very clean. The lens is very well built indeed.
But of course we are more interested in the performance of a lens, over its build, and to be honest it does not disappoint.
The colours, contrast and sharpness are right up there with the wonderful SMC-F 28.
There is some minor CA wide open, not that you would notice.
micro detail (that stupid thing for pixel peepers) is pretty good. Not the latest and greatest, but actually it is not far off. The K-1 is no fool for rubbish lenses, but this lens produces very nice and detailed shot with it.
Downsides?
Of course there are a small number
The colours are a little cooler than a Pentax lens, but not by much
No A ring aperture, so off to the Manual focus mode. Metering is the same. I have found to adjust by a third works well
Corner sharpness - Strange one really. Depends on distance to subject (same as the DA40 on the K-1). If the subject is far away, the corner sharpness wide open is a bit blurred, within 5 metres, it is sharp. Stopped down all is well for any distance.
Now I don't know how common these lenses are, but worth snapping up if you come across one.
Recommend.
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2017 Posts: 15
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 24, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $11.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | its also a Hoya and a Mitsuki | | Cons: | as good as 28mm f2.8s get | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: P30 and Lumix G2 MFT
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This lens appears in many forms. It is easy to disassemble and show that it is the same as the Hoya HMC and Mitsuki ones. I am sure the collective wisdom of the forum will be able to add several more !
What is good and bad about this lens is what is good and bad about 28mm f2.8s in general.
I have 3 versions, Tokina in Nikon AIS and the Hoya HMC and Mitsuki in PK. I use them for film with P30's (one of the few inexpensive "modern" 1980s SLRs with depth of field control) and for MFT with Lumixes.
What determines the Image Quality, in my opinion, is the amount of dust and haze in the lens. Bad versions drop IQ to 3/10 yet good ones are easily 8/10, or just as good as SMC M Pentaxes.
These lenses were sold in the 1980s - just before we all went for zooms. They were then ignored once again when we bought digital cameras and so have spent 3-4 decades put away in the back of a cupboard or drawer for storage. This can be good or bad - eBay can deliver a sparkling "as new" copy with beautifully smooth mechanics - or a haze filled, worn-out version that scrapes as you focus. Now that affordable PK mount digitals and MFT cameras with PK adapters have made these lenses worthwhile they are coming out of storage for a second life.
Wide angles are more prone to IQ loss from dust and haze because of the very small rear lens diameter (compared to a telephoto) and its proximity to the film plane/digital sensor due to the retro-focus design of most wide-angle 35mm’s. Magnify x2 for an MFT camera or about 1.5 for an APS and the effect is amplified. Add in more sky for wideangle lens photographs and this explains why flare is another consequence of the dirt and debris.
Fortunately, this lens is a dream to disassemble and clean up - the front triplet lens element combination unscrews easily (watch You Tube for how to do it) and mostly a puff of air and a brush is all that is needed. If the dirt is bad then invest in some 100% alcohol and get cleaning - at the prices these sell for you have nothing to loose.
When you get to rate an old lens in the forum, especially a wide-angle, please just tell us how clean it is. I believe this explains the significant variation seen in IQ scores for the same lens between different reviewers. Furthermore the "glow" often referred to as "filmic quality" for vintage lenses by many MFT fans is often a feature of this 30 year layer of dirt and deposited lanes lubricant! Far better to have a clean lens and be able to control the "glow" by choosing the appropriate filter !!!
2020 update - Plenty of videos on line show you how to clean the critical rear element group of this lens with minimal tech skills required. It is the smallest element of the lens and closest to the film plane/sensor and is the most critical part for image quality.
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 5
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 22, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | center sharpness, 2.8, price | | Cons: | flares, soft at corners | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Sony A7
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I have tested this lens a couple weeks after buying it for 25 € at eBay.
The sharpness of this lens is pretty sharp for this price in the center but it is soft at the corners. At f/8 - f/11 it's even not great but okay if you remind the price.
CA can be fixed in Photoshop easily. So that isn't a point for me.
Flare resistant is awful, even the sunstars. It has an 6 aperture blade and you can't get really nice sunstars with this lens.
What you can get are flares 
The contrast isn't good while shooting into the sun.
The manual focus works pretty fine.
All in all a solid lens. You can't expect a brilliant overall lens for this price, except you have too much luck on bidding at eBay.
I can recomment this lens, because it's cheap, has a acceptable sharpness and it's 2.8
Here's an example shot with F/11. Note, this is an resized photo. On the original you can see the structure of any roof pan which is pretty great.
 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2015 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: June 26, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | competent all-around | | Cons: | not the best all-around | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: Sony NEX-5t
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I have three 28mm lenses, this Tokina RMC, a Rokkor MD, and a Yashica ML, and they go from good to better to best in that order. There is nothing wrong with the Tokina, and the image quality is only slightly inferior to the other two lenses. It's not so much a question of sharpness or other big issues (though it is a little less sharp than the Yashica wide open), but more a question of color, contrast, micro-contrast, special sauce, etc. It the Tokina were all I had, I would be very satisfied with it. I could surely tweak the camera settings or work up the files in post and it would be a perfectly fine 28mm f2.8. One other thing is I think it's slightly less wide than my other two 28mm lenses, like maybe it's really closer to a 30mm, but this is not scientific.
I don't want to run this lens down. It's quite decent and has good build quality. I DO recommend it very much as long as you don't pay too much for it.
| | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2014 Posts: 6 | | Review Date: December 18, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $39.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Price, sharpness, Handling the focus ring, overall good lense | | Cons: | Absence of lens hood, flares | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5
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I purchased this lense only recently, since i am a fan of old manual lenses. I am very happy to have it. It is very sharp with nice bokeh. What surprised me most, is the control of the focus ring. It goes very long way from close to infinity !!! That means the control is very smooth and You can focus really easilly. I find this lense more usefull than my favorite 50mm/F1,7 cause of the digicrop.
However, I would appreciate the possibility to mount the lense hood... and the flares are annoying sometimes.
Here is the first test picture, taken right when i got it. At home, with bulb light..
Aperture F4. ISO 1600. absolutely NO editing done..
 | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2013 Location: Ontario Posts: 10
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 25, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, nice Bokeh, sexy flares, automatic setting, close focusing, rugged metal build | | Cons: | no grip, focuses past infinity, bit of CAs | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: K20D, K-5 IIs, K-3
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Some lenses are simply perfected evolutions of their past copies. Reincarnations of old designs with a few added tricks. The design of the 28mm f/2.8 hasn't changed much between manufacturers and mounts, so you would expect them to all perform pretty well. After all, with a design this old and well-refined, you'd expect all the little issues to have been worked out. That is exactly what the Tokina 28mm f/2.8 RMC II offers up upon purchase. A nice and reliable lens that has been refined over the decades of production, coming back with new tricks.
Mine came with a 52mm filter thread adorning an all-metal design:
The lens was dirty, filthy in fact, but a quick clean with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol revealed that the glossy and shiny metal extended around the base of the lens and continued on inward, into the internals of the lens itself. This is a rather unique construction method, as most manufacturers opted to use plastic on the inside of their 'budget' lenses.
The list of 'new tricks' this lens has picked up is short. There are multi-coated elements incorporated into the design, one being an aspherical element, and digital aperture coupling when set to 'A' on the aperture ring.
Nothing about this lens will particularly blow you away, but then again, nothing will really hold you back either. Automatic exposure will speed up your shooting and allow you to log working aperture in the EXIF data while the long 180° focus throw will please videographers looking for a cheap wide-normal-angle lens. The lack of an autofocus system is no big deal on Pentax DSLRs, so long as you know how to turn on and use the 'catch in focus' setting.
The lens is brilliantly sharp for its price point, even at wide-open, but has a very condensed depth of field that drops off rather rapidly. There is no such thing as 'sort of in focus' when working with this lens. If it's not in focus then it will be a creamy blur.
The bokeh is exactly that as well; creamy. Focus this lens at about 40cm away for a little portrait and the background will still be a lovely mush. The 6 aperture blades are flat, however, so stopping down will get you hexagons.
Chromatic Aberrations are a little bit of a problem, but only in some specific cases. Most times, you will get a tiny bit of magenta/green fringing (maybe 2-5px) along high-contrast areas, but that is easily fixed in post. CA falls off by f/4 but reappears slightly at f/11 and on. The sweet spot of this lens seems to be at around the f/5.6 point, but maximum sharpness comes in at around f/8.
Below are two photos taken with the lens, both wide-open at f/2.8. They were just test-shots taken when I bought the lens.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076 | | Review Date: January 3, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, build ... | | Cons: | CA ... | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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Bonjour,
I have recently acquired this Tokina and really like using it. I am going to keep it around for awhile despite having many other 28's. (Pentax M, Super Tak, Tamron Adaptall-2, Soligor ...)
All of the other reviews have covered the bases for me ... thus, here's a p0rn shot of my copy with pouch ...
Salut, John le Green Frog
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2012 Posts: 276 | | Review Date: September 13, 2013 | Not Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | cheap, metal built, quite close focus | | Cons: | flare | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Update: I've decided to NOT recommend this lens due to the flare issue (not only from the sun but also reflective material). On general use it has became a nuisance. So I'd conclude that this lens has its own specific purpose, but not good for everyday use.
I would give this lens a 9 if it isn't because of the flare problem, which is very serious when shooting side or straight to the sun. This being said, sometimes the flare can be very pretty. I haven't tried it with a hood yet but will update if I have. It seems that many people reckon that a hood is a must on this lens.
Melaleuca sp., UQ by Hao Ran Lai, on Flickr
Also agree that it seems sharper when you focus closer.
When stopped down below f5.6 it becomes very good.
On a APSC camera it is equivalent to 42mm, which is better than 50mm in my preference.
Focus throw is a wee bit too long, but it's very suitable for close subjects (and the lens focuses very close too).
From the series "Animal Dreaming..." (2013) by Hao Ran Lai, on Flickr
From the series "Zoo" by Hao Ran Lai, on Flickr
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2013 Location: Gatineau, Quebec Posts: 156
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 18, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fun to use, Solid build, very sharp | | Cons: | CA .... CA......and... CA | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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The Tokina 28mm MF F2.8 is a very fun lens to use.
Colors are very contrasty and come out great on my K5...
CA is the only point i have against it. In bright light im getting very heavy CA and it NEEDS PP touch ups.
The lens is Very sharp and easy to use also. Good for portrait and landscape and macroish (you can get so close!!!)
Anyhow, to me its a must add to the collection as it is so cheap and so fun.
Good shooting!  | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2012 Location: Kosice,Slovakia Posts: 440 | | Review Date: December 1, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | quality build,bokeh,colors | | Cons: | soft even at f8 and higher when infinity focusing | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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I bought this lens because i was interested in 28mm manual lens. Lens are well build,no cheap plastic like todays many new lenses. Wonderful bokeh and color rendering. Only complain is that i have problem with infinity focusing. Landscape shots are soft even at f8 or higher. I tried it with tripod and live view, same results. Close distance focusing with better results. I am using pentax K-r. Will sell this lens, looking for pentax smc m 28mm. Still,this is lovely bargain lens.
Image taken with this lens, no post processing. Much better results when close focusing regarding sharpness. handheld.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8339/8221771094_8f23a53b97_b.jpg
example of soft image taken not wide open.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8062/8221771772_17ef9d4810_b.jpg | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: November, 2009 Location: Southern Ontario Posts: 22
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $11.50
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, colour, contrast, close focusing, price | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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I managed to get a steal of a deal on an RMC Tokina 28mm 2.8 in M42 mount, only $20 including shipping. Even at five times that price, I'd consider it a bargain.
This is probably my favourite lens, even though I was never a wide angle shooter. On my crop body it isn't truly 'wide', but is about as wide as I like to go.
This lens is sharp from wide open, sharp through infinity, has beautiful, natural colour and contrast straight out of the camera, is easy to focus and is close focusing. Photos taken with this lens only ever need very minimal processing, if any.
It is perfect for landscapes, street photography, food photography (or other close ups) and portraits. It is a very versatile lens. Detail is amazing and sharpness is retained even with significant crops.
If I could only recommend or use one lens it would be this Tokina. I have been truly impressed by its performance each and every time I've used it.
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 13 | | Review Date: March 24, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great tone | | Cons: | mayb ca and flare? not that i've really experienced though.. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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i've had this (the non coated version) but i've always stuck a lens hood over it so i wldnt noe much abt the ca and flare. but what i can say this, it is sharper than the A28 and M28 from pentax that i have, and by a very huge margin. i love the tone of images this lens produces,it is just so natural, so clear compared to my tamrons/pentax which tend to produce a very yellowish tint. i regret selling it away and wish i cld have it back. | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2007 Location: Vancouver, British Columbia Posts: 336 | | Review Date: December 20, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | good build, inexpensive, great image quality for the price | | Cons: | can be tough to focus | |
My RMC Tokina II 28/2.8 was a go-to walkaround lens for me for quite a while and I still use it. It's wide, inexpensive, and produces great images for a low price. It can be tricky to manual-focus on DSLRs, but I think that's common to wider lenses. When I tried the Takumar 28/3.5 to compare, I thought the Takumar was a bit better though couldn't quite say why. Still, the Tokina produced a bunch of great shots for me. Here are a few shot on my K20D:
More samples here | | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2008 Location: Pune Posts: 2 | | Review Date: October 1, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fast, AE, very close focus | | Cons: | not sharp | |
This is good lens to take around and works good on my K10d but this is not the sharpest lens I have. The lens focuses very close. nice colours, nice bokeh. Overall satisfactory.
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