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October 17, 2007
[ TOKINA AT-X M100 Pro D lens ]
Price: $800
A good lens, but…
The low-down: This is a 100mm f2.8 macro prime lens. The unit tested came in a Canon mount and was used with the new Canon EOS 40D. Construction quality is excellent, with a crinkle finished barrel similar to the finish on some Nikkor lenses. In macro mode the inner lens barrel extends about 5 centimetres and there is no wobble. Switching from auto to manual focus is simply a matter of pulling back on the focus ring to engage manual mode. There is the usual limiter switch to stop the lens hunting for focus through its entire range when it is in either macro or normal mode. A lens hood is supplied but is hardly necessary because the front optical element is already well recessed in the lens body. This lens works on both digital and film cameras. It doesn’t have its own focus motor so it cannot be used as an auto-focus lens with Nikon D40/40X bodies. The manual focus control is smooth and well damped.
Like: The lens gives high resolution images with good contrast. On a digital SLR it has a film-equivalent focal length of about 150 mm, which is good for portraits and is a handy telephoto lens where a little exta reach is needed.
Dislike: The auto-focus is slow compared with the best Canon and Nikon lenses and the action is not as quiet and smooth. In most situations it works well but it can be easily fooled by some low contrast subjects and then it will go hunting for focus and sometimes never find it.
Verdict: This is a fine lens. Tokina makes a very small range of lenses compared with Sigma and Tamron, but it seems to concentrate on producing a few models with excellent optical characteristics and high quality construction. However, the price is high for a third party lens. Both Canon (100mm f2, not macro) and Nikon (60mm f2.8 macro) offer lenses around this price.
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Posted by terry at October 17, 2007 11:18 AM
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