Opinions on Tokina Macro

[lemonart]

Hey folks! Looking for some opinions on the Tokina 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. I'll be using it on both a DX and FX body. I've heard rumors that's it's a little sharper than Nikon's 105mm... And it's almost half the price.

Does anyone have experience with this lens?

Any other suggestions?

Lem

 

[mjhoward]

I likes mine a lot. Great bang for the buck. I don't know about it being sharper than the Nikon 105, thats a fantastic lens. The Tokina may show CA in certain situations just a little more than some others, but not usually and any CA is pretty easily fixed in post. It is, however, quite sharp and of very good build quality. It is capable of producing very nice photos given it has a capable photographer driving it.

 

[lemonart]

Thanks for the reply. How do you find the focusing on it? The front protrudes quite a bit, correct? Do you find that to be an inconvenience? How fast does it focus?

Lem

 

[bullitt411]

I also have the Tokina 100mm which I use quite a lot on my D7000. I think I paid about 375.00 for it used, so on the affordability front it's definitely at least 1/2 the price of a used Nikon 100mm VR Macro. The front does extend about 2.5 inches at the closest zoom. I haven't found this to be an issue at all when shooting. The main operational difference would be the manual/auto focus is push/pull of the focus ring in lieu of a standard switch. Once you get used to this I think you'll love it, you can easily change focus method w/o taking your eye away from the viewfinder. The focus itself is pretty fast but quite noisy when compared to Nikon af/s or Sigma HSM.

Most of the shots I've taken with it have been little critters around the house and the images have been very sharp. I take them hand held and even without any type of image stabilization on the lens the results have been very good.

 

[zamanakhan]

Have u considered any manul focus macros? The older 105 non af are pretty darn sharp and if u are using it mainly for macro it would be a solid choice. The Nikon 105vr is an amazing lens, I have not tried tokina, I like to stick to the same brand but tokina seems to be a cut above sigma and tamron from what I am seeing.