Tokina 24-200: good/bad

[edgreene]

Hello.

 

I have an opportunity to buy a Tokina 24-200. Who knows about the

lens and how does it perform.? I'd hang it on my EOS A2 for a

walkaround kit.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Ed

[tjavery]

I had this lens for over a year, and I used it on a Digital Rebel. I cannot tell you how it performs full-frame, but it did okay on the DR (crop = 1.6).

<p>

I found that the short end (24mm) was a little soft, even when stopped down f/8 - f/16 (as compared to the EFS 18-55mm kit lens). The longer end was pretty good. It was on par with an EF 70-210 f/3.5-4.5 that I got after the 24-200mm

<p>

The bad thing about this lens is that the barrel is a little floppy when extended out to 200mm. Also, the AF motor completely sucks as compared to a Canon USM AF motor. The Tokina is slow and noisy. It does not have full-time manual focus. In fact, you must switch the lens to MF in order to even move the AF ring by hand. It uses relatively large 72mm diameter filters (not too bad, but more expensive than typical 58's).

<p>

Otherwise, it's a good all-purpose lens for the money. It's big, heavy, and feels good in regards to balance and heft. I always felt that I could hold my camera more steady with it.

<p>

If you pick through my website, you'll find photos taken with the 24-200. Check out the section with birds.

<p>

best,<br>

TJ Avery<br>

<a href="http://www.texbrick.com">www.texbrick.com</a>

[tjavery]

Oops... I forgot to add the /photo to my photo website address:

<a href="http://www.texbrick.com/photo">www.texbrick.com/photo</a>

<p>

There ya go! :-)

[tommyinca]

I found my copy not too bad for a super zoom. It work fairly well for snap shoot if stop down by a stop or so. My copy works better at the 24mm end then the long 200mm end. The extra 4 mm also help a lot indoor.

[edgreene]

Tommy, Tj: thanks. I'll go ahead and buy since I'm more/most interested in the wide end.

 

Thanks again.

[yakim_peled1]

<P> Generally speaking, <a href="http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#28200">hyperzooms</a> are optically worse than other zoom lenses which have less ambitious range.</P>

 

<P> Happy shooting , <br>

Yakim. </P>

[athinkle]

Any zoom with a zoom ratio greater than 3x is asking for a degradation in quality... This is why everyone was so wary of the Canon 24-105L initially.