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Tokina 35-105 RMC close focus zoom F 3.5 -4.3
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PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:51 pm    Post subject: Tokina 35-105 RMC close focus zoom F 3.5 -4.3 Reply with quote

I sort of accidently won this on ebay. Thought it was a 105 prime. That explains why no one was bidding. Relly had reservations after reading the description again. However for 23 USD no great loss.
Just took it out today and did a few shots. A nice little lense afterall. And in almost new condition.

At 105 and close focus used F5.6
http://ka0tvo.smugmug.com/photos/156971615-L.jpg
At 105 F8.0 no close focus. At original you can see water drops.
http://ka0tvo.smugmug.com/photos/156971740-L.jpg
Last 105 F8 with close focus.

http://ka0tvo.smugmug.com/photos/156972001-L.jpg
This lens is a push pull zoom. The close focus operates independently by pushing a button on the lens barrel then turning it to focus. You can run it to maximum focus then refocus with the main zoom.


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 6:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, those are some nice captures! I'd say you lucked out big time
with this lens. I guess it's possible, but I've never heard of a bad
Tokina lens. Interesting aperture range to 4.3?

Bill


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some zoom lenses are much better than many expect. Your lens seems to be one of those. Congratulations!

Other examples are:
- Sigma Zoom-0 II 3.5-4.5/28-85 MC
- Tokina RMC II 4/80-200
- Tokina SZ-X 4-5.3/28-105 SD
- Soligor C/D Zoom+Macro 3.8-5.3/35-200 MC
- Soligor MC 3.5/70-220 Macro
- Tamron SP 3.5/70-210 CF Macro BBAR MC 19AH
- Tamron SP 3.8-5.4/60-300 BBAR MC 23A

and the Maginon G HQC 1:4-5.6/70-210 or the Soligor C/D Zoom+Macro 3.8-4.8/75-205 MC are also good lenses!

These zoom lenses are really recommendable, I can speak from my own experience!


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 7:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have come to dislike the zooms for several reasons:

- it takes a really excellent zoom lens to reach the quality of a good prime lens, and excellent zoom lenses are usually more expensive than prime lenses (I know, there are exceptions)

- zooms are usually a hand full of shortcomings. They are slow. They are usually heavier than prime lenses, because they need more glass. They vignette more often and they CA more often. And especially the zooms that go from wide to tele, they have loads of distortion.

- zooms are a compromise by necessity. They just can not be corrected for everything. It is already very difficult for a prime to perform equally at close range and at infinity. Zooms add to this the difficulty to perform equally from one end to the other.

- often zooms do not have a fixed minimum aperture. Often it varies with the change of the focal lenght. if you are someone who likes to manual meter, like me, this is the most annoying thing, because at intermediate focal lenghts you are forced to calculate the actual aperture, which will differ from the one written on the stops.

- if they are manual, they add another task (setting of focal lenght) to the already long list of tasks that the manual photographer has to perform.

- zooms make you lazy, because they make you think that it's enough to change that focal lenght in order to get a different photo. I know by experience, that everybody says "oh but I will still walk when I want to take a particular picture"... but once you have your zoom lens on, sooner or later you will give up moving your feet for the easier way. And this will make your photographs more similar to those taken by the herd of countless preset photographers.

- The concept of a prime lens, is that this is man's best effort in performing a task in the best possible way. Improving a prime lens is something similar to writing a great poem or improving an already perfect boat for the America's Cup. It's something special. It's like sitting on a table of a good restaurant to eat a dish that has a tradition and was cooked with care and attention to the detail, together with a proper glass of wine.
Zoom lenses are like the fast food. Prime lenses are the slow food. it's a philosophical difference.

I can recognize only one great advantage to zoom lenses: when you are on vacation, and not to take photographs, but just to relax and enjoy your time, then having with you one zoom lens instead of 3-4 primes is a great advantage. But that's about it.

OK end of my rant against zoom lenses! Laughing (BTW, I still own 4 of them) Wink


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One line more almost impossible to clean or fix zoom lenses at home, they are much more difficult construction than prime lenses.Anyway I like really my Tamron zooms.


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 7:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice rant Wink and good points, Orio!

Some of them are kind of philosophical, aren't they? (prime concept, laziness)
Some are true for most zoom lenses, you've mentioned exceptions yourself.

"They are slow." & "Often zooms do not have a fixed minimum aperture."
Well, (you said "often" rightly) have a look at my list:
- Tokina RMC II 4/80-200
- Soligor MC 3.5/70-220 Macro
- Tamron SP 3.5/70-210 CF Macro BBAR MC 19AH
Not really slow and a constant min. aperture. Wink

- Soligor C/D Zoom+Macro 3.8-5.3/35-200 MC
- Tamron SP 3.8-5.4/60-300 BBAR MC 23A
And those I would not call slow, either. Wink

"Zooms are a compromise by necessity. They just can not be corrected for everything. It is already very difficult for a prime to perform equally at close range and at infinity. Zooms add to this the difficulty to perform equally from one end to the other."
OK, agreed! But if you take some very good zooms, it is most amazing how the designers achieved that, isn't it?

Hey, I do not want to start a discussion about which kind of lens is "better", as far as IQ is concerned it mostly will be the prime lens, I just think that zoom lenses are not always bad and thus we should not exile them. Wink


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 7:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Attila wrote:
One line more almost impossible to clean or fix zoom lenses at home, they are much more difficult construction than prime lenses.


That's true, Attila.


PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LucisPictor wrote:

Hey, I do not want to start a discussion about which kind of lens is "better", as far as IQ is concerned it mostly will be the prime lens, I just think that zoom lenses are not always bad and thus we should not exile them. Wink


Yes, of course. Mine are very personal preferences and reasoning.