Tokina AT-X 2.5/90mm "The Bokina II"

hinnerker · Expire: 2015-08-09

Before starting the comparison in some pic's.. some further impressive shots with the Tokina AT-X 2.5/90mm with a P-Cir filter from Leica to eliminate the reflections on the window glas..

This little boy caught himself between my window and a fly screen door to my balkony. So the shots are taken through the window glass.. a great model for some minutes. All images are 800 pix crop, EOS 5D MKII

Cheers
Henry

hinnerker · Expire: 2015-08-09

Ok, lets talk about the comparison with the Voigtländer APO Lanthar 2.5/125mm.

First of all.. the APO Lanthar is one of the best macro lenses ever build.
To hold this lens in hands, is like .... its a Masterpiece of mechanical craftmanship. I like it to work with that lens.
The lens has electronical communication with the EOS Circuit, so the aperture can be closed by camera electronic and the only thing you have to do is to "nail the focus".. The Lanthar is a dream...

For me it would be interesting to see, how an old formula, like the Vivitar/Tokina made AT-X 2.5/90mm works against a modern formula.

Here are some shots in comparison.. (to equal the different focal lengths, the position of the Tripod was slightly changed)

TOP= Lanthar, Down = Tokina

Crop of both..

Not that big difference..

Here are two Crops.. compairing the CA on metallic surfaces..
Left Lanthar, right Tokina..

and this was the sujet in total..

I think you can forget this CA / Purple fringing..

But one thing i realized seemed to be important... a bit of glowing on edges on the Tokina..

First the complete scene..

And now crops out of this.. top= APO Lanthar, bottom= Tokina AT-X

For my eyes, there is not such a big difference in Lanthar and the Bokina in terms of optical quality. (always left Lanthar.. shown)

Not to run in the risk with APO Lanthar owner, i must say.. the Lanthar is a great lens.. indeed. But the optical difference for me is to small, to pay the difference in price of about 1.000 Euro for this Lanthar. For sure, the Lanthar is the overall better lens in terms of CA correction, glowing and colorrendering

but

the Tokina is very close, for a 25 Years old product.

During my test shots i did have many electronic faults with the Lanthar..

ERR01.. on display..

After removing the Lanthar, switch off the cam and repeat sometimes up to 3 times the procedere, the Lanthar works again.

So me, i decided to keep my Tokina in my bag. The APO Lanthar is a great lens.. of course, but for me, there is a lot of "HYPE" with this Lanthar.

Cheers
Henry

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

An interesting set of tests, Henry. Considering the price difference and the number of errors you were getting, I'm afraid I'd have trouble justifying the expense of the Lanthar also.

The Lanthar appears to provide a higher contrast image, which might be illustrated best by the Tokina's edge glow and the Lanthar's lack of it. A bit of purple fringing with the Tokina, which can be fixed easily enough, but they appear to be very close in terms of sharpness.

lauge · Expire: 2013-05-30

I am really amazed by the Tokina and even more by the Lanthar, how did they manage to make such well corrected lens and are there any macro lens out there that equals its low CA? Zeiss Macro-Planar?

About the Kiron, this proves my worst fears about this lens, my test showed same results in fact my Takumar 50/1.4 with extension tubes were sharper in some instances. And I thought my findings had to do with a bad MD->MAF adapter that has some play on the MAF side, well that could also be a factor but it seems it doesn't account for all the sharpness. The Kiron still have very pleasant color rendering on my KM5D though so it's still my preferred lens for macro Smile

AhamB · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 733 Location: Germany

symphonic · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 550 Location: SE Europe, Croatia

This lens is quite scarce on ebay and basicly everywhere else, I've never seen one in several times I looked recently. Is this because it was made in a small number of copies or because the people don't ever think of selling theirs? Twisted Evil

JerryMK · Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 98

JerryMK · Joined: 16 Apr 2009 Posts: 98

AhamB · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 733 Location: Germany

I may sell mine some time, but it's an unconverted FD version (so close-up/macro only). That also means the price will be pretty low of course. Wink

I have to to try some replacements first though (I have one or two in mind).

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

AhamB · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 733 Location: Germany

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Nelson · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:39 pm Post subject:

I may need your advices
I am planning to convert an FD AT-X to EF

Nelson · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 4:40 pm Post subject:

jetulio · Joined: 03 May 2013 Posts: 3 Location: Spain

Hi. After reading this a other posts about this lens, I finally managed to buy one in mint condition at ebay. It's a FD mount one and I use it on a nex-6 with an adapter. Here are my first shots, just for checking. Hopefully I'll learn more about using it and will improve the results, but it's quite amazing:

_DSC5861 por Jetulio, en Flickr

_DSC5842 por Jetulio, en Flickr

_DSC5852 por Jetulio, en Flickr

_DSC5790 por Jetulio, en Flickr

_DSC5860 por Jetulio, en Flickr

Regards

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

The NEX is a very good camera to use with this lens. Do you have the CA control option enabled in your NEX? I find it amazing how well it works; it has made several of my lenses nearly perfect.

jetulio · Joined: 03 May 2013 Posts: 3 Location: Spain

jetulio · Joined: 03 May 2013 Posts: 3 Location: Spain