Tokina atx 50-250 macro f4-5.6

[Rusty]

I was told never to expect much from any zoomlens,especially third party makers
I recently got this one in k mount and tried the macro side out,sky was overcast, most shots were very close to open and no pp done

I was pleasantly surprised, I have no decent zoom to compare to but this looks on par if not better than some i have seen
The lens goes down to 1.14 but on the crop it's closer to 1:1 (the coin fits inside my 20D's sensor box with room to spare)

Any thoughts ?

[Attila]

Not bad at all or just simple Africa ? All lens made excellent images due beautiful lights ? Thank you for sharing!

[Rusty]

Attila....There was no sun today

[Attila]

[NikonD]

I had it... and I regret selling it... my was super sharp too

[|||Por|||]

Personally I like this lens more than the Vivitar Series 1 70-210/3.5 ver 1.
It's much lighter, covers wider range yet the quality is very good.

[Rusty]

The only thing that i dont like is the fact that one has to focus with the zoom control whils in macro mode, (The zoom barrel movement can be smoother)
i find it easier to set up the magnifiation amount with the zoom and then just move the camera for focus

[NikonD]

yesterday I received this lens in new condition for 19€... it had oil on blades so it needed cleaning

#1 at 50mm and f5.6
#2 at around 200mm and f4

#1


#2

[martinsmith99]

It looks a great performer for sure. Nice colours and sharp.

[NikonD]

it's a great lens, but I think I'll sell it (trying to gather some money... for a lens of course )

[WolverineX]

i have one in nikon mount. i like it's versatility. when you wanna go lite with just one lens this is it.

[Paul]

I had this lens on my Pentax Ds as well as K10D:

Not that crisp and sharp as most other tele-zoom-lenses - but more versatile.
I had some problems with manual focussing on the long end - it's getting quite dark already in the viewfinder...
(the Ds is not THAT bright but very good for manual focussing with bigger apertures)

[rbelyell]

ive had 2 atx lenses, one i still have is older very large 70-210/2.8 contax mount that i am trying to sell, and other was 21-35/2.8 eos mount that i recently sold. i used them both on my now sold 5d, but i found both to be excellent performers, very sharp at 2.8 through the whole zoom range. i think the atx range of lenses is very good and maybe underrated as they are also reasonably priced.

[eno789]

Reviving this old thread. I like this lens quite a lot, I'd say it's very sharp.





















Some more at Tokina 50-250mm at a Farm

[hifisapi]

I picked up one of these real cheap ( under $75) but later sold it. Optically it was fine
but I didnt like the handling/ergonomics of it for some reason that I cant recall at this time....

[m__]

Time to dig this thread up.

My 525 story (gonna try to be brief):
- Was looking for something to kill time and thought I'll learn lens repair. Bumped into this Tokina, noticed it has OM mount (that I already had adapter for) and managed to buy it for crazy $7-ish.
- Someone's obviously cooked it in their car or something: spots of oil on glass pieces, aperture stuck wide open. Other than that- pretty good looking and working without any problems.
- Opened it, found some traces of repair (unsuccessful, obviously: take a look at the upper-left screw).
- Disassembled everything, cleaned the aperture and glass (with petroleum ether and alcohol), re-greased (lithium grease), reassembled. Had some problems with focusing to infinity but new adapter fixed the issue.

The lens is working for almost a year now and it quickly made me realize how wobbly my tripod is. I mean: what's good for 50mm, won't work with 200+.

The lens:


And some samples. I'm using it mostly for macro and except for quirky push-pull focusing (which you actually can get used to) I like it a lot.
Aperture test:
F4

F8

F11

F22






This one is with aperture stuck wide open:




This is where my tripod fails (the lens is sharper than that but I can't beat the wind):

[caspert79]

Nice images!

[davyfan]

Hi, I got this lens with funfus in the front element. I tried to open the front glass to clean, but the ring is too tight to rotate. There is no information on disassembly of the lens on internet. Does anyone know how to apart it please? Thank you in advance.

[kiddo]

[stevemark]

I assume the fungus is between the front element and the variator (as there is usually the fogging on Tokina tele zooms).

1) Simply take off the front name ring (labelled "Tokina AT-X ...") by rotating it counter-clockwise (when looking at it from the front side).

Should look now as follows:



2) Now loosen & remove the two screws (yellow circle). Use the proper screwdriver; maybe you have to "un-glue" them with a solvent like acetone.

Probably you now can turn the entire front group and remove it without loosing infinity calibration.

I, however, have removed the three tiny screws on the front ring as well (red circle in the above image); thus loosing the proper infinity calibration. Now a second metal ring can be taken out, and the lens will look as follows:


You now can remove the front element easily - but be sure to properly mark the position where it comes out!!

Cleaning is straightforward, but re-assembling the front element may require some patience, as usual when re-assembling focus threads. SInce we have removed the infinity calibration, we either have to re-calibrate using something at "infinite" distance (remember the three tiny screws in the red circle?), or to have the going slightly beyond infinity (probably more convenient).

I hope it's helpful ...

S

[eggplant]