Tokina 35-200mm F4-5.6 Zoom SD AF A-mount lens review by QuietOC
 QuietOC#39951 date: Oct-7-2017 | |
|---|---|
| sharpness: 4.5 color: 4 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.3 | tested on:
|
| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sony DT 18-135 F3.5-5.6 SAM Sony DT 18-200 F3.5-6.3 Tamron 18-250 F3.5-6.3 Minolta AF 24-105 F3.5-4.5 D Minolta AF 28-85 F3.5-4.5 Minolta AF 28-100 F3.5-5.6 D Sigma AF 28-105 F2.8-4 Canon EF 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM II Minolta AF 28-105 F3.5-4.5 & RS & Xi Minolta AF 28-135 F4-4.5 Tamron 28-200 F3.8-5.6 LD Tamron 28-300 F3.5-6.3 XR Minolta AF 35-105 F3.5-4.5/New Sigma AF 35-135 F3.5-4.5 Minolta AF 35-200 F4.5-5.6 Xi Minolta MD 50-135 F3.5 Minolta AF 70-210 F4 Minolta AF 70-210 F3.5-4.5 Minolta AF 70-210 F4.5-5.6 I/II |
| price paid: | 10 USD (used) |
| positive: | Sharpness Flat focus plane on wide end Direct focus and zoom No zoom creep |
| negative: | Size and weight Non-existent focus grip Green color cast Dark at the long end (~F6.3) Rotating and extending front element/filter |
| comment: | I have tried three of these lenses from $10 to $20. My local camera store had been trying to sell this copy for $70 for a few years. It is very clean and the zoom and focus work smoothly. Optically it is much better than the copy I somewhat repaired. Tokina had an earlier (1982), slightly larger 35-200 F3.5-4.5 manual focus lens. Several other brands had 35-200 manual focus lenses including Vivitar with a F3-4.5. Nikon's F3.5-4.5 version was released in 1985. There wasn't other AF 35-200's other than the 1991 Minolta AF 35-200 Xi. Canon released an EF 35-350 F3.5-5.6 in 1993. Tokina came out with a larger AF 35-300 F4.5-6.7 in 1998. Both ends are longer at close focus than the internal focus Minolta. It exposes more like F6.3 at the long end--the Minolta 35-200 is brighter. This last copy is very sharp at the wide end even out to the corners, but performance starts to slip around 135 mm. It certainly sharper than the current copy of the Minolta Xi that I have. The previous Xi with the stuck aperture was sharper at 200 mm but had a fairly curved focal plane. Image quality is fairly competitive with the Tamron 18-250 F3.5-6.3. But even the 70-210mm F4.5-5.6 is better at the long end. It flares much worse than than Xi. The Xi hood fits fine and helps a little. I don't know if there is a deeper 62 mm clip-on hood to use for APS-C. The Xi lens definitely focus faster, but the Tokina isn't too slow. It seems to focus faster than the SAM telephoto zooms on the A65. It certainly focuses much, much faster than the Tamron 18-250. |
; 10MPrating summary
- total reviews: 11
- sharpness: 4.27
- color: 4.09
- build: 4.73
- distortion: 4.36
- flare control: 3.73
- overall: 4.24