Tokina 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 AT-X 840 AF-II A-mount lens review by Kaishi
 Kaishi#11929 date: Jul-29-2014 | |
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| sharpness: 4 color: 3 build: 5 distortion: 5 flare control: 4 overall: 4.2 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sony SAL75300 (that kit-quality zoom inherited from Minolta) Minolta AF 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 (big beer can) Minolta AF 70-210 F4 (beer can) Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 HSM Macro |
| price paid: | 280 USD |
| positive: | Range: 80-400 is great for anything from portrait to birding. Price: Used, these go for ~$300-350. They were $500 new. Construction: All metal, feels terrifically solid to me. Tripod Collar: Helps balance. Quick focus: hits target most of the time, at least while in bright sun. Not too noisy either. Distortion: Extremely low for such an inexpensive lens! Virtually no need to correct. Vignette: Virtually zero! No real need to correct. Lens hood is pretty excellent, too. |
| negative: | Contrast: not great resolution at 400mm F5.6, needs to be stopped down to F8 or F11 to look good. Saturation: colors look a little grey-brown and muddy, compared to Minolta and Sigma options. Chromatic Aberration: 400mm is CA-city. In a word, "monstrous". External focus design: front element rotates and extends during focus. Zoom causes lens to extend. |
| comment: | This is a hard lens to rate. It has great performance at 80-200 in almost all categories. Above 200, it is a bit weaker, and when judged exclusively at 400mm, it is only decent. At 80-300, I'd give this lens a 4.5/5.0 At 300-400, I'd give it a 3.5/5.0 It is built extremely well and works very nicely. Focus is quick for being body-driven, and very on-target. I'll be keeping it for the foreseeable future. |
; 12MPrating summary
- total reviews: 6
- sharpness: 4.00
- color: 4.33
- build: 5.00
- distortion: 4.50
- flare control: 4.00
- overall: 4.37