01-07-2011, 07:48 AM
The Photozone review of the Sigma 55-200mm zoom got me to notice that cheap plastic zooms often work as well as super expensive fast primes at small apertures. Since all my portraiture/wedding work is on a Sony Nex now, at F8 and smaller, I recently took a critical look at an old Tokina zoom a friend had offered from an old box in his closet.
Surprise, the special thing about the late 1980's Tokina 70-210 SD II zoom is the complete lack of lateral color/corner purple fringing, at F8-F16 at 70mm, or F11-F16 at 150mm, or at F16 at 210mm. And often have single-pixel-wide features visible all over the APS frame. Check out the attached massive blowup of a Tokina 70mm zoom extreme corner, compared to one from a Pentax-M (later M version) 50mm F2 prime lens at F8:
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
The old Tokina zoom (box says "SZ-X 210", lens barrel with red ring at end says "SD", maybe $55 U.S. dollars used) has less color fringing than everything, fixed focal length or whatever, even less than my 45mm F4.5 Apo-Componon enlarging lens or 80mm F5.6 EL-Nikkor at F8-F16. A freak find. It has spoiled me, have become real picky about purple fringing, and don't use any other lens for non-macro APS work (If the Tokina is fast enough and F8 is not too soft because of diffraction).
Easy to get weird about these small things, for example now find the color fringing of the beautiful Sony/Zeiss 16-80mm zoom to be intolerable for portraits (that I spend lots of time retouching for clients). Doubt clients will ever notice, but it's a stress reliever to be able to forget about lens weaknesses and pay attention to everything else in the world while on location.
Point of the story is, if you have a Nex camera and a few different lens mount adapters, check out any old full frame 35mm lens your friends offer you for it...if you have the temperament that can tolerate looking for things to wear at used clothing stores.
Much of the old stuff is pathetic, heck even my Tokina 70-210 is pathetic at most apertures and focal lengths. But keep an eye out for interesting characteristics (as Photozone always does), if super nice manual focusing rings and small apertures are useful in your work.
Surprise, the special thing about the late 1980's Tokina 70-210 SD II zoom is the complete lack of lateral color/corner purple fringing, at F8-F16 at 70mm, or F11-F16 at 150mm, or at F16 at 210mm. And often have single-pixel-wide features visible all over the APS frame. Check out the attached massive blowup of a Tokina 70mm zoom extreme corner, compared to one from a Pentax-M (later M version) 50mm F2 prime lens at F8:
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
The old Tokina zoom (box says "SZ-X 210", lens barrel with red ring at end says "SD", maybe $55 U.S. dollars used) has less color fringing than everything, fixed focal length or whatever, even less than my 45mm F4.5 Apo-Componon enlarging lens or 80mm F5.6 EL-Nikkor at F8-F16. A freak find. It has spoiled me, have become real picky about purple fringing, and don't use any other lens for non-macro APS work (If the Tokina is fast enough and F8 is not too soft because of diffraction).
Easy to get weird about these small things, for example now find the color fringing of the beautiful Sony/Zeiss 16-80mm zoom to be intolerable for portraits (that I spend lots of time retouching for clients). Doubt clients will ever notice, but it's a stress reliever to be able to forget about lens weaknesses and pay attention to everything else in the world while on location.
Point of the story is, if you have a Nex camera and a few different lens mount adapters, check out any old full frame 35mm lens your friends offer you for it...if you have the temperament that can tolerate looking for things to wear at used clothing stores.
Much of the old stuff is pathetic, heck even my Tokina 70-210 is pathetic at most apertures and focal lengths. But keep an eye out for interesting characteristics (as Photozone always does), if super nice manual focusing rings and small apertures are useful in your work.