Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 SD (IF) FX AT-X Pro. If you’re looking to purchase this lens you can buy it from Adorama for Canon, Nikon, and Ebay for good deals. It helps me if you purchase it through one of these links here in this review. When you purchase through these links it financially enables me to devote time to develop this site further. Thanks for the help! -Todd

Barrel
Plastic.

Weight
33.7 oz (955g)

Focus Type
Auto focus

Focus Ring
Rubber on Metal.

Close Focus
1.0 foot (0.28 meters).

Filter Threads
Doesn’t take any filters.

Aperture Ring
None

Diaphragm
9 blades stopping down to f/22.

Mount
Metal Mount.

Made in
Japan

 

 

 

 

Sharpness
I saved up all my pennies for a while before I purchased my copy brand new from Adorama. I was immediately very disappointed in it. Hearing all the rave about this lens I decided to buy it but I couldn’t believe how poor it was at all focal lengths and stops. I was very confused. My assistant would look over my shoulder and say my nice new lens sucks just by looking at my body LCD screen. Not what you want to hear ha ha!
This is pretty disappointing especially when I was comparing it to lenses from the 1950′s which were sharper. I knew something had to be wrong.

I finally called the good people at Tokina and they said there definitely is something wrong and the elements need to be adjusted. It was sharper at 16mm but as you would zoom it began to get soft and by 28mm it was totally unusable. The Tokina rep was confident it needed to be adjusted so i sent it away. I received it back in only a couple days free of charge and was nervously anticipating the possibilities. WOW this lens is amazing now! It is really sharp at every focal length and stop. I went from hating this lens to loving it and now use it a bit too much. I’m not sure if it was a one in a million or if most people don’t know their lens is off so you may want to check your copy.
The lens is still sharper at 16mm as expected, but now at 28mm it still produces great images.
This review is thankfully of the now adjusted fantastic lens!


16mm:
f/2.8: Nicely sharp but a bit of chromatic aberration and fair contrast.

f/3.5: Very sharp with less chromatic aberration and great contrast.
f/4.5: Sharper with only a hint of chromatic aberration.

f/8: Just gets sharper with lots of saturated color.

20mm:
f/2.8: Still sharp with lower contrast and a little chromatic aberration.
f/3.5: Sharpens up quickly with better contrast and almost no chromatic aberration.
f/4.5: Sharp with great contrast.

f/8: Just gets sharper.

24mm:
f/2.8: Sharp but a bit soft from chromatic aberration and lower contrast

f/3.5: Pretty sharp with better contrast and still a bit of chromatic aberration.
f/4.5: Very sharp with great contrast and almost no chromatic aberration.

f/8: Very sharp all over with nice contrast.

28mm:
f/2.8: Softest end of the lens but still not too bad but lower contrast and a fair bit of chromatic aberration.
f/3.5: Sharpens up decently with better contrast but still a bit of chromatic aberration.
f/4.5: Nice and sharp with great contrast but still a hint of chromatic aberration.
f/8: Very sharp all over with nice contrast.

Vignetting
16mm: A fair bit of vignetting at f/2.8 but quickly cleans up by f/3.5 and basically gone by f/4.
20mm: A little bit of vignetting at f/2.8 but quickly cleans up by f/3.5 and basically gone by f/4.
24mm: A small amount of vignetting at f/2.8 but quickly cleans up by f/3.5 and gone by f/4.
28mm: A tiny amount of vignetting at f/2.8 and almost gone by f/3.5.

Distortion
16mm: A fair amount of barrel distortion as expected.
20mm: Hardly any distortion.
24mm: No noticeable distortion.
28mm: A tiny bit of pincushion distortion.

Recommendations

Optics:          ★ ★ ★ ★
Mechanics:   ★ ★ ★ ★
Ergonomics: ★ ★ ★ ★
Usefulness:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Availability:   ★ ★ ★
Overall:         ★ ★ ★ ★
Out of 5

Like I said when I initially bought the lens I was pretty let down but after the optics had been adjusted the results were night and day. Here are some shots of what it looked like when I first bought the lens unadjusted. Then look above to see the corrected lens. The white balance is different so ignore that.

 

Now that the lens has been adjusted I am very pleased with it. The lens is built like a tank, focuses fast and quietly, has amazing colour and decent bokeh.

Mechanically this lens is fantastic and is very simple to use. One of the biggest drawbacks of the lens is the size and weight. This is a huge and heavy lens and takes up a fair bit of room in the camera bag. It can also get tiring carrying around all day. I sometimes prefer the size of Prime Lenses because I can chuck them in my pocket and keep running. The focus toggle is a little different where you have to push pull the focus ring to get in and out of Manual / Auto focus. Sometimes you have to wiggle the ring to get it to move but it works well. Also the other drawback is that the lens can not take filters (yet). I’m hoping someone comes out with a solution. The front element moves in and out with the zoom leaving no room to screw on filters.

However to make up for this they have given the lens a really nice large pinch type front lens cap. Also it seems either the lens is extremely saturated in color or Tokina has added some sort of polarization effect in the lens. Comparing this lens to other super wide lenses I can not get the blue sky and white clouds so contrasty as this Tokina lens. I have tried with many other lenses and nothing compares to this Tokina lens. I also noticed reflections don’t show up as much as other lenses so it makes me wonder if they have done some sort of polarizing in the lens. I find that this solves the issue of not being able to use a polarizer filter but it would be nice to use a neutral density or other film filters.

One thing to be aware of is that you have to be careful how you use this lens. When using a hyper wide lens like this, if you push your close subject to the corners at 16mm they will get “sucked in” to the sides making them look very distorted. This is not the lens at fault but just the nature of a hyper wide lens. I try to zoom in to 20mm or all the way to 28mm and get back.
However when shooting far off subjects you don’t need to worry about this and can use 16mm all you want.

Overall this lens is a great lens and is worth every penny. I started with a bad experience but the good service at Tokina had this thing working amazingly very fast. If you don’t mind the weight and size you will get great photos. I use this lens for everything from landscape to portrait work. Hyper wides don’t usually get used for portrait work but I can’t help it. It’s just a fun lens to use.

 

Did this review help?
My hopes are to take the time to continue developing this website with more test photo based reviews. If you are ever interested in purchasing this lens or other photography equipment please do so through these links here in this review. You can buy it from Adorama for Canon, Nikon, and Ebay for good deals. This helps support my family and allows me to take more time for the site. The best part is this site is free for you and I link good deals I find!

Sometimes these links will actually give you better deals then typical retail prices! I personally buy from the links I have listed whether looking for new gear or fun old stuff. I can personally attest to their good & safe service from years of experience. Thanks again to you, our readers, for supporting us! -Todd