Showcase Tokina 17mm f/3.5 RMC II

Snow on a magnolia; an early test picture in pretty flat light:

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Tripod, aperture priority, f/11

 

A late-afternoon daylight test picture this time:

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Handheld at 1/125 f/11. ISO 100, EV -1/3
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In general the lens seems to be very sharp, and the additional DOF is nice. (I used an online calculator to figure out focus settings for each usable aperture.) There's a little bit of barrel distortion, but it's only noticeable in certain pictures, and those can be adjusted.

The lens is low on constrast at f/3.5, and diffraction reduces sharpness a lot at f/16. So the only useful apertures are 5.6, 8, and 11, but that's fine for what I need. Focusing at the 2-meter mark at f/11 gives usable DOF from 3 feet to infinity, so I can't complain.

Any reactions to these pictures would be appreciated. I had some buyer's remorse that I didn't save up a bit more and buy a used Canon FD 17mm instead, but the distortion seems to be about the same, and the logical side of my head says this lens seems plenty sharp.

 

Thanks, Stephen--I appreciate the feedback.

 

Some 100% crops (handheld):

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f/3.5 - soft, low on contrast


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f/5.6 -- good


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f/8 -- good

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f/11 -- still good...

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f/16 -- pretty bad. The shutter speed was 1/30, so I suppose there could be some shake blur, but in general this lens doesn't do well at f/16.

 

Update on this lens--while it generally seems sharp and well-built, I discovered tonight that the focus scale is very inaccurate.

I measured out 7, 8, 10, and 12 feet on the basement floor, since I planned to add a couple of focus marks (since the lens has a big gap between 2 meter and infinity). But when I focused on my test sheet, the lens scale read less than five feet when I was at seven feet; five feet when I was at 10 feet; and between 5 feet and 2 meters when I was at 12 feet.

I tried a Pentax 55mm, a Micro-Nikkor 55mm, and a Canon 100mm, and they were all really close.

Since I was planning to scale-focus the Tokina to maximize DOF, this could be a problem.

 

An update, fwiw--with a few aluminum-foil shims in the adapter, I've gotten the focus scale about as accurate as I can. Right now when the lens is focused at 2m, the focus mark is in the small space between 2m and 5 feet. That much difference I can deal with.

And, having looked over various sample photos, I think this is one of the best adapted lenses I've tried. Sharpness and contrast are very good. So I think I'll hold onto it as a slightly-wider backup for the 20/1.7, and just make a mental note to adjust slight when I need to scale-focus it.

Here's a test picture, scale-focused at f/11 in today's dull pre-snowstorm light:

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