| Despite owning
several Canon EOS lenses, I was still looking for one more, a superzoom.
Superzooms are clever in that they cover a wide range of focal lengths
with just one lens, which usually is also of relatively acceptable size
and weight (e.g., unlike Canon's 35-350mm L, which is rather large and
heavy). The upshot is of course that this convenience comes at the
price of picture quality. Any 'serious' photographer will rant about
the unacceptably low quality of such lenses. The sharpness is
unacceptable at the extremes, the lens may exhibit vignetting, barreling,
light fall-off at the corners, and many other deficiencies.
For the digital photographer, there is one extra complication, namely the magnification factor of digital SLRs. Canon's 1.6x magnification turns a 28-200 into a 45-320, essentially voiding its wide angle capability. The question therefore was for me, is there a superzoom of acceptable quality and still some wide-angle capability? Well, Tokina has just one such lens, the AF 24-200mm f3.5-5.6 AT-X. Of all the superzooms, it is the only one that Photozone gives ok or good picture quality ratings, and its 24mm wide angle becomes a 39mm moderate wide on the canon. (Note that Photozone's ratings for both the Tamron and Sigma 28-200mm superwides are consistently poor, and even Canon's superwide rates only between poor and ok). So I bought one for US$240, plus $20 for the 72mm UV filter. The sunshade and even a lens bag are included in the price of the lens. The lens is black, a little bulky and heavy (barrel made out of both metal and plastic). The zoom ring is not as smooth as others (considerably less so than the 5x more expensive Canon L lenses), and when the lens focuses, it will turn the focusing ring--don't touch it. Noteworthy is now fast the lens autofocuses. Much faster than the Tamron 70-300mm which I also own. But how is the picture quality? ... Read on. © Christian Wagner, 2004 |