Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2006

Lens kindly provided for testing purposes by Stefan Jahr!

Introduction

Tokina is a manufacturer that it renowned for lenses with excellent mechanical qualities and this is also true for the AF 100mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro D. Thanks to metal parts in conjunction with high quality plastics the lens feels very solid and durable - there's no wobbling whatsoever here. The lens has an Armalite finish (crinkle style) similar to some of Nikon's pro grade lenses. As you can see in the product images below the lens uses a linear-extension system for focusing so it extends quite a bit when focusing towards closer distances. The supplied lens hood adds a some cm on top but due to the recessed front element of the lenses this is really an optional item. The Tokina features a so-called focus clutch mechanism - the focus ring can be moved back and forth in order to change between AF and manual focusing. You can do so at any focus position which is an improvement over earlier implementations of the idea. In manual focus mode the focus ring feels extremely smooth and very well damped - about as good as it gets here. The front element does not rotate so using a polarizer is no problem.

The Tokina has a conventional AF micro-motor which is a bit on the slow side. Unless you use the lens for macro photography it is a good idea to take advantage of the focus limiter in order to avoid excessive AF hunting. The AF accuracy of the tested sample was exceptional even on the rather unreliable EOS 350D.