Tokina 16-50 or Tamron 17-50

M

miloca

Active member
Hi guys,

I am planning to get a Canon 7D in a month and I am trying to decide which lenses to get instead of the kit lenses. I already have nikon mount primes, all manual lenses. 28mm-50mm-105mm and 200mm tamron.

Please suggest which one to get between the Tokina 16-50 or Tamron 17-50, I've heard the tamron with VC is a better option than the other one, but what about comparing it to the Tokina named above?

I am going to use it for both photo and video.

Thanks for your time,

C
 
I've been trying to make this same decision, and from my research, I have heard:

Tokina:
Superior Build Quality to the Tamron
Slightly Worse Image Quality Than Tamron Wide Open
Good Focus Ring

Tamron:
VC (Huge Help)
Light and Plastic
Loud Autofocus

Hope this helps a bit. I am leaning toward the Tokina myself, cause after using the 28-135 kit lens so long, I am in dire need of a lens with a sturdy, solid build.

Eric
 
Hey I just had to make the same decision, I went with the Tamron. Luckily I was able to compare both lenses side by side. From what i saw the Tamron did feel much cheaper and the focus throw was much shorter which was a problem. The Tokina did have a much better build quality and a longer focus throw but the image quality just wasn't the same as the Tamron on the close and wide end. The lenses performed about the same at the mid range, but once you got to the wide side or close side the Tokina seemed to loose detail and sharpness. Well thats my experience with the lenses, I'm very happy with the Tamron so far and find the vc very useful at times. Hope that helps!
 
Was trying to decide between these two lenses, and got a chance to play with the Tamron today. The focus throw was extremely, extremely short – maybe 60 degrees at most. The lens also felt very cheap. Autofocus hunted a tremendous amount inside the (well lit) camera store.

Obviously this was just a quick feel for the lens in a store, but I wasn't really impressed with the handling.

I love the build and handling of the Tokina 11-16, so if the 16-50 is similar, I'm sold. I can deal with Tokina's CA issues and the build is much more important to me as a primarily video shooter.
 
It seems a very hard choice

It seems a very hard choice

Between the quality of one and the feel of the other one, I guess I'll have to wait until I test both side by side.

Is the quality of the Tamron, a lot better than the Tokina?

For me is very important the feel of the lens, but I can't forget about the quality of the image.

Still undecided... Thanks for the replies, hope to get more reviews from other fellas.

Cheers,

C
 
what I have seen about comparison of lens, it is made a pixel level.
This means you take a 18Mpixel for the 550D/t2i, enlarge it heavily and chase
for CA or blur.
I think that is not really relevant if you are working with video that is at least 10x smaller in resolution.
The behaviour and feel of the lens in the hand is probably more important for video work.
 
the tokina rarely comes off my 7d - in fact I shot a whole short on it two weekends ago (no footy yet)

a little flarey but not distorted like my 24-105 is on my 5d which is so bad I regularly swap it out for a prime

great feel

S
 
Parfocal?

Parfocal?

Is the Tokina Parfocal? (meaning if I zoom in and set focus, is the focus going to hold when I zoom out?)

I have the Tamron non-VC. It certainly isn't parfocal. While its picture quality is superb, I'm considering switching to Tokina if it is parfocal and has better focus ring.
 
Does the focus ring on these lenses come to a stop at each end or does it keep going past infinity like the usm lenses? I hate usm/canon lenses so much that I am switching to nikon/other manual lenses. It's so annoying and impossible to consistently focus when it keeps changing on you. But I still need a zoom. And figured I should get a canon mount. Maybe I shouldn't. Thoughts?

And yes it should be parfocal.
 
the tokina looks parfocal, but the focus ring travel is extra short (a bit more than 45 deg.)
it is ok for me, but for use with FF it must be a bit short (most FF are direct drive, without gearbox)
 
nosys70 said:
the tokina looks parfocal, but the focus ring travel is extra short (a bit more than 45 deg.)
it is ok for me, but for use with FF it must be a bit short (most FF are direct drive, without gearbox)
Click to expand...

I thought the focus throw was LONGER on the Tokina.... is it not?
 
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