It was cloudy all day, except for a brief bit where the sun peeked its head out from behind the clouds and said hello.
I saw it waving, and quickly hooked up the Tokina 35-200 and ran outside for a mostly cloudy neighborhood photowalk and Tokina test.
Of course, by the time I found a composition and got it in focus, the sun was gone again.
Oh well.
I did remember about changing the ISO, but only after burning a dozen shots on a squirrel, busily barking at me from on high, and too dark to shoot handheld at ISO100 and f/anything.
So I shot at 400 from then on.
The Tokina performed fairly well. The zoom on my copy is a bit sticky, and the travel is not particularly smooth: it seems to stutter at about 100mm and again at about 130mm. Plus, both zoom and focus are backwards: you push the lens out to zoom in, and pull it in to zoom out; and infinity is on the right, rather than on the left as with all Nikkor lenses.
I suppose I’m just used to the E Series (and, incidentally, the Kiron-made Vivitar 20-210 f/3.5 Series 1), and maybe zoom lenses have been rejiggered since 1984. I don’t know. The only contemporary zoom I have is the Nikkor 10-24, but that zoom zooms via a twist ring, and is not a push-pull affair.
Also, the saturation and contrast were not what I was expecting from my previous walk around with this lens, though there was bright sun and a mostly sunny sky on that day.
So after two trips out with the Tokina, I’m less happy with it than I was originally, but still way pleased, given the ~$35 I paid for it…
This particular shot was made in the close focus mode, and at full 1:4 magnification (which meant I had to rock back and forth to focus: fun, sort of, and probably decent exercise too, maybe). This mode is quite useful, allowing 1:4 reproductions at ~6 inches, but it’s no Zomb-E Series for sure.
A full review will come one day, but that day is not today.
D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5, close focus 1:4 mode. ISO400, 1/160 (AP Mode), f/3.5, and some mystery +1 EV—not sure where that came from, so lemme go fix up the camera settings right quick…
