I got this to use with my Nikon N90 in 1994, when I first went into autofocus. It had a very high reputation then and since, but some of my professional contacts on mailing lists reported not-so-good performance from newer and supposedly better Tokina zooms.

I was considering sticking with this as my main lens for a while after I got the D700 (which brought me back into full-frame photography), but this required testing.

Results seemed pretty conclusive to me.

28mm f/2.8

Those corners are really pretty appalling. This was a reshoot, because I was worried I’d somehow done it wrong in the initial shoot.

 

 

 

 

28mm f/4

Some improvement; but more, some reason to believe that the f/2.8 result wasn’t a mistake somehow.

 

 

 

 

50mm f/2.8

Considerable improvement in the corners; not so much in the center, I almost wonder if that was me? This is why sane people use tripods for lens testing, I believe. But that one was at 1/1000 sec., it really doesn’t seem likely it was camera shake.

 

 

 

 

50mm f/5.6

There we go, that’s about where it’s really supposed to be.

 

 

 

 

70mm f/2.8

Funny-looking at the long end, too; more in the middle really. Coma maybe? I haven’t done serious pixel-peeping at these yet.

 

 

 

 

70mm f/5.6

Nice in the center, okay at the corner now.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

So, as you may have guessed by now, I’ve ordered the Nikkor AF-S 24-70 f/2.8.