Three lenses, a camera and an auction (3) Tokina RMC 25-50mm f4
This is the third post in the series about the lenses, camera and tripod I won in an online auction. let’s look at the Tokina RMC 25-50mm f4 zoom lens.
The first thing I would say about it is that it is not as aesthetically pleasing to look at as the Zuiko. It is also a strange focal range for a zoom lens, but in those days, zoom lenses were not that common and primes ruled the day. Prime lenses being lenses of fixed focal length. However, having a constant aperture of f4 is better than most modern zooms manage unless you want to pay a lot of money.
Having purchased an adapter which allows me to mount Olympus O/OM lenses on my Canon 7D DSLR, I had a chance to put this lens to the test.
So let’s take a look at this lens.
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Compared to the other lenses, this lens seems to have very little fungus and dust. Performance does not appear to be affected.
The aperture ring is nearest the camera below the zoom ring and the focussing ring. This is more intuitive for me; the Zuiko has its aperture ring at the top of the lens.
f stops range fro f4 to f16 and the lens performs well even wide open. When used against the light, it does appear to lose some contrast and there is some flaring. But it can be nice and sharp.
Here are some shots:
 f4 1/13 hand-held 50mm |
 f4 1/100 sec 50mm |
 f16 50mm 0.6 sec |
This is pretty impressive. As I said, it’s only pointing into the light that performance suffers compared to modern lenses and looking through the viewfinder, it seems a bit dimmer and hazier than the Zuiko. And, once again, I’d love to try this on a full frame camera.
You may be surprised to hear that I am selling this on eBay. Why? Well, my walk-around lens is 18-85 and just as good, and it’s stabilised auto-focus. I just don’t see the point of this lens for me and it’s a Tokina, not exactly the most sought-after name in photography. I can recoup some of my outlay selling this – if it sells. If not, it’s one for the collection.
UPDATE May 2017
I did sell it to a very happy eBayer for just under £20 which means I recouped almost half of my auction costs.