Tokina 35-200 f3.5-4.5 manual focus zoom lens any Good?

I just picked up a Tokina 35-200 f3.5-4.5 manual focus zoom lens on eBay for $5.50 (that's right 5 dollars and 50 cents!). I was wondering if anyone has had any experinece with this lens.

I figure even if it sucks, I didn't spend too much on it so it should be fun to play with. I'll be using it on my Nikon FM2N and FM3A.

Thanks.

Good luck with this one. You might save it for those times when you don't want to endanger your other lenses. I had two Tokina zoom lenses, and they both sucked pretty badly. One had fungus (70-210 zoom) and my friend had an identical copy that also had fungus. The other (35-70 zoom) came out of focus as I tripped the shutter. The aperture lever somehow knocked the focus ring enough to give me crappy pictures. It was a brand new lens also. Oh, and I had yet another Tokina, a 28mm 2.8 that had horrific diffraction at all apertures. You get what you pay for I guess.

Perfect, sounds like you just got a great lens to use in hazardous conditions. I am not generally a fan of wide angle to tele zooms. They seem to barrel distort badly at wide and pincushion badly at tele. That said, I don't know this particular lens and have to believe that it is worth what you paid for it, probably more!

My experience with this kind of zoom has been best described by using a Swiss Army knife as an example - it can do all these different things - but none of them well. On the other hand - $5.50!!! Who cares!!! It will make a neat paperweight if nothing more.. and you know, I have a horrible wide angle lens - it does nothing well, but I found that I actually had a few picture ideas that were quite well served by its quirky shortcomings - and I paid $12 CDN for it. I say again:

$5.50!

Its defintely better than what you paid for it!

Have fun,

Peter.

dtomasula said:

I just picked up a Tokina 35-200 f3.5-4.5 manual focus zoom lens on eBay for $5.50 (that's right 5 dollars and 50 cents!).

Click to expand...

I doubt this is news to anyone here, but, "vintage" lenses from the '70s and early '80s are very often available dirt cheap on e-bay. I have picked up quite a few for my Nikkormat FT2. Of course the non-AIS lenses are old technology, but their glass remains great Nikor quality (subject to the usual cautions of course)

I remember a Nikon ad I used to drool over featuring their whole line of lenses laid out and gleaming like jewels; well those jewels are out there now, maybe a little dusty, but finally affordable for me!

-Bob