Tokina Macro Zoom 70-210 RMC M42 - what's this?

[eumenius]

Hello friends,

today I was in our camera shop, and found there an excellent specimen of Tokina Macro Zoom 70-210/3.5, RMC coating, auto aperture M42 lens, with built-in light hood. Well, the question is simple - should I take it for $85, or it's a garbage in optical sense? Everything tells me that it should be a good add-on to my Spotmatic, especially its macro capability - but I didn't ever use zooms on 135 film, really

Cheers from Moscow,
Zhenya

 

[Dave Parker]

I shot the 70-210 range of zooms in the m42 mount for years, Vivitars, Tokina, etc, most of the time they were good performing lenses and this particular zoom range was one of and continues to be a very popular zoom range, I would shoot a few test shots with it if possible then make the choice from there, if they won't let you shoot a test roll, then walk away from it.

Dave

 

[Dan Fromm]

When the lens was new, "RMC" lenses were the top of the Tokina line.

 

[Julian Hart]

When the lens was new, "RMC" lenses were the top of the Tokina line.

Actually, I'm not sure about that. RMC is just the coating, ATX was/is top of the line.

Julian

 

[Dave Parker]

Normally if you find it with the RMC designation, you will also find the ATX designation, depending on how old it actually is.

Dave