Photo Plus - USA (2019-07)

The Canon Magazine 101

FEATURES

Distortion is fairly low even at the shortest zoom setting on the Tokina Opera
16-28mm f/2.8 FF. Vignetting is minimal if you narrow the aperture to the f/5.6 mark

At the long end of the zoom range, the short minimum focus distance and wide f/2.8

aperture enable some decent background blur

VERDICT

IT HAS a robust build and delivers good

quality, but isn’t a big upgrade over the

older ATX Pro lens. The latest Sigma and

Tamron zooms give better performance

but are about twice as expensive.

FEATURES

BUILD & HANDLING

IMAGE QUALITY

VALUE

OVERALL

Sharpness is superb in the centre of the

frame but less great towards the corners

SHARPNESS

2500

1500

1000

500

C

e

n

tr

e

f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22

2000

Cyan and magenta fringing can be

obvious at the corners of images

Barrel distortion is well controlled at

16mm and negligible at mid to long zooms

1500

1000

500

E

d

g

e

f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22

Short Mid Long

2000

0

Sh

or

t

Lo

ng

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2

M

id

FRINGING (AT EDGE)

-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 123

DISTORTION

Long -0.12

Short -2.99

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to f/4, although corner-sharpness is

less impressive throughout the

entire zoom range. Vignetting is

fairly low for such a wide-angle,

wide-aperture lens and, again,

peripheral illumination is much

improved when narrowing the

aperture to f/4. Distortions and

colour fringing are well controlled

across most of the frame, but

magenta and cyan lateral chromatic

aberrations can be quite noticeable

towards the corners of images.

Overall performance is less

impressive than in the Sigma

14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM Art and

Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC

USD G2 lenses, both of which offer

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while equalling the Tokina’s f/2.8

aperture rating. Even so, the Tokina

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01

The fixed petal

shaped hood

precludes the use

of filters without a

specialist adaptor.

02

The overall physical

length of the lens

remains fixed

throughout the

zoom range.

03

At shorter zoom

settings, the front

optical element

nears the forward

end of the hood.

04

Autofocus is neither

as quick, nor as

quiet as in

competing lenses

with ring-type

ultrasonic drive.

05

Tokina’s usual

push-pull focus ring

enables switching

between autofocus

and manual focus.

06

There’s a focus

distance scale

positioned beneath

a viewing panel.

07

A rubber weather-

seal gasket is

featured on the

mounting plate.

competing ultra-wide zooms

that feature ring-type ultrasonic

or stepping motor systems.

However, autofocus proved more

consistently accurate in our tests.

The new lens retains Tokina’s

usual ‘one-touch focus clutch

mechanism’. This enables you to

snap the focus ring backwards and

forwards to switch between manual

focus and autofocus respectively. It

works well enough but many prefer

the full-time manual override

facility generally available with

ring-type ultrasonic and stepping

motor autofocus systems.

Performance

Image quality is very good overall.

At the short end of the zoom range,

centre-sharpness and contrast are

fabulous even when shooting

wide-open at f/2.8. At mid to long

zoom settings, centre-sharpness is

TOKINA Opera 16-28mm f/2.8 FF

28mm at f/2.8

16mm at f/5.6

f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22