New kit pt1

2 new pieces of equipment for my bag.

First off a mid range lens, the legendary Tokina 28-70 f2.6 lens!

This was one of the lenses that was stolen from my original kit, almost. There are no less than 7 versions of this lens with various changes including optics and build, but the best is the 2.6 versions (of which there are 2 that I know of). I've owned both versions (again that I know of) of the 2.6 lens with the only difference that I can tell being that the original uses a screw hood and the later using a bayonet hood, the bayonet makes life much easier so a welcome addition to my mind.

The images come out nice and sharp as long as you're not at the close focus range; the lens struggles a little at 2.6 (as all lenses from this era struggled wide open) but is great when stopped to f3.5 and at f4 is as sharp as the Nikon. Unlike the offerings from Nikon this lens is all internal and all metal; Nikon's current 24-70 f2.8 zooms out of the barrel which I've never been a fan of.

Between this and the Nikon the Nikon lens is the better, however for 6x (yes, 6x!) the price; for  approximately £200 you can have the Tokina at only a slight performance knock. I will be upgrading in the future to a Nikon sure, but right now the huge jump in price for the minimal quality improvement isn't swaying me when there are many more things that I could be buying with that ~£1000!