Tokina 17mm f/3.5 AT-X 17 AF PRO Aspherical

Tokina 17mm f/3.5 AT-X 17 AF PRO Aspherical User Reviews

• 9 out of 10 points and recommended by DaveInAZ (2 reviews)
  Excellent Image Quality, Price, Size, Build Quality

  This was my first venture into Tokina's lens lineup, but not my last. The image quality is far superior to anything that was available in this focal length from Sony/Konica/Minolta, at the time, with the possible exception of their extremely expensive G series.
  
  I can confirm the usual "built like a tank" comments. I bounced mine off a rock and into a stream, with no ill effects.
  
  Yes, it's susceptible to flare and CA, like every other lens of this type. That's a challenge for the photographer, not a problem with the lens... just learn to use it properly, and it will reward your efforts.

  reviewed March 1st, 2014
• 8 out of 10 points and recommended by colinjames (8 reviews)
  Build, 77mm, close focus, ok distortion considering

  use correctly or images are FLAT on FF, goofy flare artifacts, SOFT until f5

  I purchased this lens after careful review to replace (yes replace) my Nikon 14-24mm on D700. It was nice seeing that many of the reviews online were published in the film era. It was my first Tokina - and build quality is superb. IQ is quite soft at 3.5 - I almost always stop to f5 or further. People gripe about the af/mf clutch mechanism on Tokinas - it is pretty lame. Leave it in AF - it's very fast and accurate - even in low light (on D700). This lens loses its appeal on aps-c cameras - but I believe it is the best bang for buck full format ultrawide. It's compact, accepts filters (no huge bulbous front element), and a rare blessing in the $100-$200 range. I recently replaced this with the Nikon 20-35mm 2.8 ($300) and am much happier...

  reviewed November 10th, 2010 (purchased for $150)
• 7 out of 10 points and recommended by HighSierra (13 reviews)
  Center sharpness, color, contrast, very solid build

  Corner softness, high CA

  Used on a Nikon D700 (full-frame) the corners of the frame produced by this lens were never truly sharp, even at f/16. The center was sharp straight from f/3.5 onwards. By f/8, a relatively small portion of the corners was still soft.
  
  A rather high amount of CA was found across the frame, but was largely correctable. The CA found in the corners however, could not be corrected for completely, either in-camera, or in post.
  
  The lens does flare pretty easily, even when using the hood, but it doesn't erode contrast across the frame too much. The flare itself, I'd call good, in the sense that it is relatively pretty, unlike the flare produced by many more complex zoom lenses.
  
  Overall the lens produces very nice images, in terms of color, contrast, and sharpness (outside the corners). If you crop your shots to about 20mm equivalent, or use the lens on a DX/EF-S camera, the corner issues should be negligent, especially at smaller apertures.
  
  The build quality is great, typical Tokina AT-X Pro. My only small complaint is that the focus ring, when used in MF mode, doesn't have the smooth, damped feel of the 20-35 or 28-80 AT-X Pro lenses.
  
  To sum up, a very well built lens which produces nice images but not without fault on a full 35mm frame.

  reviewed June 29th, 2010 (purchased for $300)
• 9 out of 10 points and recommended by Badmono (15 reviews)
  Crisp sharp lens - very nice indeed

  None

  A fabulous prime W/A lens - perfect as a walk around lens.
  Super sharp - which to me is what matters in a lens, a fuzzy blurred zoom lens shot is completely useless, this very reasonbly priced prime shows up zooms for what they are - a TOTAL WASTE OF YOUR TIME.

  reviewed November 22nd, 2008 (purchased for $75)
• 10 out of 10 points and recommended by Matthew Saville (21 reviews)
  Build quality, image quality, affordability

  none

  I've had this lens for almost a year now, and I really love it. It's sharp, it's small, it's light, well okay it's kind of heavy. But it's strong and durable, if you think of it that way.
  
  It is prone to CA, but I'm just happy that it's sharp from corner to corner, because you can fix CA in Adobe Bridge quite easily, but lenses this sharp are hard to find. I've even tested it to be slightly, SLIGHTLY sharper than the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8.
  
  These are somewhat hard to find at times, but hawk KEH and Ebay for a month and you can find a great deal, and I highly recommend it if you can pay as little as I did...
  -Matt-

  reviewed December 29th, 2006 (purchased for $225)
• 7 out of 10 points and recommended by Kong47 (9 reviews)
  build, weight

  focus clutch awkward, some flare, color cast

  This was a decent lens overall. The 17 f3.5 is a little limited these days with the newer 12-24 lenses. This lens worked well while I owned it. Focus was fast, lens was sharp at nearly every aperture. It was a tiny bit soft at 3.5. Nothing to worry about though. This lens did seem to have a slight color cast though. Photos often came out slightly warm, a little orangey/reddish. This was easily fixed in PP though. Distortion was pretty well handled as well. The build of this lens was very good, very solid. The focus clutch mechanism to manually override AF was difficult to use. It would only engage if focused to infinity. I sold this lens because I didn't use it anymore. No major problems, and recommended to anyone looking for a somewhat wide, not terribly fast lens.

  reviewed December 22nd, 2006
• 10 out of 10 points and recommended by TeoK (5 reviews)

  great lens , actually.
  I had it on Nikon film cameras and it performed very well - with corner to corner sharpnes and minimal flare. Might be an interesting all around shooter on digital body.

  reviewed November 21st, 2006