Tokina SZ 500mm f/8 Mirror Review
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The Tokina SZ 500mm f/8 Mirror lens is a lightweight and reasonably priced mirror lens with good image quality. The build quality is decent, and it is suitable for high-definition video work.
It is a usable lens and nice and small with a little patience, and you are willing to shoot with it on a tripod for ease of use, which I highly recommend, you can get some quite decent results out of it.
Pros
- Reasonably priced
- Lightweight
- Decent image quality
Cons
- Lack of weather sealing
- Manual focus only
- Prone to flaring issues
The lens comes with a tough metallic body and a rubberized manual focus ring that turns smoothly but fairly heavily, making it a bit tricky to focus.
The Tokina SZ 500mm f/8 Mirror lens is a lightweight and reasonably priced mirror lens with decent image quality. The lens comes with a metallic lens hood and features a tough metallic body. However, it lacks weather sealing and autofocus. The lens has a rubberized manual focus ring that turns smoothly but fairly heavily, making it a bit tricky to focus. The image quality is soft with low contrast, but it shows no color fringing. The corner image quality is sharp, with a slightly better performance than usual for a mirror lens, especially on a demanding 45-megapixel camera. The lens does exhibit moderate pin cushion distortion and vignetting, and it can focus surprisingly close to the subject. However, the lens is prone to flaring issues against light, and its donut-shaped bokeh may not be to everyone's liking. Overall, the Tokina SZ 500mm f/8 Mirror lens is suitable for high-definition video work and can produce decent results with a little patience.
The image quality is soft with low contrast, but it shows no color fringing. The corner image quality is sharp, with a slightly better performance than usual for a mirror lens, especially on a demanding 45-megapixel camera.
Source
This article is based on the review by
Christopher Frost
Christopher Frost is a YouTube channel dedicated to providing in-depth reviews and analyses of photography equipment, particularly lenses. Christopher Frost, the creator and host of the channel, is known for his thorough and detailed evaluations of various lenses from different manufacturers, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, and others. To learn more, please visit the channel here.