Tokina AT-X DX AF 16.5-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 review - Vignetting

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Tokina AT-X DX AF 16.5-135 mm f/3.5-5.6

3 February 2010

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

Zoom lenses with a wide focal lengths’ range and a wide angle of view have always had many problems with vignetting. The Nikkors performed very badly here, having the vignetting level of 50% at the shortest focal lengths. It was better in the case of other devices but not much better because the results reaching 40% were not rare at all.

Tokina AT-X DX AF 16.5-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 - Vignetting

The Tokina 16.5–135 mm is not an exception to the rule. For the most difficult combination of wide angle and f/3.5 aperture we notice the light fall-off in the frame corners as big as 44% (-1.68 EV). By f/4.0 this value decreases to 31% and by f/5.6 – to 24%. Further stopping down doesn’t influence the vignetting at all because by f/8.0 the vignetting amounts to 23% and by f/11 it reaches 22%.

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Fortunately, the situation ameliorates a lot in the middle of the focal lengths’ range. At 35 mm and wide open the brightness loss in the frame corners is 17% (-0.53 EV). By f/5.6 it decreases to 14% and by f/8.0 it amounts to just 12%.

At 75 mm focal length the lens performs just a tad worse. At the maximum aperture the vignetting reaches 20% (-0.66 EV) and it decreases to 12% by f/5.6. Using the f/8.0 aperture eliminates the problem completely (9%).

The vignetting slightly increases at the maximum focal length. By f/5.6 it amounts to 26% (-0.86 EV). Fortunately on stopping down by 1 EV the problem disappears completely (10%).