Tokina AT-X PRO FX SD 24-70 mm f/2.8 (IF) review - Autofocus

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Tokina AT-X PRO FX SD 24-70 mm f/2.8 (IF)

8 April 2016

Arkadiusz Olech

10. Autofocus

During the work of the focusing mechanism you can hear soft but noticeable whirr of high frequency. The autofocus is definitely not fast – running through the whole range and finding the focus takes distinctly over one second. Taking into account the fact the full distance scale needs a turn though just about 50 degrees the result of the Tokina is very mediocre indeed. The lens comes with journalistic parameters but its autofocus unit is definitely not up to scratch when it comes to the noise and the fastness.

What about the accuracy? In order to assess it properly we put a camera with the lens attached before one of our resolution testing charts and then took several dozen photos at 70 mm and f/2.8, setting the focus each time anew. Overall the lens hit the bull’s eye in 76% of shoots and 17% of them still looked acceptable. It leaves 7% of photos which were out of focus. For a journalistic lens it is not an impressive result.

When attached to the Canon 50D the Tokina hit the target as it should, without any need for microcalibration. On the EOS 5D Mark III, however, we observed a slight back focus tendency. That effect was so small that the lens was able to provide sharp photos in most of cases even without any calibration but by setting the AF microcalibration at 3-4 units you were able to eliminate the problem completely.

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