100-300

Lens construction:	15 elements in 11 groups (1 SD glass element)
Focus distance:	2.0 m (6.6 ft.) to infinity
Angle of View:	24°30' - 8° 20'
Aperture scale:	f/4 - f/32
Attachment size:	77 mm
Diaphgram blades:	9
Lens hood:	MH774N
Dimensions:	83 mm (dia.) x 230 mm (length)
Weight:	1540 g

This large aperture telephoto zoom lens was the first 100-300 lens with a fast, constant aperture of f/4 throughout its entire zoom range. The use of Tokina's IF (internal focus) system for the forward lens group allows a minimum focus down to two meters. This lens is solidly built, like all ATX Pro lenses.

I took some test shots with the lens on my Gitzo 1320 and using both Velvia and Provia 100 F films. Then I put the developed slides on my 5000K light table and scrutinized them with a Nikon 8X loupe; the results I got are briefly summarized below.

f/4: Good sharpness, slightly decreasing with the focal length, but still good at 300 mm. Corners are less sharp. Wide open, my Micro-Nikkor 70-180 does not exhibit a better performance at long distances. In fact, even if my sample does not show the misalignment problems reported by others, field curvature does not allow at all to get sharp corners at 180 mm f/5.6.

Light fall-off is visible in the corners when shooting uniform subjects, namely in the 200-300 mm focal length range. Nevertheless, the light fall-off is within 0.5 stop (my rough estimate!). At the long end, sharpness does not significantly change (i.e. decrease) when shooting subjects at around 2 m. In this respect, the 100-300 has a more even performance in the whole focusing range than the AF ED Nikkor 80-200/2.8 D.

Distorsion is very well corrected: it's visible, namely at the long end, but not larger than other professional telephoto zooms I've tested and use (Micro-Nikkor 70-180 at infinity and 80-200/2.8).

f/5.6: Both sharpness and contrast increase. Light fall-off is much less visible (less than 1/3 stop).

But you probably wish to know also how does this lens behave in the field, and - therefore- when used to take pictures of "real" subjects, and not of bricks or walls. Well, I must be sincere. I caught myself looking at the surprisingly high image quality I got using the Tokina 100-300/4. Color rendition is very pleasant, resolution is exceptionally good, distorsion is very well corrected even at the long end, vignetting is negligible.

So, has this lens any shortcomings? Yes. The focusing ring rotates during AF operation and the maximum aperture of my sample is 0.4 stop darker than the nominal one (f/4), as measured by a KYORITSU EF 8000 Multi Camera Tester. Nevertheless, the effective apertures in the f/5.6-f/32 range correspond - within 0.1 stop - to the nominal values!

Flare and ghosting are very well controlled, much better than some Nikkor primes. Sunset pictures below were shot using the Tokina zoom and an AF Nikkor 85/1.8 D. Do you know which one was taken with the zoom? To get the answer, put the mouse cursor on each image ...

In conclusion, a great lens for travel and nature photography, which delivers results of biting clarity.