The Tokina AT-X M100 PRO D lens a fixed focal length full frame lens for Macro Photography. It also serves perfect for portraits. The lens gives sharp images with brilliant colour and clarity. This lens comes with both Nikon (the one addressed here) and Canon EOS mounts. The lens was launched back in 2006 from the Japanese manufacturers of lens and CCTV security equipment, TOKINA. As per Tokina, the ‘AT-X’ stands for Advanced Technology and the ‘PRO’ goes for the Tokina’s unique and brilliant AF-MF switching clutch system. The ‘D’ implies that the lens is capable of telling the camera the distance to the subject, which helps the exposure meter, especially with on-camera flash.
The lens works well with all FX, 35mm and DX Nikons. The AF-MF switching clutch system is brilliant (but users who do a lot of switching, complaint about it loosening up a little bit afterwards). You don’t have to search for the usual tiny switch to change from autofocus to manual. The switching is smooth and easy. The manual focus is also butter smooth. Another thing to be noted is that the focus ring does not rotate in the autofocus mode which allows us to handle the lens better. There is a focus limiter on the side to cut short the focus range which allows you to focus faster.
The only thing you should keep in mind before you buy this lens is that it does not have an AF motor on board (in the Nikon version) and so will not autofocus on cameras with no built-in autofocus motor (like the D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, D5000 etc). But that is not going to be a deal breaker since you won’t be depending much on AF in macro shooting, would you?
The lens weighs around 540g and the build quality is superb. The optics is also flawless and outruns any macro lenses from Nikon or Canon. It is capable of reproducing things at real life sizes (1:1). It is perfect for macro shooting and portraits.
Last but not least is the price on this. You can get one at $399 (below 30,000 INR) from Amazon. Which is amazing as it is like almost half the price offered by other manufactures for their macro lenses. The interesting fact is that this lens is even better and does not feel like low price lens.
Legendary “Tokina AT-X Pro 100mm f2.8 Macro” is now replaced with a new improved version “Tokina ATX-i 100mm F2.8 FF Macro”. Tokina ATX-i 100mm F2.8 FF Macro was announced in November 2019. We haven’t tested the new version ourselves. But for a similar price range, we would recommend grabbing the newer model.
Below are sample photos captured with Nikon D610 and Tokina ATX-i 100mm lens and shared with us by Exif Viewer by Fluntro.
Check out one of the sample photos with its camera settings and other embedded metadata displayed with the help of Exif Viewer by Fluntro Photography App.
