Review on Tokina At X 100Mm F2 8 Macro by Kevin Overturf

First of all I'm a Nikon employee so this review will focus on Nikon. Right out front: full-frame, 100mm macro for $349? Looked too good to be true. I was fully expecting to return this lens in a day or two because it was a cheap fake. It's cheap, but it's not fake. This is a good, solid lens; When delivered, it looks like a Nikkor lens in terms of design and weight. It is also well balanced in terms of weight. I have used this lens on my D3200, D7500 and D850; Even on my small 3200, the lens didn't feel heavy from the front. I could easily hold my 3200 in my hand with this lens. So this lens does not have its own focus motor. It depends on the focus in the camera so be aware before you buy this lens. In my opinion Nikon 3xxx and 5xxx don't have built in focus. If you're not sure, just look at the lens mount on the camera body. The lower left quarter of the bayonet has a small hickey that sticks out about 3/16 inch and it looks a bit like the tip of a drill. If your camera has one of these, you are in camera focus. Otherwise, the lens only has manual focus. The lens also has no vibration protection. These are the two functional flaws that make this lens so affordable. However, the lens *has* CPU sockets, so you can play with F in aperture priority, and shutter priority is handled with F-AF. You slide the entire focus ring forward to engage the autofocus clutch. I also encountered reviews complaining about the focus driver's speed and noise. Yes, it's not as fast or responsive as the focus motor in a Nikkor lens, and it's noisy when moving focus from f/1.8 to infinity in low-light or low-contrast shots. More seriously, if you're using a macro lens to shoot a sporting event, you may need to rethink your lens strategy. So cheers to Tokina. This is a great non-Nikkor full-frame lens and not worth an arm's length.