Introduction
At the end of the DSLR era in 2018 also Tokina thought it would be a good idea to release a high performance 50mm 1.4 lens to compete with the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM and the Zeiss Otus 55mm 1.4. In Tokina’s lineup this Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera is a bit of a unique offering, as it is the only prime lens carrying the “Opera” tag and we haven’t seen another one after. Is this as amazing a 50mm 1.4 lens Tokina claims it is, or just a relic from the past? Let’s try to find out.
Sample Images
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Contents
Specifications
This is a review of the F-mount version of the Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera which has the following specifications:
- Diameter: 80 mm
- Length: 107 mm
- Weight: 905g (without hood, without caps)
- Field of view: 47°24′ (diagonally)
- Filter Diameter: 72 mm
- Number of Aperture Blades: 9 (rounded)
- Elements/Groups: 15/9
- Close Focusing Distance: 0.4 m
- Maximum Magnification: 1:5.1 (measured)
- Mount: Nikon F, Canon EF
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (advertisement/affiliate links) for $649 (new)
Handling / Build Quality
For their Opera lenses Tokina also introduced a new all-black casing design. The casing feels similar to Sigma’s Art lenses of that era and despite being mostly made from polycarbonate not cheap.
Tokina also claims the the lens is weather resistant, but as usual there are some footnotes saying that nothing is guaranteed, which is why I don’t care about such claims of weather resistance at all – unless some IP standard is given.
The focus ring is similar to that of the Sigma Art DSLR and Nikon AF-S lenses: it is mechanically coupled to the focus group and there is also a small window with a distance scale behind it to be found. It takes ~120° of rotation from the minimum focus distance of 0.4 m to infinity. Some of the Nikon lenses have some slack when changing the direction of rotation, here it is minimal but you may be able to feel it if you look for it.
The lens also features an AF/MF switch but no further controls.
I did not receive the lens hood with this lens, it does seem to feature a small opening to operate a polarizer with the hood attached.
This should be the biggest and heaviest 50mm 1.4 lens with autofocus for the F-mount – even a little heavier than the SIgma 50mm 1.4 DG HSM Art.
This is an “E” lens in the Nikon world, so if you want to use it on an analogue camera you cannot change the aperture value. The AF did work on my F80 though, so the same is probably also true for F100, F5 and F6.
AF performance
I am not shooting sports or fast moving animals/humans so if you want to know if the lens is fast enough for this or how it compares to other lenses in this segment you may have to look for a different review with a more detailed assessment of this aspect.
However, I used this lens on Sony cameras via the Monster LA-FE1 adapter and on the Nikon Zf via the Nikon FTZ II. In both cases the AF speed was okay but the reliability surely left something to be desired. Tracking didn’t work well at all and even with static subjects there were more misses than I am used to.
Vignetting
Light falloff
| f/1.4 | 2.5 |
| f/2.0 | 1.5 |
| f/2.8 - f/16 | 0.6 |
If you saw the huge dimensions of this lens and you were hoping this will equal low vignetting figures you will surely end up being disappointed here. Two and a half EV light falloff at the maximum aperture are not exactly little for a 50mm 1.4 designed for DSLRs.
The significantly smaller older Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX and the also Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G show “only” 2 EV at f/1.4. The lowly Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G did show even higher values of almost 3 EV though.
It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.
Optical vignetting
Fast lenses usually show a noticeable amount of optical vignetting, especially so the compact ones. Without going too much into technical details optical vignetting leads to the truncation of light circles towards the borders of the frame.
In the center of the frame almost every lens will render a perfect circle, but only lenses with very low optical vignetting will keep this shape in the corners.
So in the following comparison we move from the center (left) to the extreme corner (right) and see how the shape of the light circle changes.
Here the Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera shows a good performance. The amount of optical vignetting is similar to the Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX and the Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G and better than what I have seen from the Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G.
Sharpness
Focus shift
The Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera did not show any focus shift in my testing.
infinity (24mp Nikon Zf)
The Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera has a very complex optical design so we should expect a good performance at all distances.
At infinity it shows a solid performance at f/1.4, but it is a bit softer at its maxium aperture and we can also see some Coma artefacts in the corners. I don’t see a distinct midzone dip which is always welcome though.
Peak across frame performance is reached around f/5.6, but I wouldn’t mind using f/2.8 if needed.
The Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G shows a similar performance and I would expect the same of the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM. The Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G looks significantly worse here.
portrait 1.4 m (24mp Nikon Zf)
I guess many people will want to use this lens for portraits, so let’s see what the performance is like at a typical portrait distance for a 50mm lens of ~1.4 m.
f/1.4 <—> f/2.0
In this category the Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera shows an impeccable performance: no matter where in the frame your subject is located, you can always expect very contrasty results.
The Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G is noticeably softer at f/1.4 and same is true for the Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G. The now very cheap Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX showed a similarly good performance though.
Close 0.4 m, 1:5.8 (24mp Nikon Zf)
Also at closer distances this Tokina shows a great performance as it hardly looks worse at f/1.4 compared to stopped down.
All the F-mount ~50mm f/1.4 lenses I already reviewed perform noticeably worse here. I haven’t reviewed the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM and the Zeiss 55mm 1.4 Otus though and these two might be able to compete.
Flare resistance
As always evaluating flare is a complex matter since you can get any lens to look bad if you push it hard enough and a slight change of scenario can affect results a lot. Tokina lenses however were infamous for their awful flare resistance, don’t just take my word for it, have a look at my reviews of their older 17mm lenses.
Now when it comes to this 50mm 1.4 Opera, Tokina is talking a lot about its improved “ELR” coatings. Do these coatings actually make a difference? Let’s find out.
At the maximum aperture I hardly see any artefacts and also veiling flare hardly seems to be an issue.
Stopped down we can see some artefacts, but compared to previous Tokina lenses this is indeed a great performance.
Also here the other F-mount ~50mm f/1.4 lenses I already reviewed perform worse. Again the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM and the Zeiss 55mm 1.4 Otus could be strong competitors though.
Coma
Already in the sharpness section we saw subpar corner performance at wider apertures and often Coma is the reason for that. Here I am negatively surprised to see such big artefacts, especially as the lens had been marketed as good choice for astrophotography. I certainly wouldn’t be my preferred choice for that application, as it takes stopping down to f/2.8 to tame this aberration.
Distortion
Distortion is well corrected by the optical design. Lightroom does not feature a profile for this lens, but I also never felt like one was needed, so not a big loss.
Bokeh
The Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G is famous for its smooth out of focus rendering at the cost of contrast and resolution at its maximum aperture. The Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM has very high contrast and resolution, but less smooth (and in my eyes less appealing) bokeh, so these two are kind of the extremes. Tokina didn’t really make any fast modern prime lenses before this one, so I was really wondering what to expect here and where it would fit in.
Close distance
As is usually the case, there is not that much to complain about at closer focus distances. The transition from in-focus to out-of-focus looks pleasing to me and even complex backgrounds are rendered in an unobtrusive way. Cat’s eyes are noticeable, but not to a worrying degree.
Mid distance
At mid distances the subjects really stand out from the background due to the high contrast and resolution, but I can’t say that I love how the ouf of focus areas look as there are some double edged structures to be found that can look rather distracting.
Long distance
Also at longer focus distances the focal plane is well defined and again the bokeh quality is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Especially towards the edges things get busy.
Personally, I wouldn’t say the bokeh is bad, for most use cases it will be just fine, but it doesn’t strike me as being particularly appealing. In my opinion the Sigma 40mm 1.4 Art did a better job of combining very high contrast and resolution with appealing out of focus rendering.
Sunstars
The aperture diaphragms made of 9 rounded aperture blades don’t always create distinct sunstars. Here the alignment of the blades seems to be decent though, as we can see properly defined sunstars between f/8.0 and f/16.
If you want to learn more about this topic have a look at this article.
Chromatic aberration
lateral
Also lateral CA are near perfectly corrected by the optical design.
longitudinal
While many aberrations have been well corrected by Tokina’s engineers, the same cannot be said about longitudinal CA. Bokeh fringing is definitely on the strong side and doesn’t fully go away stopped down to f/2.8.
The situation is only slightly better when it comes to purple fringing.
Now here Nikon’s lenses of the AF-S DSLR era haven’t exactly been great performs either. The real competitors in the F-mount world would be the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM and the Zeiss 55mm 1.4 Otus again.
Conclusion
good
|
average
|
not good
|
Tokina has always been a bit of an odd manufacturer to me. Their timing often felt off to me and more than once I got the impression they are just following the competition instead of trying to create their own unique products.
This Tokina 50mm 1.4 Opera clearly follows the footsteps of the Zeiss 55mm 1.4 Otus and the original Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art DG HSM. It was the time when seemingly everybody wanted to create a super complex 50mm 1.4 lens with optical performance unheard of before. The price to be paid for that: huge and heavy lenses impractical for many potential users.
Did Tokina deliver on the promise of amazing optical performance? Well, kind of. The focal plane is very well definied with high contrast, so hardly leaves someting to be desired and Tokina finally addressed that flare resistance issue that has plagued them for decades.
Sadly, there were other slip-ups this time. For a lens this complex the longitudinal CA are on too high a level and the combination of mediocre Coma correction and comparably high vignetting also makes me not really want to use this lens for astrophotography. For portraiture I was neither overly happy with the autofocus performance nor with the bokeh rendering. So I kept wondering who this lens actually is for and sadly the answer seems to be: mainly for test charts.
Not a bad lens, but if someone asked me for a 50mm 1.4 for F-mount or EF-mount I would recommend something else (see following section).
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (advertisement/affiliate links) for $649 (new)
Alternatives
First I will talk about the most obvious competitors which are also available for the Nikon F-mount:
Sigma 50mm 1.4 DG HSM Art:
I had this lens when I was still mainly shooting Nikon DSLRs but I never wrote a full review. I remember it having less vignetting and better Coma correction than this Tokina lens, making it a better choice for astrophotography. In my opinion an appealing bokeh is not the strength of this Sigma lens though.
buy from ebay.com | ebay.de (advertisement/affiliate links) starting around $400 (used)
Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G:
This lens has been designed specifically with an appealing out of focus rendering in mind and it surely delivers. However, it is lacking a bit in terms of resolutrion and contrast at f/1.4 and the price is also a bit steep. If your main focus is on portraits, this can still be worth a look today.
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Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G:
If you are looking for the performance of the 70s to 80s but you need autofocus this is your lens. I found it lacking when it comes to resolution and contrast as well as bokeh and Coma correction. It also has the highest vignetting figures of all the lenses mentioned here. Ah well…
buy from Amazon.com | Amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (advertisement/affiliate links) for $407 (new) or starting at $200 (used)
Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX:
Released around roughly the same time as the aforementioned Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.4G, Sigma already incorporated an aspherical element in this 50mm 1.4 EX’s design. Opinions on this lens vary greatly because of focus inaccuracies on (D)SLRs which aren’t really a problem anymore on today’s mirrorless cameras. Personally, I am a bit of a fan of it, as I think it draws an appealing bokeh and offers very good contrast and resolution at portrait distances already at f/1.4. It also shares the 77mm filter thread with most of Nikon’s “pro” lenses from that era. Not all firmware versions seem to work on the FTZ adapters, but if you find one that does this can be a real bargain.
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You can find many of the newer 50mm 1.4 lenses designed from scratch for mirrorless cameras being discussed in our Guide to the best 50mm fullframe E-mount lenses.
Sample Images
Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.
Further Reading
- All Lens Reviews
- Review: Tokina 17mm 3.5 AF AT-x Pro
- Review: Nikon AF-S 24mm 1.4G
- Review: Nikon Z 58mm 0.95 S Noct-Nikkor
- Bokeh explained
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