{"id":8606,"date":"2017-07-30T10:09:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T09:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillipreeve.net\/blog\/?p=8606"},"modified":"2024-04-21T14:25:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T13:25:15","slug":"tokina-firin-20mm-f2-fe-review-a-good-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phillipreeve.net\/blog\/tokina-firin-20mm-f2-fe-review-a-good-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokina Firin 20mm F2 FE Review: A good deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Tokina Firin 20mm F2 is Tokina’s first lens for the E-mount and currently the fastest wide angle in the ~20mm range for the system. Read my in-depth review to decide if it could be a good addition to your camera bag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Image Samples<\/span><\/address>\n
You can find all images shown in this review in full resolution in this Tokina Firin 2\/20 flickr album<\/a>.<\/em>\"\"<\/address>\n
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Specifications<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Diameter<\/td>\n69 mm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Length<\/td>\n81.5 mm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Filter Thread<\/td>\n62 mm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Weight<\/td>\n490 g<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Max. Magnification<\/td>\n0.09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Close Focusing Distance<\/td>\n29.5 cm (measured)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Number of aperture blades<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Elements\/ Groups<\/td>\n13\/11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Price: $799 at\u00a0Amazon.com\u00a0<\/a>or at\u00a0ebay.com.\u00a0<\/a>772\u20ac at\u00a0Amazon.de<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>(affiliate links).<\/em><\/address>\n

Build quality and handling<\/h1>\n

The Tokina Firin 20mm F2 offers good but not perfect build\u00a0quality<\/strong>. It seems to be mostly made from metal and feels solid enough but not quite as well made as the very best lenses. Markings are not engraved, only printed. Since I only own this one copy and I don’t plan to open it I can’t tell you how reliable it will be, only how solid it “feels”.<\/p>\n

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Focus Ring<\/strong><\/p>\n

The focus ring\u00a0<\/strong>travels around 100\u00a0degrees from 0.28 m to 1 m and a further 30 degrees to infinity which gives good travel at all focusing distances. The hard stop is behind infinity on the focus scale and true infinity is a little before the infinity sign. The focus ring offers good grip and a pleasant diameter. The resistance is fine but I would have preferred a little more stiffness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the Tokina Firin and all other manual native lenses with electronic contacts you can let the lens\u00a0automatically activate the focus enlargement<\/strong> when the focus-ring is turned. I found the function annoying and deactivated it (Gear\/1\/MF Assist – Off) but other people might find it useful.<\/p>\n

The Firin focuses internally.<\/p>\n

Aperture ring<\/strong><\/p>\n

The aperture ring<\/strong> does not offer a very good tactile experience because it isn’t raised far, and I sometimes struggle to find it by intuition<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The click stops are distinctive enough<\/strong> but I have used aperture rings with more distinctive stops. From f\/2 to f\/22 the Tokina stops down in 1\/3 stops<\/strong>. I would have preferred 1\/2 stops because it is hard to keep track of the aperture just by touch.<\/p>\n

The aperture ring features a de-click feature for clickless operation when shooting videos. You simply move a little switch at the front of the lens, no tools needed.<\/p>\n

The Firin communicates the used aperture to the camera so you get all the exif information but you can’t change the aperture with the camera, you have to change it by the aperture ring.<\/p>\n

Hood<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Well… The hood is a large square<\/strong> made from solid plastic and it is really large which makes it impractical<\/strong> to put in any reasonably sized camera bag so I usually leave it at home. If you can fit it into you bag though it offers decent protection against damage and sun<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Handling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tokina is a medium sized len<\/strong>s which is rather dense at 490g. Handling on my a7ii isn’t bad<\/strong> but it isn’t optimal either because the Firin has a rather large diameter and because it weighs almost as much as my a7ii.<\/p>\n

The Firin has electronic contacts to communicate with the camera so you don’t have to manually set the right focal length for the stabilizer and you have all the exif information. You also get the electronic scale which I found useful at times.<\/p>\n

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Optical performance<\/h1>\n

These results are based on the use with a Sony Alpha 7II.<\/p>\n

Flare Resistance<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Tokina’s flare resistance is a mixed bag. For most scenes there is very little veiling flare and no ghosting. This is a better performance than I had feared because Tokina has a really bad track record when it comes to flare resistance.<\/p>\n

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But once you have more demanding backlit scenes<\/strong> you quickly run into issues<\/strong>. You can get an annoying amount of ghosting and some veiling flare as well. This is a serious issue for me<\/strong> because with a 20mm I often include the sun in my compositions.<\/p>\n

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note the ghost at the right side of the image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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note the circular host at the lower left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also noted, that ghosting is much stronger when the Tokina Firin 20mm F2 is stopped down:<\/p>\n

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Sunstars and sensor reflections<\/h1>\n

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Since the Firin has 9 rounded aperture-blades it produces 18-pointed sunstars<\/strong>. You need to stop down to f\/16<\/strong> (well into diffraction territory) \u00a0to makes them well defined, and even then the rays won’t be long. This is a matter of taste <\/a>but I would call it an average performance<\/strong>. Lenses like the Loxia 2.8\/21<\/a> or Voigtl\u00e4nder 1.7\/35 <\/a>produce much more prominent and better defined sunstars: and at faster apertures too!.<\/p>\n

Another issue I noticed is that I got an unusually high amount of sensor reflection that<\/strong> I have never noticed before with the a7II (in stark contrast to the a7). Bastian did a check on his a7rII and he could not reproduce the issue, but he could only check with street lamps, not with the sun. They appear only significantly stopped down but as I just mentioned to get nice sunstars you need to stop the Firin down a lot.<\/p>\n