Solid, good optics, and don't cost a fortune. If you know what you are doing then there is no reason as to why you should not get sharp clear images. Of course you will get a few dudd ones along the way but you have the luxury of Digital these days. I use this Lens on my Nikon D7000 and D90 with no dramas. How ever" Centre weight and spot metering is only possible. This is no issue for me as I consider centre weight metering adequate for 500mm end zoom. Light metering works well and one must use the F stop ring for the aparture setting change. It is a little on the heavy side but one can't have everything. You can do hand held shots and come out with pretty good results too. How ever" It is more comfortable and provides more of a steady aim if used with a Monopod or Tripod. I use either when ever I need to. I use a higher ISO of 800 to around 1000 to keep up with on higher shutter speeds as needed. I try not to go below 1600 sec and depending on the zoom tend to stick around the 2000 of a sec mark. This works for me. How ever" everyone has their own way to deal with things. You will get flair but other wise this Lens is a fantastic performer. I will have this Lens over any current equivilant Sigma or Tamron. If you want a lens for catching fast moving action then you are better off getting a Lens with auto focus. I will give this Lens 8 out of 10.You can view Photos taken with this Lens here > http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainerhl/

Rainerl

USA

Tokina ATX SD 150-500mm, with constant f/5.6 aperture throughout the zoom range. Available in Minolta MD, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Canon manual focus mounts (same design for all of these). 1 touch zooming/focusing. Built in hood, fully metalic construction. Takes 95mm front filters, or ~32mm filters in a special slot near the diafragm ring. Focuses from 3.1m to infinity. Somewhat heavy to be used handheld, ~5lb, yet I use it this way with ISO800 film sometimes, tripod helps a lot. Uses low-dispersion glass, apochromatic design. I have not tested it as to precise line per millimeter resolution, yet I scanned the film exposed using this lens, downsampled to ~6MP, downsampling further caused visible detail loss. Shooting conditions for that roll were not particularly favorable, 30th row in theatre, maximally open diafragm on most shots, 300-500mm range used. I could see somewhat worse resolution on the long end, 500mm when wide-open on Moon photographs, yet this does not bother me much as shhoting at 500/5.6 is not what I usually want to do anyway due to extremely shallow depth of filed at 500mm. The performance is great at f/8, and what I said at 500/5.6 is not something you will notice on 4x6 prints. For a pro, of course, there are tons great telelenses in various mounts, but, considering the prices, I wouldn't overlook this lens, especially if you are still passionate about manual focus photography.

fotog

Chicago, IL