RobertOToole wrote: ↑Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:49 pm
I owned the Tokina 2.5/90 for sometime but eventually sold it
Me, too. The Tokina 2.5/90 was my first "macro lens." I chose it because it was reviewed as a very good standard macro lens, and much cheaper than a micro-Nikkor. I loved it! So much easier, with a far higher hit rate, when shooting up to 1:1, compared with all the "cheaper than a macro lens" approaches I'd tried: Diopters on normal lenses, reversed lenses, stacked lenses, and lenses on bellows. This experience is why I tell newcomers to avoid all those supposedly cost-saving shortcuts and just get a macro lens (in the sense of a lens that focuses to 1:1).
But back in the 1980's, who thought about bokeh? Not me, certainly. I mostly shot the lens at f/16-f/32, to get enough DOF for story-telling images in the close-up realm. Doubt I even once shot this lens opened up to examine the quality of out-of-focus elements. Would find it fun to spend a day with this lens now, shoot it wide open and nearly so, and see what the "Bokineh" excitement is about. (But not sufficient fun, BTW, to warrant purchasing this lens again.)
Then in the 1990's, I went full Nikon for all my lenses--no off-brands for me, then. Purchased a micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-D, which I still prize--very sharp.
So my Tokina 2.5/90 macro sat on my shelf for years, unused. I eventually traded it for a titanium mountain bike frame. Later, after reading "Bokineh comments," did ask after it, in hope of a brief borrow. But the fellow I traded it to gave it a girlfriend, who says she has no idea what she did with it. Oh well.
Meanwhile, images from the Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G have shown enchanting bokeh, though mostly in general, non-macro, shooting. This lens is high on my list to try.
--Chris S.
