Tokina AT-X AF 100mm f/2.8 Pro D £330, $380

It’s a capable lens with a rather retro design

The Tokina lacks the frills found on some competing lenses. It has no optical stabiliser and there’s no built-in autofocus motor. Instead, it relies on the host camera’s motor, so autofocus is unavailable with bodies like the D3300 and D5500.

The push-pull focus ring enables easy switching between autofocus (where available) and manual focusing. The latter benefits from long travel in the focus ring’s rotation which, along with excellent smoothness, eases the precise adjustments that are required in macro photography. It’s not an internally focusing lens, but even with the inner barrel fully extended there’s still 13.5cm between the front of the lens and the subject.

Performance

Image quality is excellent, with superb sharpness throughout almost the whole aperture range. However, the drop in sharpness at f/22 is disappointing for macro shooting. A bonus is that the deeply recessed front element makes the lens resistant to ghosting and flare, even without fitting the supplied hood.