Tokina SZX Super Tele 400mm f/8 Reflex MF £209/$229

A rare mirror/reflex lens, the Tokina packs big telephoto reach into a very compact build

Think super-tele primes and you’re probably thinking of big, weighty and hugely expensive lenses. This Tokina bucks the trend in being small, lightweight and cheap to buy. Indeed, it’s the most inexpensive lens in the group by a considerable margin. But there’s a catch. As a reflex or ‘mirror’ lens, it has just six optical elements, three of which have mirrored surfaces that bounce the light backwards and forwards within the relatively short barrel. This enables a long focal length in a small build.

As a ‘dumb lens’, there’s no electrical connection to the host camera. The same lens is actually sold with a variety of different mounting plates to suit various cameras, including both Nikon F and Nikon Z, making it a native fit for both DSLRS and mirrorless bodies.

Focusing is naturally a purely manual affair and there’s no diaphragm, so the aperture is fixed at f/8. At least the ease of manual focusing is boosted with mirrorless Z system cameras, thanks to the availability of a bright viewfinder image at f/8 and some help from the ‘focus peaking’ option, which lights up the edges of in-focus objects.

Performance

Although pretty impressive for a mirror lens, sharpness is nowhere near on a par with the other lenses on test. Better news is that colour fringing and distortion are quite minimal and you get the typical ‘donut bokeh’ of a mirrorless lens, which gives defocused bright spots a distinctive halo effect. Ultimately, the Tokina lacks the sharpness, contrast and clarity of regular lenses but it’s undeniably small, lightweight and cheap to buy.