More Than Just a Telephoto Zoom Lens

For those well-acquainted with vintage film-era zoom lenses, you've likely seen many 70-210 (or similar lenses). These were staples for photographers that needed the farther reach, but not quite at the same level of, say, a wildlife photographer. Despite being weighty pieces of glass, they're lighter than a more pro-level lens that has a fixed f/2.8 aperture throughout its whole zoom range. In the sun, they do very well for themselves and offer a good amount of reach as long as your subject doesn't get too close.

80mm minimum focus distance

200mm minimum focus distance

One interesting lens we have is a Tokina 80-200mm. It's beefy, sure, but the minimum focus distance is not very forgiving. I can only focus as close as 167.2cm at 80mm, and it's about the same at 200mm. With a DLX stretch adapter, we could improve it (even if only a little), but since it's for the Fujica X mount (and we don't make any specialty adapters for it), we're out of luck.

Mostly.

One detail of the lens entices me: a ring for close focus. By pressing a button, you can turn the ring (and barrel) to improve your close-focus performance by a little. It's actually a similar utility of our DLX Stretch adapters, which have a built-in helicoid.that allows for focus adjustment. Just as with the DLX Stretch adapters, using the close focus ring removes infinity focus, but does give you some extra functionality.

With the close focus ring in use, my new working distance s is 60.2cm at 80mm and 130.7cm at 200mm. There's some slight improvement for the long end of the lens, but the most drastic change is on the wide end. But working distance doesn't do much for quantifying how much macro capabilities improve. We have to look at the difference in magnification.

80mm minimum focus distance (with close focus ring engaged)

200mm minimum focus distance (with close focus ring engaged)

Oddly enough, at their closest focusing distance, the two options are actually fairly similar results, so the close-up ring does help, but I wouldn't call it proportional. Yes, the 200mm nets a closer result (even if only slightly), but my guess is that the natural magnification of the 200mm end helps aid the close-up or it could be like past posts, where a longer lens needs more extension to make a huge difference with macro work.

Lenses nowadays come with a variety of high-tech features like firmware updates via upgrade docks or customizable function buttons. A close-up ring like this is not something you see often on a modern lens, so it can be a fun thing to pick up if you see a lens like that out in the wild or online.