The Tokina FíRIN 100mm f/2.8 FE macro is a pretty decent lens albeit it has it's downsides as well. It is capable of delivering an outstanding center performance but the border/corner quality could be a little better at large apertures. The bokeh is great and among the best that we have seen from a conventional lens. Images are also perfectly free of distortions. Lateral and axial CAs are slightly higher than average. A weak spot is purple fringing at f/2.8 which can be a spoiler in certain scenes. Vignetting is not much of an issue.

The build quality of the Tokina lens is very high thanks to quality materials and tight tolerances. We really like the new matte finish of the latest Tokina lenses - it is grippy and doesn't collect fingerprints as a hobby. The somewhat older base design does, however, show up in the fact that it extends during focusing operations. Auto-focusing is also on the slow side of the spectrum.

Overall it's quite obvious that the Tokina is trying to differentiate itself by delivering value for your hard-earned bucks and it does a good job at that.