Index

Ease of Mounting and Unmounting

You need to grab something in order to rotate these lenses.

The Nikon and Tokina are fine.

Avoid grabbing the front of the Sigma or Tamron. The front of these lenses are not directly connected to the mount. Their fronts are parts of their zoom assemblies.

The Tamron makes you hunt around for something solid to grab.

	Nikon	Tokina	Sigma	Tamron
	Easy. Grab the front or rear.	Easy. Grab the front or middle.	OK. Grab the center.	Worst. You have to hunt for the very thin band which contains the focus and zoom index mark.

Materials

	Nikon	Tokina	Sigma	Tamron
Exterior	Plastic	Plastic and maybe metal	Plastic and/or metal	Plastic
Finish	Nude textured plastic	Nice black crinkle paint	Nasty flat black sparkle paint	Nude textured plastic
Internals	Metal	Metal	Mostly metal.	Mostly plastic
Mount	Plated brass. Oddly no AI-s or AF-S cutouts which the other lenses still use.	Plated metal. AI-s cutout.	Plated metal. AI-s and AF-S cutouts. Red paint-filled engraved index mark.	Plated metal. AI-s cutout.
S/N	Laser etched into barrel	Impressive deep engraving.	glued-on laser engraved label	glued on printed sticker
Gold Band around front	Inlaid solid dull metal, one gap	Inlaid shiny solid metal, no gap	Shiny foil, one gap, probably glued on.	Silk screened paint

Made in:

	Nikon	Tokina	Sigma	Tamron
Lens	Japan	Japan	Japan	Japan
Caps	Japan	Japan	Japan	Japan
Case		no case	China	no case

Next: Optical Specifications and Performance

Index