The Tokina "yellow" ring near the front of the lens is actually gold
colored. It appears on all "AT-X Pro" lenses and some (maybe most) of
the AT-X series. But some AT-X lenses (stubby zooms) don't have any
color ring. I suspect that it is purely a stylistic treatment and the
stubby zooms don't have enough real estate for the color ring. About
all you can say is that a Tokina lens with a gold ring is newer than one
with a red ring.
Current and recent past Tokina lenses and technology definitions can be
found here <http://www.thkphoto.com/products/tokina/index.html> You can
also see that Tokina's present lens lineup consists of only 5 AT-X and
AT-X Pro lenses. Most lenses have been discontinued and you need to
look in the "archive" section. Three of the five remaining lenses are
fairly recently introduced "DX" models for Canon/Nikon only APS-C size
sensor cameras. If you're a little guy like Tokina that's where the
market is today. Too bad for 4/3 and full frame guys. Fortunately for
Tokina, the 12-24/4 AT-X Pro DX has gotten rave reviews and seems to be
selling well as it's on backorder at both Adorama and B&H.
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
>
> The other lovely confusing thing is new optical glasses. Some called
> them ED, Extra low Dsispersion, SD, Super low Dispersion, etc., and
> sometimes indicated their presence with thin color bands on the lenses.
> So most of the AT-X Tokinas have a thin red line near the front, but
> wait a minute, at least two SZ-X series Tokinas are RMC with logo on the
> front ring and have the red ring and SD glass. And there are AT-Xs with
> yellow rings, instead of red, and ... aaaahh.
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