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Tokina Lenses for 2006

by Bob Atkins; created 2006

At a recent trade show in Tokyo (Photo Imaging Expo 2006) Tokina announced plans to release four new lenses in the fall of 2006. They are:

  • A 10-17/3.5-4.5 DX fisheye zoom
  • A 16-50/2.8 DX
  • A 17-135/3/5-5.6 DX
  • A 50-135/2.8 DX

Note that these are all "DX" lenses, meaning that they are designed for coverage of APS-C sized digital sensors and are not compatible with full frame cameras (film or digital) without significant vignetting.

The original press release is in Japanese ( http://www.tokina.co.jp/news/pie2006news.html) so I'm depending on a machine translation into English for the few details that were given. It seems that these lenses may be the result of a new collaboration between Pentax and Tokina. Since Pentax already has a 10-17 fisheye zoom for their APS-C DSLRs, this seems reasonable!

There is no word on price, or on exactly when or in which countries these lenses will be released or which camera mounts will be supported, though I'd assume that Canon, Nikon and Pentax will be, and possibly Konica-Minolta/Sony. However the press release does indicate that Tokina hopes to release them sometime in the Fall of 2006.

Tokina 10-17 The 10-17/3.5-4.5 DX fisheye zoom is pretty unusual, though as I mentioned above, Pentax already have such a lens available. At 10mm it should have a diagonal field of view of 180 degrees (like a 15 or 16mm fisheye does on a full frame camera).


Tokina 16-50/2.8 The 16-50/2.8 DX falls into the same category as the Canon EF-S 17-55/2.8, the Tamron 17-50/2.8 and the Sigma 18-50/2.8. They are all approximate analogs of a 28-80/2.8 lens on a full frame camera.

 
Tokina 17-135 The 17-135mm F3.5-5.6 DX  is a little more conventional and corresponds to a 28-200mm zoom for a full frame camera. Sigma have a similar lens, the 18-125/3.5-5.6 but this Tokina lens covers a slightly wider zoom range.

 
Tokina 50-135/2.8 The Tokina 50-135mm F2.8 DX corresponds to 80-216mm in terms of 35mm equivalent angular coverage on a Canon APS-C DSLR, which I guess makes it somewhat similar to the 70-200/2.8 and 80-200/2.8 full frame lenses in terms of photographic applications From the image it looks like it has a built-in rotating tripod collar. There are currently no other similar lenses from other manufacturers with this zoom range and speed, so it's a pretty interesting offering

© 2006 Bob Atkins (www.bobatkins.com)

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Yi Chen , June 04, 2006; 02:11 P.M.

Any idea when these lenses will be on market? I am interested in the 10-17/3.5-4.5 DX, since its range works well with my 17-55/2.8. Yi

Roman Foxman , July 07, 2006; 05:10 P.M.

"The 16-50/2.8 DX falls into the same category as the Canon EF-S 17-55/2.8, the Tamron 17-50/2.8 and the Sigma 18-50/2.8."

Not sure if this is a Canon-specific article. If not, there is also Nikon's 17-55mm 2.8 worth mentioning.

Chris Amos , August 24, 2006; 09:25 P.M.

If these lenses measure up to the same quality we've seen in Tokina's 12-24mm f/4, I think these will make great 3rd party offerings! The fast apertures in the DX format will bring back the extra-blurry backgrounds there on full size 35mm :-D. The 16-50 and the 50-135 look very intriguing. I read somewhere that speculation is that the fisheye and the f/2.8's will land around the $500 mark.

Ivan Verschoote , September 19, 2006; 08:33 A.M.

10-17 in september, 50-135 in october and 16-50 in november

Graham Down , October 21, 2006; 07:29 P.M.

According to the Tokina website the 10-17 id full frame... Bob what do you think of them apples? 10-17, 17-40 28-70 and 70-200 Woo hoo!

If anyone is in for some input any thoughts on the following?

Went into Camera underwater in London to find out more info and have come to three decisions:

1>Fuji F30 with Underwater case: ?380 >Wide Angle adapter:v ?50 >Wide angle x.51 lens: ?200 >Eopque Underwater flash: ?200 >Fuji 2GB card: ?45 Total: ?900 Total when flooded: ?902 (2 panadol)

2>Ikelite housing for 5D: ?985 >Ikelite 8" dome port for 10-17 ?225 >Ikelite "The mother" flash ?975 Total: ?2100 Total when flooded: ?4600 (plus funeral following suicide) Then wife would kill me for buying, and then burn my corpse for flooding it! so thats out of the question, but tantalizingly close!

3>Hasselblad xpan with 45mm lens (2nd hand): ?1000 >Hasselblad xpan 90mm lens: ?400 Total: ?1400 Use Underwater video housing, I already have!

So there you have it, anyone got some thoughts as to what to buy?

Regards G

Graham Down , October 27, 2006; 04:44 P.M.

Soory re above: the tokian projects a full image circle, its a dx lens: not full fram. Bugger! sorry again

cheers G

Joseph McCusker , November 11, 2006; 10:40 P.M.

This 10-17 is now listed on Adorama's site but not available yet:

http://www.adorama.com/TN1017EOS.html

Price is $559.95.

Lasse Lehtinen , November 12, 2006; 04:26 P.M.

A Tokina representative stated that shipments in Europe would begin in early 2007. We have it listed here in Finland for ~500€

Dave L , February 06, 2007; 01:14 P.M.

The most recent word I could find from an updated Tokina October 2006 press release is that the Tokina 16-50 lens will be released in February 2007 - at least in Japan (with Nikon and Canon mounts). http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.tokina.co.jp/news/4961607atx165news.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D16-50%2Bsite:http://www.tokina.co.jp%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DWZPA,WZPA:2005-39,WZPA:en

Bill Ferreira , February 09, 2007; 01:53 A.M.

Roman,

The Nikon 17-55, disappointingly, is really an 18 (well, around 17.7) to 55 which results in about a 27mm equivalent at the wide end. If the Tokina is really a 16-50, then it will be equivalent to 24mm which is significantly wider. The 24-xxx lenses in Nikon's full frame lineup are their most popular lenses so it has seem strange that Nikon APS zooms have started at 27-28mm equivalent at the wide end. Just goes to show that even Nikon is occasionally asleep at the controls.

Bill


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