16Apr Tokina 11-16mm Cinema Lens

When I walked by the Tokina booth at NAB, they had this prominently displayed out front. A Canon 5d mark III with the prototype 11-16mm attached. My first question was “Are you making a full frame version of this lens?”, I got an ashamed looking “No.” from the rep working at the booth. He went on to explain that their shipping department only sent out 5d bodies for their booth and he was forced to use that as the demo unit.

People have been paying a great deal of money to get the original Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lens “cine modded“. It appears Tokina plans to save you some money (about $1500) by offering their own Cinema version of this very popular lens. After speaking with rep it sounds like they plan to have a PL and EOS mount released sometime this year with a target price of around $1999.

Basically this “Cinema” version will have all of the electronics stripped out, declicked aperture ring, distance markings, and built in gears for focus, zoom, and aperture. I asked the rep why the new Cinema version would be $1500 more than the original Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 and he explained that it was a much smaller, and production runs would be limited. He also said that the gearing and bearings are a completely new design from the original lens which apparently makes the focusing ring much more precise.

You can have the Cinema version for $2000 or you can stick with the original Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 for around $550. I think a lot of people we be more than happy to save the $1450 for other kit, but if you have the budget it’s a cheaper alternative to the cine modded.

Tags: Tokina 11-16mm Cinema Lens