Authorized DealerWikipedia: Tokina Co., Ltd. (株式会社トキナー Kabushiki-gaisha Tokinā?) is a Japanese manufacturer of
photographic lenses and CCTV security equipment.
Tokina has become a partner of Pentax, a division of Ricoh, and have agreed to jointly develop some lenses. These will be available under the Pentax brand in Pentax K mount and under the Tokina brand for all other lens mounts. However, the research center, design and engineering teams of these two companies are completely independent.
The co-developed lenses share main optical designs but have different
barrel structures and coatings. They also have some other different
features. For example, the Tokina AT-X Pro 12-24mm II comes with
built-in silent focusing motor, while the Pentax version has screwdrive
autofocus. Another example is that Tokina AT-X Pro 16-50mm and 50-135mm
have only screw-drive autofocus and no weather-sealing, but Pentax
versions have both features.
Another difference is the procedure for switching between manual
focus and auto-focus. With Tokina's "One-touch Focus Clutch Mechanism",
you move the focus ring forward to enter auto-focus mode, and backward
to enter manual-focus mode. With Pentax's "Quick-Shift Focus System",
introduced in early 2004 with the DA 16-45mm f/4.0, you just rotate the
manual focus ring while staying in auto-focus mode. Sigma and Nikon now
have systems similar to Tokina and Pentax, respectively.
As of March 2009, the six lenses co-developed and released in both
Tokina and Pentax versions are the AT-X Pro 12-24mm f/4.0, AT-X Pro
16-50mm f/2.8, AT-X Pro 50-135mm f/2.8, AT-X 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye,
AT-X Pro 100mm /2.8 macro, and AT-X Pro 35mm f/2.8 macro. The last
Tokina lens released before the collaboration was the 28-70mm f/2.8, in
2002. The currently available Tokina own-designed lenses are the 11-16mm
f/2.8, 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6, 16.5-135mm f/3.5-5.6 and 28-80mm f/2.8.
s of February 2010, Tokina started production on its first Sony Alpha-mount lens, the AT-X 116 Pro DX 11–16 mm f/2.8.
