Today Tokina has announced a “new” SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF Lens that adopts a catadioptric type optical design with a constant F8 aperture. The lens offers a compact alternative to the standard telephoto lenses as more and more photographers are looking for easy-to-carry gear. The 400mm F8 Reflex Manual Focus lens is designed with active travel photographers in mind, seeking outdoor landscape, wild nature, or birds/wildlife by providing a compact and lightweight lens to be rediscovered in the new era of also compact but high-tech mirrorless cameras.
Highlighted Features
- Extremely compact and lightweight super tele lens
- Macro shooting with 1:2.5 magnification
- Specific donut-shaped and super smooth bokeh
- Easy and precise focusing
- Super compression effect
- Versatile mount system for 5 camera mounts including 3 mirrorless mounts
Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF adopts 0.75mm pitch and 42mm thread mount standard, which allows this lens to be attached to any camera by using different mount adapters.
Technical Specifications
- Type Tele Prime
- Sensor Size Full Frame
- Mount Canon EF, Micro 4/3, Nikon F, Sony E, T-mount
- Focal Length 400mm
- Maximum Aperture f/8
- Minimum Aperture f/8
- Angle of View 6°8′
- Minimum Focusing Distance 1.15m
- Macro Ratio 1:2.5
- Focusing Mode Manual
- Manual Focusing Ring Yes
- Filter Size 67mm
- Coating Multi-coating
- Construction E/G 6 Elements in 5 Groups
- Lens Hood BH-673 (screw type)
- Dimensions 74×77 mm
- Weight 355g
Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF Can Be Purchased Alone or in several Kit Packages:
- Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF (w/o mount adapter included)
- Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF to fit Nikon F (with mount adapter included)
- Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF to fit Canon EF (with mount adapter included)
- Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF to fit Sony E (with mount adapter included)
- Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF to fit Fujifilm X (with mount adapter included)
- Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF to fit Micro 4/3 (with mount adapter included)
Mount adapters can be also purchased separately:
- Tokina Mount Adapter TA-011 for Nikon F
- Tokina Mount Adapter TA-012 for Canon EF
- Tokina Mount Adapter TA-013 for Sony E
- Tokina Mount Adapter TA-014 for Fujifilm X
- Tokina Mount Adapter TA-015 for Micro 4/3
Pricing & Availability
We don’t currently have any pricing information but we do know that sales for this lens will start on August 7, 2020 and should be available from the usual sources below.
Adorama | B&H | Amazon | Tokina
Final Thoughts
This system seems like it could be pretty fun, in the “Everything old is new again” sense, and it’ll be interesting to see how good it truly holds up in some real-world testing on the new camera bodies out there. We’ve already put in a direct request to test this lens, so stay tuned for our full review once this guy is available and we’ve been able to go hands-on. Until then, let us know what you think in the comments below, and any questions or thoughts you want to see covered in the review.
Read the Full 400mm f/8 SZX Press Release and Product Details Below;
About The SZX Series
Back in 1980s Tokina shocked the camera market by releasing two epoch-making lenses – SZ-X 210 (70-210mm f/4-5.6) and SZ-X 270 (28-70mm f/3.5-4.5). Common characteristics that can be applied to those 2 lenses are, by no doubt, extremely compact and extremely lightweight body compared to other zoom lenses of equal focal length. Tokina was the first lens manufacturer that succeeded in developing tele and standard zoom lenses with such valuable advantages for the photographers.
- S – Satisfaction
- Z – Zest
- X – Something unknown or exciting
Giving our respect to Tokina engineers of that time we decided to give a new birth to this legendary series by developing and offering a range of exciting products with specific features and valuable advantages Tokina never produced before.
Borrowing the abbreviation of the legendary Tokina SZ-X series (80s-90s) we aim to provide satisfaction to the photographer through our passion and enthusiasm as an optical manufacturer.
Optical Performance
Long 400mm focal length of Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF while being such a compact and lightweight is realized thanks to catadioptric optical design.
Mirror lenses are telephoto lenses that incorporate a combination of 3 lenses silvered on the outside of the glass to reflect light back and forth between the ends of the lens. This structure folds the light cutting the tube length in half. In this way, the construction makes the physical size of the lens around a third of the size of a conventional lens and allows a lightweight body, because the mirrors are much lighter than the optical glass.
Rediscovering Reflex Lens with Mirrorless Cameras
Reflex type of lenses are used to be considered as out of fashion, inconvenient gear due to fixed aperture, manual focusing, and absence of image stabilization. We suggest to rediscover all advantages of reflex type lenses again, by using it with contemporary mirrorless cameras.
Easy to focus
Focus assist functions like focus peaking will help to find the sharpest focus point.
Less shaking
In-build multi-axis advanced image stabilization systems of mirrorless cameras will make you forget about blurred images due to hand-shaking.
No slow shutter any more
Newest mirrorless cameras featuring advanced wide ISO settings can offer photographers choosing faster shutter speed with minimum pixel noises on the image.
Main Features
Compact and lightweight
Featuring 400mm focal length lens and weight only 340g (without mount adapter) Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF can be easily carried inside a pocket or small bag. For travel photographers who tend to seek for lightweight gear, this feature is highly valuable.
Optics
Lens elements inside the lens are coated with multi-layer anti-reflection coating for effective light intake and as a result, for increasing shutter speed in low light conditions.
Mirrored surfaces of the lens elements incorporate high-reflectivity silvered coating and a protective antioxidant layer on the backside for a longer product lifetime.
Macro shooting
The field of view is 6°8′ (by frame diagonal) and min. focusing distance is 1.15m. It gives magnification 1:2.5 to capture an object with size 6x9cm on full-frame. These properties help the photographer to avoid shadows while shooting close up images.
Specific bokeh
The optical construction of the lens creates specific donut-shaped and super smooth bokeh that finds support among many artistic photographers.
Easy and precise focusing
Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF is equipped with a wide and excellent grip focus ring that provides smooth rotation range 270°. Precise focusing could not be easier. Thanks to high quality processed metal parts and assembling process focus ring rotates smoothly even in low-temperature environments giving no chance for dust to be sucked inside the lens.
Super compression
Thanks to its long focal length Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF can create images with super compression effect, when the background looks close and enlarged compared to the main object. This effect adds to the image enchanting atmosphere.
Hood and filters
Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF comes with a hood and supports 67mm filters. That allows the photographer to use any creative filter to enhance the impact.
Versatile mount system
Tokina SZX SUPER TELE 400mm F8 Reflex MF adopts a T-mount standard (pitch 0.75mm, thread 42mm), that allows this lens to be attached to any camera by using mount adapters.
