Do you remember your first favorite lens? It probably wasn’t the kit lens that came with your camera. It was, most likely, either your first portrait prime, or your first landscape wide-angle zoom, or whatever lens allowed you to truly fall in love with your favorite genre of photography.
Milky Way setting over Mt Whitney Switchbacks illuminated by headlamp, 2014
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX, Nikon D5300 | Click here for our in-depth Milky Way workshop!
Havasu Falls Star Trail | Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX, Nikon D5300
Click here to learn about how to capture a star trail photo like this!
For me, and probably many other landscape and nightscape photographers who first got into digital photography 10-15 years ago, that first lens was the legendary Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX.
It was sharp as a tack, and unlike both the Canon and Nikon name-brand competition, it offered a constant f/2.8 aperture. In fact, the Tokina stood alone among APS-C lenses as the only f/2.8 ultra-wide zoom available, until Tokina themselves released the bigger, wider-range 11-20mm f/2.8 DX. (Click here to read our review of that lens!)
Well, Tokina has now announced their newest APS-C f/2.8 ultra-wide zoom, the 11-16mm f/2.8 ATX-i CF.
It will be available (shipping) starting on November 8th, and will cost a mere $449. That’s a pretty incredible price for such a good optic; despite the age of the optical formula itself, everything else about the lens seems to be extremely modern, from the new design to the glass coatings.
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 atx-i CF Press Release
The Tokina atx-i 11-16mm F2.8 CF is re-designed for an improved user experience and better image quality. The constant F2.8 aperture lens provides excellent edge-to-edge sharpness and resolution. Reduces flare and ghosting, while maintaining excellent contrast and color. A new waterproof top coat also makes it easier to clean.
Great for Gimbal Work Too!
Popular among cinematographers too, because the lens provides a wide cinematic feel, minimized breathing, no edge distortion while panning, and the overall weight and internal focus design makes it an ideal choice for gimbal work.
Advanced Optical Design
The new Tokina atx-i 11-16mm F2.8 CF incorporates a complex optical design, with 13 elements in 11 groups. Using 2 aspherical lenses including a large aspherical P-MO element and 2 all-glass molded Low-Dispersion (SD) elements, the lens effectively suppresses chromatic and spherical aberrations. The front element provides super-low distortion and low light fall-off for straight lines and minimal exposure vignetting. Perfect for architectural, landscape, astrophotographers, and cinematographers.
One-touch Focus Clutch
The One-Touch Focus Clutch Mechanism makes switching from AF to manual focus (MF) simple. While in AF mode the user only needs to snap the focus ring back toward the camera to engage “real” manual focus control. This gives photographers an authentic tactile MF feel with hard stops on either side of the focus range like traditional manual lenses. Additionally, the directional rotation of the focus ring matches the direction of proprietary Nikon and Canon lenses.
Focus Ring Rotation
The directional rotation of the focus ring matches the proprietary direction of Nikon and Canon lenses.
Package components:
Lens body, BH-77B Petal-type Lens hood, front cap, rear cap, multi-language manual, 3-year USA warranty card.
FOCAL LENGTH: 11-16MM
APERTURE RANGE: 2.8-22
OPTICAL CONSTRUCTION: 13 Elements / 11 Groups
ANGLE OF VIEW: 104 – 82°
FILTER SIZE: 77mm
WEIGHT: 1.2 lbs
MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCE: 11.8 IN
APERTURE BLADES: 9
MAGNIFICATION: 1:11.6
FOCUSING TYPE: AF
DIMENSIONS: 84 X 91.7mm (Canon) / 89.2mm (Nikon)
US WARRANTY: EXCLUSIVE 3-YEAR USA WARRANTY
LENS HOOD: BH-77B
If you don’t have a wide-angle zoom for your Canon or Nikon DSLR yet, this one is going to be hard to pass up!
Pre-Order Information
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The funniest thing about the discussion below is that I usually obsess over knowing both grams and pounds for every piece of gear that I ever hold.
For those who are curious, here’s my “one spreadsheet to rule them all: “https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1haC0ojy3dQG_KN3JmuHnjbjsGZwjNafVv4EJd-4P9gU/edit?usp=sharing
28.35, folks, 28.35. I’ve had that number memorized for as long as I can remember. Oh well. Read further at your own risk.
Matt, I got excited to see that there were tons of comments on this article. Then I saw the stupid argument below… I was hoping for some fun nerding about wide angle, great for night-scape, lenses. Oh well, this is the internet I suppose.
But I’m glad Tokina is still doing that. I didn’t really like their 100mm Macro (the only lens I REGRET buying), but I’ve used the older 11-16 and it was really good! Great to see it’s being updated.
I was hoping to read comments about this lens as I inherited one at work. But alas, it’s all about metric vs. US imperial units. Great job everyone! Way to ruin the comments section for this post. If anyone would like to comment on the post topic, please do so. I’m still hoping to learn more about this lens.
Any chance of quoting kilograms in future, just to appease the photographers among the other six and a half billion people on this planet who aren’t from the USA?
I never understood why it was a source of “National Pride” whatever units of measure you use. It’s not like it’s hard to convert between them. It’s just over half a kilogram.
Agreed. So why do people from the USA insist on quoting an antiquated (and ambiguous since there are several variations) system of weights on an international forum that almost nobody else in the world uses or understands any more. Same goes for feet and inches.
Why do people from outside the USA still have royalty who don’t affect the government of their respective countries? As an American, I don’t complain about every single time someone mentions Queen Elizabeth II, and nor should anyone complain if someone uses units of measurement that they happen to not prefer. As long as they’re all objective measurements and can be converted easily, what harm does it do other than irk people’s sense of pride for whatever reason?
Ah. So when you say ‘I never understand why it is a source of National Pride…’ you mean national pride other than your national pride. And when you say American, you mean the one third of Americans from the USA; because the other 600,000,000 use the metric system. And when you say objective measurements, you surely don’t mean the somewhat haphazard and threadbare Libra Pondo hand-me-down system from the Romans.
In the global village of the internet the currency of measurement is metric. Only misplaced national pride would get in the way of you getting on-board with this.
1) I already said I don’t care about which units people use and it’s pedantic and frankly incredibly boring and meaningless to do so.
2) However if I wanted to be pedantic, I would point out that I’m pretty sure that there are more than 600,000 people in Canada and Mexico. Additionally, the USA makes up well over half of the population of North America.
3) I used the actual definition of objective, not whatever definition you’re using. Objective means that 1 kg is always 1kg, 1 lb is always 1 lb. All useful forms of measurement are this way. It has nothing to do with how annoyed you are about the mere existence of a system other than the one you use, as much as you appear to believe that to be the case.
4) I know it’s tempting to equate information with currency, but information can be multiplied infinitely and still retain its value. As such, nothing is lost when it is “converted” to a different “currency.”
I know you just wanted to seem cool by pooh-poohing those silly people who aren’t a part of the Metric System Master Race, but in the end that is about as meaningful as making fun of people based on what kind of food they like to eat.
Seth, my friend, you need to lie down because you are bested and beaten. You just don’t know it.
Ah yes, claiming victory. The tried and true last ditch tactic of someone who realized that their argument is baseless. That way they can avoid any kind of self-realization.
Shut the heck up and use google to figure out the conversion. Pride is a sin.
Justin, I think you have mistaken courtesy/convenience and entitlement. As I said, nobody cares about “national pride”. It’s just a habit to think in ounces and pounds and miles. And, as I’ve said twice now, it’s also a habit for those of us who grew up with those units, to get totally used to roughly converting ounces/pounds/miles into g/kg/km in our heads. You should learn to do the same, instead of complaining about it. Actually, making your brain solve small little math problems like that randomly throughout the day is very healthy for it! Fight memory loss. Play with numbers in your head every once in a while!
Now here’s the thing. Out there, beyond the wide blue yonder, far beyond the end of the street where you live, and even beyond the coastlines and borders of your great nation, everyone, EVERYONE, is using the metric system. It’s just you, Joe Hold-out, that doesn’t want to play nice with the other kids.
Actually. That’s not entirely true, because in the technical world, you are using the metric system too. It’s accurate, consistent and globally understood.
Now, I respect your wish to celebrate your culture, but you see, this website almost undoubtedly aspires to being an international organ. It’s not just speaking to the few people in the world that live in the USA, even though your president says that you are very, very wonderful and beautiful people and each one of you are worth ten, nay, twenty of us poor little foreign folk. But here’s the thing, if this publication is serious about talking to, and being part of, the wider world, your going to have to eat some of that good ol’ down home humble pie and quote measurements in both systems. Just saying.
If anyone had taken the time to read any of our other gear reviews, you’d notice that we almost always include both g/kg and lbs in our specifications. Someone flipped their lid over this one article, and I had a fun time taunting them.
The world runs on USD. Gold is priced by the ounce. MPH is totally common for cars specs.
If you don’t know roughly how 1 lb relates to 1 kg, I can’t be bothered to worry about whether I’ve handed it to you on a silver platter 99% of the time or 100% of the time.
There is no reason to learn to convert. It is a wasted effort just because some Luddite fools are too stupid to learn and understand what the rest of the world does and takes for granted.
The rest of the world drives on the right side of the road, but we don’t call you a luddite for riding on the side of the road that was optimal for knights jousting in the dark ages… ;-)
It’s not the same thing. The original specs were completely metric. Only a Luddite would make an effort to change the numbers to something an extreme minority uses. Learn SI units and use them when communicating with the world. Waste your time with your nonsense in the privacy of your own home, not among the outside world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIikqPmbgvI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExykL5QnXY
I’m just gonna leave this here…
As I said, it goes both ways. As someone who grew up without the metric system, I felt the same way you feel now, whenever I had to quickly take a centimeter or kilometer and think of it in terms of inches or miles. I got pretty used to roughly figuring it out in my head. ;-)
There is no need to convert if all the data is in one system. The original specs from website:
https://tokinalens.com/product/atx_i_11_16mm_f2_8_cf/#specifications
are in metric only, so some Luddite went through the unnecessary steps to change numbers than make the effort to learn what everyone else knows and takes for granted.
1.) Yeah, we try and include inches+mm and lbs+kg in all of our gear reviews. This was just a quick press release update. We’ll try harder next time.
2.) As someone living in the USA, I got pretty used to doing the math in my head the other way, ya know. Just sayin’… 1.2 lbs is LIGHT. (About as lightweight as the old 11-16, of course)
So, why do you need to do the math, so to speak? Aren’t you smart enough to understand the metric values that everyone else does? No wonder the world is passing the US by. There is nothing worse that idiot Luddites that insist on being pampered.