After a period of rumors and lens leaks, Kenko Tokina, a leading manufacturer of premium camera accessories, has finally officially launched a brand new line of mirrorless lenses carrying the ‘atx-m’ tag.
The optical gear manufacturer debuted its ‘atx-m’ series of mirrorless lenses with the release of the Tokina atx-m 85mm f/1.8 FE lens. It is an affordable 85mm f/1.8 E-Mount lens that Tokina has developed specifically for Sony full-frame mirrorless camera systems.
This is a totally freshly developed medium format telephoto prime lens from Tokina featuring the popular choice 85mm focal length along with a fast f/1.8 aperture. This new lens boasts excellent specs that make it suitable for a wide variety of shooting styles and conditions. It works for landscape and street photographers as well as for taking portraits and close-up shots.
Tokina has said that the new ‘atx-m’ mirrorless lens series will include several lens designs for “multiple mounts and sensor formats.”
Kenko Tokina USA President, Yuji Matsumoto, expressed their excitement about the new lens series. He added that the atx-m lens series will address the needs of photographers in the continuously expanding mirrorless camera user base through various camera mounts and sensor sizes.
Features and Specs of the Tokina atx-m 85mm f/1.8 FE
The new atx-m 85mm f/1.8 FE lens features a fine design with top-grade optics in a semi-satin black anodized metal barrel housing. Weighing 645 grams, it has a full-frame sensor, a 72mm filter, and a fast f/1.8 aperture that produces beautiful bokeh.
It features an optical construction comprising of ten elements arranged in seven groups, among which is one low-dispersion (SD) element. With the optical components of this particular lens, you are correct to expect that it delivers edge-to-edge sharpness, premium control of chromatic aberration, and all-round excellent image resolution.
For focusing, this Tokina atx-m 85mm f/1.8 lens features an “all-metal focus unit” that is driven by the Tokina ST-M focus motor tech that moves the unit using “high-quality lubricants.” This should mean that the new lens will deliver really “smooth, tactile” manual focus as well as fast, quiet autofocus.
The Tokina atx-m 85mm f/1.8 FE lens comes with the company’s Super Low Reflection Multi-coating. This coating was used throughout the lens and Tokina claims that it will provide “natural color and excellent contrast.” The coating is also said to have superior water, oil, and dust repellent properties which the company expects will help the lens to keep out impurities.
Furthermore, the company stated that “Sony-licensed specifications” were followed in the design of this new atx-m 85mm f/1.8 FE lens. It has complete compatibility with the Fast Hybrid AF system and all AF function settings. This would mean that that it’ll work like any proprietary E-mount AF lens on any Sony full-frame mirrorless camera.
It allows you to fine-tune manual focus adjustments and supports Real-time Eye AF, Face/Eye Priority AF, 5-axis in-body image stabilization, MF assist, and electronic distance scale as well as all other important features and Sony’s AF modes when mounted to an E-mount camera like the Sony a7R IV
You can view some sample images on the Tokina product page.
Availability and Pricing
You can pre-order the Tokina atx-m 85mm f/1.8 FE now. However, actual sales will begin around the world on February 7th at a retail price of $500.
Tokina Publishes Compatibility Notice for Nikon Z Users
Tokina has issued a compatibility notice for owners of Nikon Z-series cameras. It is to notify them of some problems the company came across during a thorough functionality test to determine how its F-mount lenses will perform when used on Nikon Z-series cameras via Nikon’s FTZ adapter.
The company discovered that four of its lenses lose autofocus functionality when used with Nikon’s FTZ adapter. Also, the autofocus of one other lens becomes slightly slower when used with the adapter.
The Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D, Tokina AT-X 107 AF DX NH Fisheye, and Tokina AT-X 107 AF DX Fisheye lenses lose their autofocus functionality because of the mount adapter FTZ specifications. The Tokina Opera 50mm f/1.4 FF records a slower AF speed while Tokina AT-X 70–200mm f/4 FX VCM-S reports AF communication error. However, these lenses function normally in manual focus mode.
