Tokina’s Gateway to Cinema: The 11-16mm

Tokina’s Gateway to Cinema: The 11-16mm

I’ve written about the Tokina 11-16mm many, many times. In fact, I was temporarily banned from REDUser years ago for backhandedly plugging the Duclos 11-16mm conversion – breaking the rules of the forum. I’ve since cleaned up my act (sort of). I speak often of the Duclos 11-16mm, and when I do, I always give credit to Tokina for making such a great product. I wanted to take a post here and acknowledge the original lens, it’s heritage, influence, and evolution over the past (nearly) decade.  Continue reading “Tokina’s Gateway to Cinema: The 11-16mm”

Duclos Lenses Forges One-of-a-Kind 11-16mm

IMG_0270-0We’ve had a good deal of success with our 11-16mm conversion. So much that there have been at least half a dozen copy-cats, including Tokina themselves. Let me be clear about this – I’m well aware that Tokina was the first and only organization to make the glass itself and there wouldn’t be any conversion without them – to which I’m very grateful and respectful. What you see here is in fact a 24 Karat Gold Duclos 11-16mm. You’re probably shaking your head thinking, why… why would you do that? Well… Continue reading “Duclos Lenses Forges One-of-a-Kind 11-16mm”

Duclos 11-16mm Nikon-F Mount

Duclos 11-16mm Nikon-F Mount

We’ve been building our 11-16mm lenses as quick as we can while still maintaining the highest quality standards we can. We’ve received great feedback from a lot of satisfied customers and look forward to continuing to fill orders. There are quite a few back-orders still but rest assured, we are working diligently to fill orders as quickly as possible. This particular photo is our Nikon-F mount model. We offer the lens in PL, Nikon-F, and Canon-EF. Such a versatile little beauty. 🙂

Duclos 11-16mm Plays Nice With Sony F3

The infinitely knowledgeable Jason Wingrove sent me a snap shot of a Duclos Lenses 11-16mm on a brand new Sony F3 camera. If you haven’t heard of Jason Wingrove or a Sony F3, you need to spend some more time on the interwebs because they are both a staple in the motion picture industry. Jason was able to shoot with one of three Sony F3 cameras in the world at the time. He notes that the camera is very light which makes lens selection in regards to weight critical. Looks like the Sony F3 and the 11-16mm are a match made in heaven. By the way.. If you haven’t listened to Jason’s Red Centre Podcast along with Mike Seymour you’re missing out. Thanks to  Nathan Rodger for snapping the photos on location. Now if I can just get my hands on one of them Japanese moving picture things…

Photos by Nathan Rodger http://www.nathanrodger.com

Continue reading “Duclos 11-16mm Plays Nice With Sony F3”

Manual 11-16mm with Nikon F mount.

With the success of the PL mount manual 11-16mm, I decided to explore other options. It seems that there aren’t many good candidates for cine conversion out there. We made a hand full of PL mount Nikon 80-200mm lenses with the usual bells and whistles. But nothing that could keep up with our Tokina conversion.
Along the way I learned that many people had switched from PL to the Nikon mount on their RED camera to save money on glass. This is great because we also customize the Zeiss ZF lenses that are Nikon mount, but it left our available lens lineup a bit confused in regards to mounting options.


Many of our potential 11-16mm customers had already switched to Nikon mount, making our PL lens useless. I thought it would be great if I could offer a Nikon F mount version to those who still loved their Nikon glass and didn’t want to switch mounts frequently. The 11-16mm Tokina comes from the factory in a Nikon mount, but there is still no aperture control. With the complete cine-conversion, the aperture is activated and all the controls are manual, but now with a Nikon F mount. Perfect!

Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two Video

I was invited to the Los Angeles Harbor, for Ken Block’s newest viral video to try out a lens I’ve been working on. The day I went was a “pick-up” day with only a skeleton crew. About 15 people total shooting scenes that needed to be redone or added for one reason or another. Jay Schweitzer was there with his RED camera waiting to slap on a nice wide angle lens for some specific shots. Mayhem ensued as one would expect with Ken Block behind the wheel of a fully tuned Subaru WRX STi.  Check out the video…

Continue reading “Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two Video”