
Take it all in with Tokina’s Cinema ATX 11-20mm PL-mount zoom lens, also available in EF, MFT, Sony E, and Nikon F mounts. I recently took a PL-mount 11-20mm and a Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro out on the relatively wide-open far West Side of Manhattan. The remaining low brick buildings and open lots there are being punctuated by rapidly sprouting high rises, leading to some notable structural contrasts. The footage was shot at 24 fps with a cine-look LUT and is presented ungraded. Covering up to Super 35 sensors, the Cinema ATX 11-20mm produced sharp images suitable for 4K and HD capture.
This alternative to Tokina’s Cinema ATX 11-16mm Mk II zoom provides a longer reach and the versatility of an interchangeable mount. Mount and shim kits are available separately, enabling you to use the same lens with a variety of cameras—an especially handy feature if you want to invest in lenses and will rent different cameras for various jobs. Tokina also offers, as an additional purchasing option, a kit with 0.6, 0.9, and 1.2 PRO IRND filters. We happened to shoot on an overcast, winter day, but the NDs would be a boon for controlling your depth-of-field and shutter-speed options when capturing landscapes and other exteriors.
This relatively compact, ultra-wide zoom ticks all the cine-style boxes with 0.8-mod focus, iris, and zoom gears, bright, easy-to-read focus marks on both sides of the lens barrel, and a 95mm front diameter, which fits many industry-standard matte boxes or adapters. At 2.7 lb, it is relatively lightweight for a cine-style lens and will make a satisfying short zoom, suitable for a gimbal or drone use with a compact camera such as the URSA Mini Pro, ARRI ALEXA Mini, DSLR, or mirrorless camera.
Tokina notes the 11-20mm’s parfocal design—meaning that the focus will hold as you zoom in or out, compared to a varifocal lens where focus needs to be adjusted as you zoom. This hints that this cine-style lens is aimed at still shooters branching out into video capture and at DSLR video shooters who’ve been using varifocal still zoom lenses.
The focus gearing has fluid damping and a generous 300˚ rotation, which enabled me to pull easily from infinity to as close as around 2.5' using a Tilta FF-T03 15mm rod-mounted follow focus. A speed crank would be useful for pulling to the 11-20mm’s close focus of 1'. This relatively short minimum focus enabled me to capture some colorful bokeh from decorative tree lights, not something you would necessarily expect on such a wide lens.
While no lens can capture the Javits Convention Center head-on (well, maybe an anamorphic from an aerial view), the super-width of the 11-20mm covered this glass convention-center behemoth from a diagonal. Even a quickly grabbed handheld pan of a horse head decoration to the street looks smooth with a lens this wide. My shot of an actual horse and buggy was grabbed absolutely on the fly, so it’s not quite as smooth but, even at 20mm, it’s not bad.
Barrel distortion is usually present, to some extent, in any super-wide lens, but the 11-20mm held up nicely at its closer focal lengths, while showing some distortion at its widest. Keep in mind the stills below were captured at T2.9 in a shaded location on an overcast day so, as you stop down in brighter conditions, any distortion will be minimized.
In a nutshell, the Tokina Cinema ATX 11-20mm will make a nice ultra-wide to wide zoom lens for travelogues, establishing shots, drones, and gimbal use. You can also reach for the 11-20mm when choosing to add a little exaggeration to a close-up on a character in a narrative piece. In addition to the cine-style features mentioned above, this lens features a metal housing that will stand up to the rigors of indie-style or ENG use.
Tokina Cinema ATX 11-29mm Zoom
Lens Mount |
ARRI PL, Canon EF, MFT, Nikon F, Sony E |
Focal Length |
11-20mm |
Maximum Aperture |
T2.9 |
Minimum Aperture |
T22 |
Minimum Focus Distance |
1' / 0.3m |
Zoom Ratio |
1.81:1 |
Gear Pitch |
0.8 Mod |
Front Diameter |
3.7" / 95mm |
Maximum Diameter |
3.8" / 97.6mm |
Filter Thread |
86mm |
Length - PL Mount |
3.9" / 99.6mm |
Weight - PL Mount |
2.27 lb / 1.03 kg |
Housing |
Metal |
Leave your comments below and explore other Tokina Cine ATX lenses on the B&H Photo website.
2 Comments
I was looking at the B&H webside for the mount conversion kits mentioned on the article, but could not find any...
The mount and shim kits are listed at this link on our website.
https://bhpho.to/2BlAzCL
Thanks!