Last Updated on 04/11/2018 by Mark Beckenbach
Tokina’s 20mm AF lens will be much cheaper than initially anticipated
We have known about the Tokina FiRIN 20mm f2 since it was announced back at CP+, but until now we did not know what the timetable for US availability of the lens would be, nor it’s price tag. Initial guesstimates, based on the official Japanese yen price, had placed the FiRIN 20mm at around $1,300 US, but the official announcement from Tokina shows that was completely inaccurate, and the official US pricing will actually be much more affordable.
The Tokina FiRIN 20mm f2, for those who need a refresher, is the successor to the previous Tokina FiRIN 20mm, which was a manual focus-only lens for the Sony FE system. This upgraded model is basically identical optically, only Tokina switched out the manual focus mechanism for an AF mechanism. It sounds like a minor change when you look at it on a list of specs, but as you all know, the difference between an MF-only lens and an AF lens is not a small thing. This change opens up the lens to a whole new audience of photographers who won’t even consider a lens if it doesn’t have autofocus.
The original Tokina 20mm FiRIN lens hit the US market at $799, and it appears that, according to Tokina, the price of the AF-upgrade will be roughly $150. The US pricing on the new Tokina FiRIN 20mm f2 AF will be $949. This will probably annoy those who already bought the MF 20mm FiRIN lens, given the price is just a little more. But for those who had maybe been considering the manual focus version, this would be a nice bit of news knowing that for just $150 more they could get their hands on the AF version and not have to wonder if they will miss shots using the MF lens.
The lens is expected to be released sometime around April 20th, 2018. For more in-depth details on this lens head on over to our announcement coverage of the lens, here. If it’s anything like the original version, then it’s going to be sweet. Trust us, we reviewed it.