Originally posted by Douglas_of_Sweden People seams to presume that Pentax went to Tokina to beg them release full frame K mount lenses when Pentax goes full frame. But in the past collaboration more Pentax patented lens designs were released as Canon and Nikon mounted Tokina labeled lenses than the small number of Tokina patented lenses that turned up as Pentax labeled K mount lenses.
So I think it could just as well be so that Pentax on its way to (re)release several new (and old) Pentax patented full frame lenses has gone to Tokina to try to make a similar deal to improve their economy for these lenses. Then we will see some of them appear as Tokina labelled canon/nikon mounted lenses. I know a lot of people have been annoyed by the Tokina re-labelled Pentax lenses that was sold cheaper than the originals, but not in K mount, but somehow Pentax (thought they) made money on that, and they could (think they would) do that again. Remember, when the Tokina-Pentax lens collaboration was discussed (extensively) before, it was pointed out that Tokina's own R&D capacity is fairly small, much smaller than for example Sigma, smaller than Pentax, and that obviously explained why Tokina saw it as a fine deal to release Pentax designs for Canon and Nikon.
Indeed let us have a look at
Tokina's portfolio of 24x36 lenses; one finds therein:
- a
100mm f/2.8 macro which exists as D-FA WR in the Pentax line-up
- two wide angle zooms,
16-28mm f/2.8 and
17-35 mm f/4
- a
70-200 mm f/4 VCM-S, featuring both ring-type ultrasonic autofocus motor (VCM = Voice Coil Motor) and optical image stabilisation, a mock-up of which was presented at CP+ 2012 and a prototype at CP+ 2013, no information on pricing and availability being available yet
and that's it.
If Pentax is to team up with Tokina, it will be to spread the costs of Pentax R&D over a bigger sales forecast rather than to take advantage of a complete range of lenses available off-the shelf.