TOKINA 11-16mm vs. Duclos Cine Mods

[Gary Britton]

​Hi everyone,

Forgive my ignorance... But,
I was wondering, if we can use the regular Tokina 11-16mm lens on Red cameras or does it HAVE to be the modified version made by Duclos?
I notices many many Red users have one, but was wondering WHICH ONE you all are using?
THANKS!

[paulherrin]

you can use the regular version, however - the duclos version can modify the mount to PL, but the real deal is reworking all the innards for better performance. you can check his site for all the benefits.

[Gary Britton]

Thanks for the reply!

Right... I've see the site,
I have a Canon mount anyway, but, was wondering the REAL distinct advantages to pay over five times the price for the Duclos lens.
doesnt really seem that big a difference to me. (?)

[paulherrin]

depends on what you're using it for...

for me, i'm just fine with the original as of now. if you're used to canon still glass, it'll likely do you just fine - but definitely try it out first.

[Nick Morrison]

This has been pretty well covered on this site.

A) The Duclos version is hand selected glass. He makes sure that what he's "modding" is THE BEST.

-->As many people have noted on these boards, when you are buying mass produced glass (Canon, Tokina, Sigma, Nikon, whatever)...the production standards are not as excruciating as with a $20k Master Prime. Some are sharp, some aren't depending on the batch. Matthew Duclos makes sure his copies are RAZOR.



B) The Duclos version has total CINEMA MECHANICS.

--> this means it has a REAL APERTURE RING, it focuses the right way, has an 80mm front, a FOCUS RING, and is even PL mounted.



Point is....he's ripped this entire thing apart and remade it into a real PL zoom. That's why it costs 5x more, because it takes him a long time to do this. There are very large benefits.


That being said, "optically" if you get a real sharp copy of the Tokina, it should behave similarly, yes.

[Yousuf Abbasi]

Gary-
In other words, if you find a razor sharp Tokina, the optics will be exactly the same. The pricetag comes from the PL mount conversion mostly, although the rebuilt focus/aperture rings are an added benefit in order to make it to "cine standards."

If you have the canon mount and dont feel the need to have the built in focus/aperture rings (you can always put your own focus rings to adapt to FF), then save the cash and go for the regular Tokina. When you actually NEED to have the cinevised version from Duclos, just upgrade then.

[Nick Morrison]

Gary-
In other words, if you find a razor sharp Tokina, the optics will be exactly the same. The pricetag comes from the PL mount conversion mostly, although the rebuilt focus/aperture rings are an added benefit in order to make it to "cine standards."

If you have the canon mount and dont feel the need to have the built in focus/aperture rings (you can always put your own focus rings to adapt to FF), then save the cash and go for the regular Tokina. When you actually NEED to have the cinevised version from Duclos, just upgrade then.

Hey Yousuf, I completely agree with you....

And I know the Duclos 11-16 is much more expensive...but you certainly get what you pay for.

The man works hard for his money!

[Gary Britton]

Thanks Yousuf, Nick and Paul for your advice.
I appreciate it.

[jason dewey]

I agree with Tom, you might get lucky. I own two of the Canon mount versions (used for simultaneous timelapse on DSLRs), and have also used them on my Scarlet. There is a difference between my two - one is softer at the corners at closer to widest zoom range, like between maybe 13mm and 11mm, and is especially noticeable wide open if there is anything close in the foreground. I can definitely agree that they vary from batch to batch. The good one is great, very sharp corner to corner between f4 and f8. I haven't ever used it on the Scarlet stopped down more than f8, so am not sure what it would do, but as with most DSLR lenses they start to lose sharpness beyond 11 or 16 for sure. I've been on the waitlist for a duclos for a few months - for the real benefit of being able to pull focus with a real barrel. Don't expect to be able to pull focus (on the Canon mount version) with moving humans if they're really close to camera and you're at 2.8, the throw is painfully short. But for the money, you cant go wrong with the Canon mount version IF you get a good one. Not like there's a lot of critical focus issues at 11mm anyway! My 2 cents...

[Gabriele Turchi]

maybe dumb question : on a scarlet the tokina 11-16mm CANON (made for 35mm photography ) is the equivalent of what in normal PL world ?

i am used to rent an 18mm PL (zeiss ) , is the tokina 11-16mm CANON on scarlet wider than that 18mm ?

what is the crop ratio between full frame 35mm and scarlet sensor ( so i can calculate the focal length of canon glasses on scarlet)

thanks
g