Tokina were showing a working version of the Tokina 18mm T1.5 Vista Cinema Prime lens at IBC this year. The lens is one of the fastest wide angle full frame cinema lenses in the world.
Faster, wider
The lens features three spherical elements and size-wise it is significantly larger than the other Vista series lenses. Making a lens that is this wide and this fast, with virtually no focus breathing, that covers an image circle of φ46.7mm is quite an engineering feat.
The working version of the lens at IBC was not the final product, and was still very much in prototype form. Tokina told me that they are still working on improving the final optical design.
Tokina 18mm price and availability
The 18mm joins the soon-to-be-released 25mm, and the already available 35, 50 and 85mm T1.5 lenses. The retail price for the 25mm is expected to be around $6,000 US. The 18mm is expected to be available in January 2018 but pricing is still not fixed.
