Following various photography forums, it has become apparent that people have many widely held misunderstandings regarding the co-operation and ownership between Hoya, Tokina, Pentax and to some extent Tamron.
The reason that so many people get confused about the relations between these companies is simple: the companies have co-operated with each other on lens design and manufacturing. Here are a few misconceptions that seem to surface regularily:
Schneider makes Samsung glass
People seem to believe that Samsung could very well go on to develop a DSLR without Pentax, after all they know electronics and they can have Schneider manufacture glass for them.
Indeed, the Samsung glass holds the valuable Schneider Kreuznach branding. S-K is a traditional optics maker and held in high esteem – indeed they do make glass to this day. But not for Samsung (they are best known as manufacturers of high quality large format lenses, enlarger lens and photographic loupes).
As many others (e.g. Carl Zeiss), they license their name for camera manufacturers whose optics fill a certain minimum requirements. All the Schneider branded glass from Samsung is actually Pentax manufactured – with the notable exception of glass that Pentax licenses from other manufacturers (see below).
Hoya owns Tokina (updated)
For some reason this topic has come up a lot lately. I have to state, that I do not have any information that one would not find online, and this is just my best guess about the state of the companies’ intertanglings. The issue is muddled by a quote in an article in Photography blog, saying quite simply that Hoya would own Tokina: “Hoya aren’t planning to sell the lens-maker Tokina, which they also own´´. One has to wonder if they know more than I do (quite possible).
I still believe Hoya does not own Tokina. Hoya supplies glass for Tokina (as it does to many other lens manufacturers) and they share a supplier in the US, THK Photo Products Inc. THK stands for Tokina, Hoya, Kenko as the company is a distributor of each of the companies’ products. Relations between these US distributes DOES NOT suffice as proof of any of the companies owning each other. THK is described as follows: “Having Tokina Optical Corporation as its core, a successful merge with Kenko Optics of America took place in June of 1993´´. In addition, Kenko seems to be a distributor of Tokina in Japan.
So Tokina and Kenko seem to be clearly tangled, but so far nothing seems to point to Hoya owning Tokina. If you search the Hoya website, you will find no mention of Tokina, and the Hoya Corporation Global Network doesn’t mention them either. Pentax is there as one would assume.
In their own web site, Tokina says the following: “Through a close collaboration with Hoya Corporation…´´.
Tamron manuctures the Pentax glass
Pentax has recently co-operated with Tamron on the 18-250/3.5-6.3 lens. I am not privy to the exact details of the deal, but either (most probably) the lenses are manufactured by Tamron and only branded Pentax or Pentax has licensed the design from Tamron (less probable). In all likelihood the lenses do not even differ in their coatings (even though the Pentax 18-250/3.5-6.3 is marketed as having SMC – Super Multi Coating).
This is not even anything new. Back in the nineties, there was a similiar co-operation on a 28-200 lens. It never ceases to amaze me how many people can take this co-operation on a single lens and draw these ridiculous conclusions like “Tamron manufactures the Pentax glass´´is beyond my comprehension.
Tokina manufactures the Pentax glass
Now, if co-operation on a single lens can make people spout crap like that, then you can probably guess that there are quite some people who have no idea about the nature of the Pentax – Tokina co-operation.
Very often non-Pentax shooting photographers will jump to the “logical´´ conclusion that because all the fine Tokina glass they have available for their brands is available for Pentax under the Pentax brand, that Pentax does not manufacture glass but just licenses them from Tokina.
From the amount of similiar glass available under Pentax and Tokina brands, it is obvious that something – a co-operation of some kind – is going on. In my mind, it is a lot more logical to assume that the nearly 90-year old optics giant that invented the SLR might be behind the quality glass. But lets take a closer look at the reality.
The Pentax – Tokina connection
As far as I know, the connection is simply mutual agreement for sharing lens design between the companies. Pentax does not manufacture Tokina glass, or at least Tokina does not manufacture Pentax glass. The companies share the design, the optical formulas between the lenses.
That is how you can end up with Pentax DA* 16-50/2.8 and Tokina 16-50/2.8. This also explains why the Pentax lens is more expensive: it was manufactured by Pentax as a weather sealed lens with SDM motor (Pentax equivalent of Sigma HSM, Canon USM, Olympus SWM, etc.) This annoys some people who would rather take the less featured Tokina version for a cheaper price – but due to the agreement, Tokina does not manufacture glass for the Pentax PK-mount.
Who designs what
Even when presented with this fact, many people persist in arguing that Pentax only manufactures glass according to Tokina’s specification. As far as I can tell, it is a mutual sharing of lens design with each party manufacturing their own glass. Below I’ve listed some Tokina / Pentax lenses and to the best of my knowledge, the party who designed the lens. Where I had the information quickly available, I’ve also provided a link to the patent information, which makes it abdundantly clear, who designed the lens (Pentax).
Tokina AT-X 124 / smc P-DA 12-24mm F4.0
Designed by Tokina, the Pentax version manufactured by Pentax also available from Samsung as D-Xenon 12-24mm (manufactured again, by Pentax)
Tokina AT-X 107 / smc P-DA Fish-Eye 10-17 F3.5-4.5
Designed by Pentax, manufactured for Pentax and Samsung (as D-Xenogon) by Pentax.
Tokina AT-X M100 / smc P-D FA 100mm F2.8 Macro
Designed by Pentax.
Tokina AT-X 535 Pro DX / smc DA* 50-135mm F2.8
Tokina AT-X 165 Pro DX / smc DA* 16-50mm F2.8
So to recap: Pentax 18-250: Tamron rebadge (manufactured by Tamron). Pentax and Tokina share designs, sometimes designed by Tokina, other times by Pentax, manufactured by each party for themselves. Hoya owns Pentax, doesn’t own Tokina. Simple?
Tags: design, hoya, lens, patent, pentax, samsung, tamron, tokina
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on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 8.15 am and is filed under Pentax.
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Well I have just purchased a Hoya UV filter, and on the back it says “Made by Tokina Co,Ltd”.. Hardly a proof of anything, but it would seem that Tokina manufactures this glass for Hoya.
Comment by nicolasconnault — 2008-11-15 @ 11.52 am