So my Tokina 12-24mm took a short fall off a tripod which broke the autofocus (seems stuck, the engine still runs but it keeps cycling back and fourth every few millimeters) . i took a look at it but opening it up seemed way too much of a hassle (approached from mount side and got stuck after a while due to some really soft screws) After trying to sell it on second hand for pretty much nothing and getting offers for even less, i said screw it and took another look… ended up disassembling quite a bit of it, even though the problem was so tiny it could be fixed by taking off 4 crews and twisting a bit of metal with pliers…
You would access autofocus from the front, rather the back.. twist off the front matte element (either use your fingers pushed against it or help it a bit with something small and pointy from the highlighted spots) after that, screw off the screws.
If your tokina took a fall on the front edge, its likely that the problem is just a bit of a bent edge, so look if the front metal ring is all straight, if not, bend it back and youre done (apparently even a few mm of offset can make that golden screw/bolt get stuck, which jamms the whole focus clutch thing (normally you would not need to see that part, i just disassembled too much)
If that was not the issue and you are just looking for some photos oh tokina disassembly, youre in luck it took me a lot of effort to actually realize what was wrong so i kept on digging… apparently the way you get things going is just pulling off the rubber rings over the focus and zoom, the focus is held together just by tape, so cut it and replace it later on.
you can pretty much keep on going from there on, it fairly obvious stuff and the screws are all visible… just keep in mind that the screws on this guy are super soft and very stuck… easy to grind off the pattern so be sure to use the correct sized screwdriver ;)
the silver stuff is what mechanically engages the autofocus motor…
putting it back together…
Hello!
Very nice tut! Thanks!
Where can I buy the part #1 in your photos? The first ring? I broke mine…
Thanks!
Did not manage to find a replacement, just glued it together the best I could …
Hi, this might be very helpful to me, but how did you remove the focus ring rubber part,between pic 2 and 3? Mine is bent to, but I need to remove the ring to get to it with pliers. Did you dissasemble from the back too?
as far as i can remember, its rubber so its just stretched over the part… just get your fingernails or something flat under one side of it and peel it down (like a condom i guess? :P)
Hi Joosep & thanks for posting. I am also trying to remove the focus ring set-up (sand under the rings…). I’m confused how to proceed after img 4? The tape has been cut to separate the 2 sections of the focus ring – which screws will release the focus ring mechanism off the front of the lens? Is it the screws (3 of) showing just above the infinity sign in img 5? Must I dismantle from the rear of the lens (camera end) or will the focus ring assembly come off the front of the lens (filter end)? Many thanks!
Thanks man! Finding this on the internet help me repair my tokina wide-angle lens. It was a little bit of a pita to put it back together because of the screws lining up but it works again and isn’t jammed!
Hi, I have a question: do you know what type of screws the lens has in the first ring? (The screws in the first picture, the ones at the arrow with ‘2 remove’). I lost all of mine and I don’t know what size of screws I should buy. I think the screw thread is something like 1.2 mm, but I can’t see how long he must be. Do you maybe know the right sizes?
Thanks in advance!!
I wish there was a answer for this