A Carl Zeiss Apo Sonnar 135mm F2.8 lens attached to a Sony mirrorless camera.

Kenko Tokina has announced a new business alliance with Carl Zeiss that will see Kenko Tokina take over sales and repair services for Carl Zeiss products in Japan, including interchangeable photo lenses.

In the announcement, made on Kenko Tokina’s website (translated), the Japanese company says the partnership will start on April 1, 2021. From that point forward, Kenko Tokina will handle the sales and repairs of Carl Zeiss products. We won’t know until April 1 what particular products will be handled by Kenko Tokina, but the announcement does say the partnership excludes commercial cine lenses and accessories from Carl Zeiss.

A render of what Kenko Tokina suggests would’ve been its display area at CP+ 2021, had it not been an online-only event.

In addition to selling both Tokina lenses and Kenko photography accessories, Kenko Tokina is also the distributor for more than a dozen other brands, with products ranging from camera bags to sphygmomanometers. A few familiar brands under Kenko Tokina’s preverbal umbrella include lens manufacturers Lensbaby and Samyang, filter manufacturer Hoya, bag and accessory manufacturer Tamrac, and tripod manufacturer Slik.

At this time, the alliance is limited to the Japan market. We have inquired with Kenko Tokina for further details regarding the partnership.