Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

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Archive 2009 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

DubiousDrewski
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p.7 #1 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

That's actually not bad at f11. That's not where I'm going to use this lens. But not bad, considering what this lens was designed to do.

Nov 15, 2009 at 08:35 AM

AbramG
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p.7 #2 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

I'm pretty much sold. I'm going to be selling a few lenses (including my 85 f/1.8) pretty soon so I can buy another 50L, but I think I will also pickup this 85 for portraiture.

Thank you so much everyone for doing all the testing!

PS - Have we come to a conclusion that yes these are all the same and the vivitar is only more expensive because of "name" and difference of body materials?

Nov 17, 2009 at 06:07 PM

Valorin
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p.7 #3 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Thanks for the stopped down samples, they don't look too bad, but noticeably inferior to the Zeiss Sonnar. My Planar should be close to the Sonnar I assume, if I remember some tests done on FM in the past.

Nov 17, 2009 at 06:12 PM

Makten
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p.7 #4 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

DubiousDrewski wrote:
Unlike nearly all lenses out there, this lens actually decreases in image quality the more you stop down from f1.4.

That's just rubbish. The IQ increases upon stopping down, but not as much as with many other similar lenses. Peak performance in the middle seems to be at f/5.6 on 12 mpix FF. For the corners, further stopping down to f/11 is needed to reach best performance.

Nov 17, 2009 at 06:27 PM

cogitech
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p.7 #5 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

AbramG wrote:

PS - Have we come to a conclusion that yes these are all the same and the vivitar is only more expensive because of "name" and difference of body materials?

I have. What is the "Vivitar" name worth anyway? They never actually made any lenses, but owe all of their success to the likes of Kiron, Komine, Tokina, etc.

It is important to note that the Samyang, Falcon and Polar (and Vivitar, of course) are all about $100 more than the Rokinon, Opteka... and they all look identical (except for the Vivitar). The pricing is irrelevant and no reflection at all on the quality of the respective lenses. It is just a way for shops to market a product and not have to compete directly with each other. Much in the same way that some GE, LG, Samsung and Maytag dryers are exactly the same, but priced differently and sold at different stores.

Nov 17, 2009 at 06:46 PM

cogitech
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p.7 #6 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Makten wrote:
DubiousDrewski wrote:
Unlike nearly all lenses out there, this lens actually decreases in image quality the more you stop down from f1.4.

That's just rubbish. The IQ increases upon stopping down, but not as much as with many other similar lenses. Peak performance in the middle seems to be at f/5.6 on 12 mpix FF. For the corners, further stopping down to f/11 is needed to reach best performance.

+1

Nov 17, 2009 at 06:52 PM

Jos Tesseract
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p.7 #7 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

cogitech wrote:
Much in the same way that some GE, LG, Samsung and Maytag dryers are exactly the same, but priced differently and sold at different stores.

nice analogy.

Nov 17, 2009 at 08:33 PM

Grenache
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p.7 #8 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Trumpet_guy,
I noticed in your comparison of landscape shots that the focal plane in the two shots was very different and could go a long way to explaining the apparent difference in resolving power. While the fenceline shots could go either way, the writing on the sign is much sharper and clearer in the Rokinon shot than in the Zeiss one. This indicates that the Rok was focused significantly forward relative to the Zeiss.

Jim

Nov 17, 2009 at 09:06 PM

cogitech
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p.7 #9 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Grenache wrote:
Trumpet_guy,
I noticed in your comparison of landscape shots that the focal plane in the two shots was very different and could go a long way to explaining the apparent difference in resolving power. While the fenceline shots could go either way, the writing on the sign is much sharper and clearer in the Rokinon shot than in the Zeiss one. This indicates that the Rok was focused significantly forward relative to the Zeiss.

Jim

Agreed. I was happy to ignore this because I have no plans to use the Rokinon for landscape shooting, but I noticed this as well.

BTW, I did take some really boring f11 "landscape" shots with my copy the other day, if anyone cares to see them.

Nov 17, 2009 at 09:12 PM

trumpet_guy
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p.7 #10 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Grenache wrote:
Trumpet_guy,
I noticed in your comparison of landscape shots that the focal plane in the two shots was very different and could go a long way to explaining the apparent difference in resolving power. While the fenceline shots could go either way, the writing on the sign is much sharper and clearer in the Rokinon shot than in the Zeiss one. This indicates that the Rok was focused significantly forward relative to the Zeiss.

Jim

Jim,

I noticed this too, and scanned through the many shots in my focus bracket sequence.
What I found was that there is lots of field curvature in the Rokinon when focused to infinity.
I tried to pick a compromise focus point for both lenses, but there was no way to achieve
uniformly sharp results on distant subjects with the Rokinon. If I get time I can post some
other shots to illustrate this. This is itself a significant vote against the Rokinon for landscape
shooting.

Nov 17, 2009 at 09:17 PM

Grenache
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p.7 #11 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Bummer.

Looks like ZE85 will have to still remain on my list. I used one earlier this year and mostly loved it, except for its MFD performance. It would seem that the Rok makes a cheap close range foil.

Jim

Nov 17, 2009 at 09:24 PM

trumpet_guy
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p.7 #12 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Jim,

You could consider getting the Rok and then just using an 85 Sonnar for landcape work.
I'll post another few Rok shots at different focus points for comparision. So much good about this
lens, but at this price point there are bound to be some compromises.

Nov 17, 2009 at 09:29 PM

AbramG
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p.7 #13 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

cogitech wrote:
Much in the same way that some GE, LG, Samsung and Maytag dryers are exactly the same, but priced differently and sold at different stores.

Perfect analogy! Thank you sir. If / when I decide to get one of these I'll just go for the Rokinon

Nov 18, 2009 at 12:45 AM

gasrocks
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p.7 #14 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

I had the Vivitar version and returned it. Missed it and just 2 months later got the Rokunar version at $100. less - same lens.

Nov 18, 2009 at 01:05 AM

DubiousDrewski
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p.7 #15 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Nov 18, 2009 at 01:17 AM

trumpet_guy
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p.7 #16 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Here is another f/8 shot from the Rokinon. Here the focus is set all the
way to the end of travel on the focus ring -- as far to infinity as it goes.
If you look at the left side crop, in particular, you can see that the chain link fence
is now in better focus, and the foreground bushes are also in focus, but that as
you move toward the center the foreground bushes go out of focus and the chain
link fence loses focus as well.

It appears like the region of sharp focus curves toward the camera at the perimeter
of the image circle (disk). The full size image is here:
http://www.pbase.com/tswen/image/119492848/original

full image

This image is copyrighted by the owner

left 100% crop

This image is copyrighted by the owner

center 100% crop

This image is copyrighted by the owner

right 100% crop

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Nov 18, 2009 at 05:00 AM

prashant
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p.7 #17 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

I heard problems with the lenses aperture ring after about 1000 shots, has anybody experienced this? There was a group at flickr which discussed this but am not able find the link now. I'm really interested in this lens.

Nov 18, 2009 at 08:21 AM

trumpet_guy
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p.7 #18 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

Some near focus images from the Rokinon to balance out the infinity stuff.

I think these were at f/2.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Nov 18, 2009 at 11:22 PM

cogitech
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p.7 #19 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

prashant wrote:
I heard problems with the lenses aperture ring after about 1000 shots, has anybody experienced this? There was a group at flickr which discussed this but am not able find the link now. I'm really interested in this lens.

I have only read one complaint of this, and it was a Pentax mount version with auto-aperture. Apparently the blades got slow/sluggish. No need to worry about that on the Canon mount ones, I guess. ;-)

Nov 18, 2009 at 11:39 PM

cogitech
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p.7 #20 · Got my Rokinon 85mm f/1.4

trumpet_guy wrote:
Some near focus images from the Rokinon to balance out the infinity stuff.

I think these were at f/2.

Very nice samples, Tim!

Such gorgeous rendering from this lens when it is used for its intended purpose. I can still barely believe how f^*#ing beautiful it is

Nov 18, 2009 at 11:40 PM

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