Funny that those that immediately shoot it down and say the EF 85/1.8 is far better have never actually tried the Samyang. I have had both, and again, there is no comparison.
I'm quite happy with the Samyang/Rokinon 85. Its very sharp and its no different than using any other manual lens. Like Jman13, it is justifiable to have a Samyang at the price for a focal length that I don't use that much. No way would a Canon 85L be justifiable for what my shooting needs are.
I don't use 85 that much, I am a wider shooter, but I am glad that its in my bag and paid around $300 for an f1.4 lens that is perfectly usable at 1.4.
I love the versatility and fast autofocus of my Canon 85mm f1.8 - its one of my favourite lenses and a keeper. I also love the bokey of the Canon 85mm f1.2, but in the UK that lens, however wonderful, is around £1800 (!). If I can obtain comparable bokey, for around £200 (!) but with manual focus from Samyang I am very, very temped to do so. The price saving would cover the Canon 24L Mk2 I am planning to buy in the summer.
A Canon 85mm f1.8 AF and a Samyang 85mm f1.4 manual focus partnership for not alot of money is a pretty good deal IMHO.
If Samyang keep up the quality standard of their 85mm with their future lens releases then I see a very bright future for them indeed. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope the 14mm is good.
Just my two cents. I have recently got a 7d and based on my limited video experience with it and also because I am basically a BIF shooter I got a 1d4.
For those of you who have not tried making vids you really have to MF. While it is nice to AF first then press the set button and bring up the LV, I often find myself switching off the AF just before I press the set button. Next thing I do is 5X or 10X and MF using the live view, then press the red button or the FE button to start the vid. But if the subject moves you have to MF to keep things in focus.
Probably won't pre-order aSamyang, but it is a definite consideration, MF and all.
um, Canon's QC is not exactly the golden standard either.
As many people said before, the lense is not for everyone. If you want AF go with the 85f1.8. The Samyang/Rokinon peaks around f4, so stop it down any further won't improve sharpness. If you do a lot of portrait, then it is the lense for you.
For those that want to justify the cost of the 85f1.2, think harder, you could get the Samyang and possibly a Canon 24f1.4 (or other lenses) for the cost of your 85f1.2
skibum5 wrote:
maybe the low price is due to appaling quality control where you gamble and get anything from a coke bottle to near sharpest lens canon has ever made
The price is low because one of the main goals of Samyang Optical is to offer lenses at very affordable prices. They have openly stated that. Historically they did so by cutting a lot of corners and really only targeted the low end of consumer optics. Modern technology and a small company size has enabled them to really ramp things up to a new level over the past few years. The 85/1.4 Aspherical and 8mm fisheye are evidence of that. The upcoming 14/2.8 Aspherical and 35/1.4 Aspherical are surely attempts to continue this new level of great quality and excellent value. These guys aren't just f#*king around.
With respect to sample variation, I think PZ.de's results are indicative of a "worst case scenario". I suspect that the lens may have been sent to Claus because it was a sub-par performer. Who knows? All I know is that many of us have samples that seem to perform far better than those results indicate.
skibum5 wrote:
hmm if your good at that sort of thing that must quite the way to get some amazing lenses for a fraction of the price
I have a bunch of old Nikon MF lenses from the 1970s and 1980s. All of them are pretty darn good and were really cheap to boot. The best part is that they don't require any modification beyond an adapter from F mount to EF mount.
cogitech wrote: LensTip.com: There are rumors, that the next lens released will be 35mm f/1.2 or 35 mm f/1.4. Could you tell us about it?
Mr. Lee: 35 mm f/1.4 will be released in the second half of 2010.
Ah that's great news. Hopefully it'll be around $500 or so. Too bad it's not f/1.2, but that would make it a lot dearer. Still if it was great wide open and was priced no more than the 35L II'd still consider it. It'd probably still be cheaper.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Ah that's great news. Hopefully it'll be around $500 or so. Too bad it's not f/1.2, but that would make it a lot dearer. Still if it was great wide open and was priced no more than the 35L II'd still consider it. It'd probably still be cheaper.
Well, the f1.2 still might come true. He only wanted to commit to the f1.4 during that interview, quite possibly because the f1.2 would only be for Canon anyway.
A guy from Germany contacted and asked about the f1.2 directly (copied from the thread over in the Alt Forum):
""Hello dear kind people at Samyang!
I am a proud and very pleased owner of a Samyang 85mm/f1.4 for Canon, and I am interested in buying a 35mm lens for my camera now.
So when searching for this focal length I found some rumors going through the web, stating that Samyang is planning a 35mm/f1.2 for Canon. Is this true, should I wait buying a Canon lens and maybe buy a Samyang next month or so?
Thanks a lot...
Martin, Germany, Berlin..."
[the answer as follows:]
"Dear Mr. Martin Hoppe,
We are also considering 35mm/f1.2 lens but there is no determination yet.
Even we decide to make 35mm/f1.2 lens, the lead time is over 7~9 months.
We are planing to release 14mm F2.8 lens at the end of March 2010 to our customers.
Best regards,
Terry Lee
Assistant Manager of Sales & Marketing
Samyang Optics Co.,Ltd.
Tel: +82-2-784-9961 (ext 203)
Dir: +82-2-552-3393
Fax: +82-2-784-1440 Http://www.syopt.com [email protected]"
I have just e-mailed Mr. Lee to provide some encouragement on the f/1.2
I suggest the rest of you do the same. I am sure that it will make a difference. We are talking about a company with 120 employees, not Canikon or somesuch....
Here we go - finally Canon (and others of course) gets some decent competition in high quality lenses. As cogitech stated above, I don't mind at all using MF and manual aperture settings - I started photography this way and I still often do it. If those Samyang lenses are as good as promised, I am sure that Canon will lower prices sooner or later for their similar lenses, too. Samyang 14 mm f2.8 and 35 mm f1.2 are hard to resist....but I will wait for test reviews first.
I just got the Rokinon 85mm. Very cheap, about 100$. Initial tests are very promising on 1m3. Very sharp from f4-f8. My handhold shots at f1.4 was quite shapr as well. But I need to test some more.
First impression was that I like my Sigma50mm 1.4 better. Especially the bookeh. But I only did a few shots so need to test more, it seems to be somewhat different.
Pleasant surprise was that it took kenko extension tubes very well. So an excellent macro lens. It did not take the kenko 1.4xTCpro, maybe I have to take some pins?
Overall I'm very excited with this lens. I really like the aperture ring, since I shoot in Av mode mostly. I suspect it will also work great as movie lens for my 500d cause of the aperture ring, giving me manual options.
Focus was okay with the live view at 10x on distant things. But not all easy even then.
14/2.8, and especially 35/1.2 will most likely find their way into my bag. These are great news!
cogitech wrote:
I have just e-mailed Mr. Lee to provide some encouragement on the f/1.2
I suggest the rest of you do the same. I am sure that it will make a difference. We are talking about a company with 120 employees, not Canikon or somesuch....
Or may be just to ask them to visit here often. May be there is no better way of doing market research since people surfing forums like these are the people who are most likely to buy their lenses. (surely not the soccer moms)
oh this is promisiing Peter on the f/1.2 version, that would be awesome. I'm not greedy but if they would like to do a 105 f/1.8 as well and maybe a 50 f/1.2.
