And boy, this really is a great lens. I was surprised by the build quality...seems very well built. Solid, no wobbles at all, with a very nicely damped focus ring and good clicky aperture ring. Optically, the lens is everything people say it is: great bokeh, quite sharp wide open and very sharp at f/2. Edges are a little soft wide open, but I've never seen an 85 f/1.4 or faster where that wasn't the case. Extremely close to my old 85L optically, at least at the wide apertures. Didn't shoot a whole lot stopped down. It's quite sharp stopped down, but I'm not sure if it's up there with the very sharpest lenses in the world, though still very, very good. Optically, it's very hard to find a complaint given the price range. Heck, if the lens were $700, it'd be hard to find a complaint. There's a little longitudinal CA, but nothing out of the ordinary for an extremely wide aperture lens. Contrast suffers a little wide open, though it's still quite good. Bokeh gets a little bit of a CA ring stopped down, but is simply beautiful wide open (and still very good stopped down).

For $235 after the Bing cash back, it might be the best value lens I've ever owned.

The lens:

Looks nice.

Where did you get it?

Congrats Jordan! Nice samples.

Your "Bridge Bolts" shot shows the something special that I have noticed with my Rokinon. That bokeh isn't just smooth, it's almost super-natural looking. Dare I say "holy"?

They are available through Cameta Camera directly or via their Amazon storefront.
I think they sell on E-bay too. Mine (via Amazon) should arrive next week.

It's really nice to see that, thus far, no one has received a poor sample. That in itself is also very impressive for such an inexpensive lens.

Like Paul has mentioned, I can't wait to get the fast 35 when it's released.

Why am I tempted to buy this lens when I'm getting out of SLRs?

Very nice. Thanks.

I'd like to see a comparison with the Zeiss Planar 85/1.4, at f/1.4, especially as used in the fence shot. Does Cameta Camera have an exclusive dealership? I'll be in California over New Years, but that won't help me to get "hands on" if it's only in a NY store.

I don't have a comparison handy (and will likely not get a chance to test it, but I've used the Zeiss Planar enough to give you my thoughts:

Wide open: No contest...the Rokinon walks all over the Zeiss in sharpness, is equal or better in bokeh, and pretty close in color. Zeiss has a bit better contrast.

@ f/2: Pretty darn close in sharpness, though I might give a slight edge to the Rokinon. Bokeh is similar. Zeiss better in color and contrast, though only just.

f/2.8 and smaller: Zeiss is sharper, becoming critically sharp at f/4, with better microcontrast and a little better color. Bokeh is similar. However, the Rokinon is no slouch here, and while not quite as sharp as the Zeiss, is still very sharp...certainly nothing to complain about. However, this is really where the Zeiss shines. Beautiful 3D rendering that is hard to match.

I knew the Rokinon/Samyang and its clones were great optically from the reviews and threads here, but I didn't realize how solidly built the lens would be. Metal focus ring and main barrel, high quality plastics for the aperture ring and the body close to the front element. Great focus damping with absolutely no slop at all. The only build thing to complain about is that the hood feels cheap, and doesn't fit as snugly as I might like, and the lens cap that comes with it is a cheapo cap. But the lens itself is extremely well made for a $250 lens, and feels like the best lenses from Canon or Nikon in build.

Oh, and just as an aside, in case anyone was wondering about the beautiful bokeh and razor sharpness of the shot OF the lens itself...that was taken with my new 100 f/2.8L IS, which might be the most impressive lens optically I've ever used, all things considered.

Jman13 wrote:

I knew the Rokinon/Samyang and its clones were great optically from the reviews and threads here, but I didn't realize how solidly built the lens would be. Metal focus ring and main barrel, high quality plastics for the aperture ring and the body close to the front element. Great focus damping with absolutely no slop at all. The only build thing to complain about is that the hood feels cheap, and doesn't fit as snugly as I might like, and the lens cap that comes with it is a cheapo cap. But the lens itself is extremely well made for a $250 lens, and feels like the best lenses from Canon or Nikon in build.



I completely agree with the way this lens feels. In use, nothing feels cheap. That said, some of the materials used are not up to those used in the best lenses from Canon or Nikon. In particular, it has been confirmed that the metal mount on the Rokinon is of a very soft metal, not stainless steel or bronze as might be used in higher end lenses from the major players.

I think Jordan is pretty accurate in his comparison/prediction, but I would say there is certainly no doubt at all about the Rokinon's superiority with respect to smoothness of bokeh. You saw my comparison of the Rokinon and the FD 85/1.2 SSC. I assume you'll agree the the Rokinon won that bokeh contest. My experience with a NIB Zeiss Planar 85 put it well behind the FD 85/1.2 with respect to bokeh (and sharpness wide open, for that matter).

Thanks Jordan and Paul for your comments re: the Planar. It seems that I might have to try this one for myself.

thrice wrote:
Why am I tempted to buy this lens when I'm getting out of SLRs?

It's the purpose of this forum.

how would a leica 90/2.8 compare?

Ok, I know this may be slightly off topic, but please don't take offense. If anyone can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. I've never shot a manual focus lens and from what I've read the Rebel line should almost never do this, because we have crappy viewfinders or something. I'm about to buy a T1i, how hard is it to correctly focus on that or even last year's XS? Thanks in advance.

Edit - I just read that maybe I can use Live View to focus? But is the viewfinder that much better in FF bodies?

Oops hahaha someone beat me to the LV thing.

I would use live review to manual focus. the viewfinder of the XS and T1i are just too darn small

Now if they would only make a 200mm 1.4 for similar funds.

The T1i and XSi have reasonably good finders, similar to the 10D and slightly smaller than the 20D/30D. They're a huge improvement over the older Rebel finders. Live View is still better though.

The XS has a finder that is essentially identical to the older Rebels.

ken.vs.ryu wrote:
how would a leica 90/2.8 compare?

I assume it would be superior (the leica), the latest formula 90 Elmarit is roughly equivalent to the 90mm APO Summicron only a stop slower... but it's two stops slower than the Rokinon. I'll share some shots from my Leica 90/2.8 when I get my next roll developed

Is there any place inside EU i could get this lens? Rokinon/Samyang "brand" would be preferable.

lepp - ebay seller FotoTip located in Poland is selling it as Samyang. Check it out.