Jman13 wrote:
Not sure if the alpha mount will take Contax adapters (though I think it does), but the Zeiss 85/2.8 Sonnar is an absolute gem. Tack sharp straight from wide open, great contrast, good bokeh, and wonderful color. I don't think I'll ever get rid of mine.
Yes, there is a conversion available for CY MM lenses. In my recent search for an 85, I considered this Zeiss 85 2.8. To my surprise, the only ones I could find were selling for $500! Seems I recall that lens going for at least half that amount a year or so ago. Even the 1.4 is not that much more. Anyway, I'm sure the 2.8 is a gem but it sure ain't cheap.
Speaking of skin tone, I like the Rokinon better. You can see the skin complexion, and you can see the blood, while with the Canon lenses, you only get a smooth washed out skin tone. This is a problem common to all Canon portrait lenses in my opinion.
I see jagged edges of the hair in all three pictures at 100%. How was the sharpening applied? Looks too much sharpening to me. I don't like it when hair looks jagged, it ruins the whole perception of the portrait for me.
Well, my Rokinon branded Samyang 85 1.4 turned up today. I must say I'm more impressed than I thought I would be in that it feels better made/smoother than expected. The manual focus is very well damped/smooth and the overall feel of the lens is very nice. Not Takumar, Leica or C/Y nice but at least up to most AF lenses - perhaps even better - regarding build quality. CA wide open in high contrast lighting is there. Here is one of my first shots wide open including a 100% crop from my a900. This does indeed appear to be a great portrait lens with nice bokeh...and plenty sharp enough even wide open. Hard to believe the lens sells for just over $200! I bet it goes up in price.
kosmoskatten wrote:
The 85/2.8 Sonnar does surface for around $250-275 around here. I was eyeballing one the other week. It is well worth it.
I have not seen the MM for that price lately. In any case, I took the plunge with the rokinon and also have a Super Multi Coated Takumar 85 1.8 on the way. I'm very anxious to see how the Takumar performs on the a900.
I have not seen the MM for that price lately. In any case, I took the plunge with the rokinon and also have a Super Multi Coated Takumar 85 1.8 on the way. I'm very anxious to see how the Takumar performs on the a900.
The SMC takumar is excellent on A900 but I think you'll like your Rokinon more.
I have completed quite a bit of "nerdy" testing of the 85 1.4 Rokinon over the past 24 hours and here are some observations. My results seemed to mostly mirror those from other tests fairly closely (which means perhaps there is little sample variation).
First some observations:
-Amazing sharpness+Bokeh wide open at 1.4 when shot at close distances. I don't know that I have ever seen a fast lens perform this good at 1.4. Performance drops at distances near infinity. - just as Paul found.
-Resolution really does not improve that much between 1.4 - 2.8 (it does improve a little at F2), at least with my copy. CA is actually less wide open than at 2-2.8 (This is probably an illusion as the ca at 1.4 is diffused/softer but becomes sharper at F2). Additionally, lens contrast stays about the same between 1.4 - 2.8. Both results I found odd compared to how most lenses perform. Somewhere between F4-5.6, resolution and lens contrast both increase and CA all but vanishes. After that, there is not much improvement in the center of the frame. Tests I performed at around 10 ft in the studio did show a noticeable increase in corner sharpness up to F11. Resolution/detail does not match the best lenses I have used when stopped down (just as Lenstips found) but the performance is better than you might expect. Keep in mind, this is on a 24MP camera. I did find very slight barrel distortion at 10 ft with my lens(using a precise, gridded chart).
-Color and contrast overall seems to be ever so slightly on the muted/soft side. If you are used to the pop from Zeiss color/contrast, this lens might not be for you. It is close to some of my Minolta lenses (I compared to a 50 2.8 Macro) but less than my 50mm 1.4 Takumar.
Here is a sharpness/bokeh test shot taken wide open at 1.4 that was underexposed slightly. There was some curves tweaking (which is partially to blame for the grain). Sharpening was at the default setting of Raw Developer.
Silly questions, but do these work on FF Canon bodies, and is the aperture manual or camera-controlled?
I found the Rokinon on Amazon, but it claims to only work on APS-c at least from list of cameras compatible. Both there and B&H it is not obvious whether aperture is manual or camera run.
If price was not the main decision factor, how does this lens stand up to CY 85/1.4 or ZE 85/1.4? Anybody knows?
Or the 50L on a cropped body?
I bought the Vivitar brand when it first came out and sent it right back to Adorama for refund without much testing. Didn't really like the long-throw, stiff focuser.
Closed down, those lenses would be sharper. Wide open, the Samyang's would easily outperform them. Color and contrast would also be superior on the CY and ZE closed down. It's an interesting dilemma because, for the money, it's almost worth buying the Samyang to shoot wide open to one stop down when you need that.
