The secret bargain lens brand now at B & H....

[Jon Braeley]

Well not really a secret but this brand is not well known in the states - but boy are they a bargain!!

They are Rokinon brand in the USA but known as Samyang in Europe. Made in Poland.

But these lenses - the primes are pin sharp and very accurate - I cannot tell the 35mm from any Nikon or Canon L .... seriously. They are usually very fast - F1.4.

I just saw for the first time that B&H are now selling them - I just added the 85mm F1.4 to my collection. It is stupid not to own at this price - and it has Sony A-mount.

Rokinon

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

You are right. These lenses are great for video. I Own the 35mm and the 85mm. In canon mount since I use them on the 7d but will use them on the FS100 via a dumb adapter when the camera arrive in a few days.

Extremly sharp and fast, perfect focus ring, and a manual iris ring. I was told by Rokinon that a 24mm 1.4 is comming this fall for about 550$.

Now, they need to make a set optimized for video, with a decliked iris. I am sure that with the advent of these new large sensor "affordable" cameras, there is a market for a cheaper alternative to Zeiss CP2

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Jon Braeley

They are Rokinon brand in the USA but known as Samyang in Europe. Made in Poland.

They are a Korean company, which seems to have their manufacturing plant in Korea, although they do have a Polish office.

Samyang Optics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Jim Michael]

Check the lens image sample archive on photography-on-the.net for examples from those lenses. Pretty nice.

[Jon Braeley]

The label on my Samyang says Made in Poland but could well be Korean origin.

I posted them here because with these are made for manual use and with all the dumb adapters these fit the bill for the FS-100.

I paid $265 for my 85mm F1.4 and $400 for the 35mm - they are amazing quality - solid build and super sharp. The 8mm is also worth getting.
I wish they would make some zooms that equal these primes.

[Brian Drysdale]

The review I checked said the 85mm was less good wide open - suitable for portraits was their term.

Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical (full format) - Review / Test Report

However, with the smaller sensor on the FS 100 the drop off in edge sharpness could less of an issue.

The review was positive about the construction of the lens.

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

The review I checked said the 85mm was less good wide open - suitable for portraits was their term.

Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical (full format) - Review / Test Report

However, with the smaller sensor on the FS 100 the drop off in edge sharpness could less of an issue.

The review was positive about the construction of the lens.

According to this review: Samyang 85 mm f/1.4 Aspherical IF review - Image resolution - Lenstip.com this is quite the contrary on APSC sensors:

"Good news to start with: the image at maximum aperture is fully usable since the obtained resolution slightly exceeds 30 lpmm. This result surpasses both the Nikkor and the Zeiss, whose images at maximum aperture were very ‘soft’."

I have this lens for 2 years and in practice it is damn sharp at 1.4, WAY sharper than my nikon 50mm 1.4, on par with the canon 24mm 1.4 II (I can't compare with other lens like zeiss, since I don't own them. For 300$ it's a steal.

[Brian Drysdale]

Indeed quite a few lenses are soft wide open, the more expensive fast lenses do start concentrate on giving performance at the wide apertures. For example, the cine lens manufacturers have put a lot of effort into this.

Here's a review of a stills Zeiss 85 f1.4 done by the same people for comparison

Zeiss Planar T* 85mm f/1.4 ZF - Review / Test Report

Related to this lens and another use of the optics. I've just read on the CML forum that Zeiss limited the max aperture of the new Compact Prime 85mm to T2.1 because they deemed that the performance wasn't good enough for cine work wide open. The original CP 85mm was T1.5 (f1.4) and used the full aperture.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Zeiss fast lenses reviewed at lens tip. Certainly the Samyang does offer good value for money, although flare would seem to be a weakness.

[Jon Braeley]

I have been following these lenses for a while but was amazed to find them at B & H - hence this thread.

I think they are a new product for them. Also they tend to go under different names - I only used to see them on ebay under the Samyamg name and shipping from Poland.

But so far I have not seen one bad review - unlike FCPX... had to throw that one in!

[Brian Drysdale]

I think the choice really depends on what you want to use the lenses for and the characteristics of the image. Perhaps not the lenses you'd go for if planning to rent the camera out, but fine for personal use.

[Pat Flores]

Originally Posted by Jon Braeley

I have been following these lenses for a while but was amazed to find them at B & H - hence this thread.

I think they are a new product for them. Also they tend to go under different names - I only used to see them on ebay under the Samyamg name and shipping from Poland.

But so far I have not seen one bad review - unlike FCPX... had to throw that one in!

I have seen pretty good reviews on the 14mm 2.8 and the 85mm 1.4....thought the 85 would be nice at 1.4 since I am using a 60D I dont think I will be getting it but the 14mm still looks like one to get...I was also thinking about the Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 simply because it is so wide and NOT fisheye...

[Louis Maddalena]

This is an interesting post. I already have some L series primes ( the 50 1.2 and 35 1.4) and had intended on buying some more when the money was there. However, hearing all these praises of these lenses has me wondering if I should be buying some of these as I would not be able to use the Canon's on the 100 when I do get it (I'm using a 5D now).

If you had invested in L series lenses (the primes I had mentioned above and a collection of zooms) what would you do in regards to these lenses being discussed. Would you buy them? Do you think they'll come close enough to cut between two different lenses, and a professional eye be happy with the quality of that.

I ask because this could save me a lot of money, but most importantly save a lot of time for changing the aperture (due to the lack of aperture control in the dumb adapters).

(I'd love to buy the Zeis compact primes but I will not be able to afford those for quite some time)

[Jon Braeley]

Louis, the 35mm Rokinon - also called Samyang has been well known for a while among a few well known DPs... Phillip Bloom posted a blog on this lens alone stating its incredible value.

I have the 85mm 1.4 on my Fs-100 and works very well - like a Nikon - same build and feel. But more importantly a very nice image and super fast at 1.4.

I posted this thread because they were always difficult to find or buy unitl now.

At well below $300 its not a hard decision.

[Aaron Nanto]

Originally Posted by Louis Maddalena

This is an interesting post. I already have some L series primes ( the 50 1.2 and 35 1.4) and had intended on buying some more when the money was there. However, hearing all these praises of these lenses has me wondering if I should be buying some of these as I would not be able to use the Canon's on the 100 when I do get it (I'm using a 5D now).

If you had invested in L series lenses (the primes I had mentioned above and a collection of zooms) what would you do in regards to these lenses being discussed. Would you buy them? Do you think they'll come close enough to cut between two different lenses, and a professional eye be happy with the quality of that.

I ask because this could save me a lot of money, but most importantly save a lot of time for changing the aperture (due to the lack of aperture control in the dumb adapters).

(I'd love to buy the Zeis compact primes but I will not be able to afford those for quite some time)

I've been shooting with the 5DM2 and own a few L prime Canon lenses. I originally wanted to use them on my FS100, but after figuring that I'd have to buy a smart adapter like the Birger mount (which is expected to be around $700) to really use my Canon lenses, I bought the 35mm Rokinon. I have yet to shoot anything with it to compare, but everything I've read online is very positive.

[Matt Davis]

I've bought the 35mm f1.4, and can't wait to shoot a proper interview with it. I promised my wife I wouldn't publish my initial tests of her shot with it, but it's got 'expensive' written all over the image. It has a fairly long throw for focus, and it has a 'real' iris ring which I may have de-clicked by The Lens Doctor. Feels a lot better to work with than my Sigma 50mm f1.4.

In a perfect world, it would be Zeiss CP2s, but this camera's going out where an EX1 would have gone before, and clients are not going to pay extra for proper cinematic glass.

Based on the 35mm experience, I guess I'll just have to go for the 85mm too.