The official Asian Samyang retailer posted the images of the new Rokinon 300mm f/6.3 lens on facebook. A real beast! Are you going to grab this one?
The official Asian Samyang retailer posted the images of the new Rokinon 300mm f/6.3 lens on facebook. A real beast! Are you going to grab this one?
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35 Responses
I posted this to you, it makes me happy to see it in the page!
😀
On the Rokinon facebook page they put a video with a Nex camera
thanks!!!!
Any idea of a price range?
On Facebook is the comment from Rokinon that it will be 299. Question is just is Euros/USDollars/Yen/Rubels…. 🙂 I would guess USD.
It looks like a mirror lens. All mirror lenses lack of contrast due to center mirror obstruction. They also have onion ring bokeh.
I have never seen one that had much resolution either. All in all, an SLR lens would be a better bet. My old Nikon 100-300 f/5.6 zoom is not bad at all on the NEX-7. I have a 70-210 which is even better if you can live with less reach.
For image quality, it won’t beat a traditional glass lens with the same focal length and aperture. One the other hand it has huge advantages in price and size. If it was half the price, it would make sense to compare it to the glass equivalent. But it is 1/10 the price, and also much smaller and lighter.
Plus shorter because of the folded optical path.
I think of the donut bokeh of mirror lenses as a feature. It creates a beautiful “pointillist” mosaic with the right background. It also handles certain lighting better. Criticizing the mirror lens for its bokeh is like criticizing a fisheye for its distortion.
Also, mirror lenses tend to have less chromatic aberration. Contrast is lower, yes, but resolution is certainly better than zooms, and contrast can be easily corrected in post.
I think this lens fills a big void in the E-mount line-up.
There is no theoretical limitation that makes mirror lenses worse except for the matter of ring bokeh which is a matter of skill and personal preference.
Zeiss has proved in the past that mirror lenses can resolve very well with their Mirotars. If Samyang managed to copy/tweak the Zeiss designs, this lens could be a lot more promising. They shouldn’t lack the engineering skills to do so.
Hmmm. That’s a reflex lens (mirror), like the other ones sold everywhere for very cheap (200$ for a 500mm f8). Maunal focussing, even with peaking, is not very practical with those lenses. Comtrast is not too impressive either. I have been using the Minolta 500mm reflex for a few years now: it delivers ok results, given its size, weight and magnification. But it is autofocus and the quality and build is… minoltian 🙂
I’ve seen some impressive images from mirror lenses. Normally you have to add a qualifier(that’s not a bad shot, for a mirror lens.). Sometimes the donut bokeh can really work. My favorites have been from the ROLLEIFLEX 500MM ROLLEINAR F:8.0. Certainly the quality is not as good, objectively, but a good photographer can get a lot out of a good mirror lens.
Still amazed by my Rokinon Fisheye every time I shoot with it, and will gladly follow Rokinon to the other end of the range as well 🙂
My thoughts too assuming reviews are good, although I imagine manual focussing may be tricky.
i have the 500f8 reflex on my A77 and its an awesome lens, admittedly a special case lens, but non the less a very nice lens.. contrast is easily recovered in post. but the size advantage is crazy. this 300mm is tiny if you take of the lens hood. it looks about the same size as the sony 50mm1.8!
if its not too pricey its a perfect lens to take on hikes and shoot some wildlife if you have the manual focusing skills 😉
I had the Minolta 500/8 and it was really cool, the weird bokeh can either work for you, or against you depending on the scene. This rokinon 300mm really piques my interest due to the size, It makes me want to go into the mountains. The Minolta MD mount 250/5.6 was similar in size but for full frame, what a marvel of technology !!!! : http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Minolta-RF-Rokkor-X-MD-250mm-f-5-6-mirror-lens-MINT-no-marks-/130918555012?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item1e7b5a9d84
I was skeptical because of the mirror lens, but that thing is freakin’ tiny! It is barely bigger than the 18-55 kit lens 🙂 Pretty cool, if it has decent sharpness it would be quite a cool little lens to keep in the bag… As long as the price matched.
Cat lenses have some serious quality issues associated with the desighn.
Poor dof, donut shaped bokeh and slow speed among them.
This is nevertheless a good addition to the nex camera bag.
They are smaller and lighter than a conventional lens which is after all what nex is all about.
Admin, any new information regarding the release of the updated 70-200 2.8? Is it still on the map for this year? Thanks!
Man I only see positive comments here.. Now I’m drooling.. Haven’t bought a nex lens for 1.5 years..
Admin… some time ago you mentioned a rumor about an E-mount version of the Carl Zeiss A-mount 16-80 lens… Have you heard anything more about whether this will actually happen?
it reminds me minolta 250mm/f5.6 reflex… it’s more mini, classic appearance..what a pity that Sony wouldn’t produce these reflex lens (500/f8 AF reflex has been stopped for years)
Any sample images out there? Would like to see the ring-bokeh in action.
This thing is tiny! Worth the compromises IMO. I would never take out a Tamron 70-300 USD + LA-EA2 with my NEX when I could just take this out. But then again telephoto has never been a big priority for me.
Interesting lens. Recently have been looking into getting a cheap 500mm non E-mount for my NEX, so this comes as a very welcome surprise!
Hope the void between this upcoming 300mm and the already pretty crowded 30 – 50mm prime range will be filled soon with 200mm, 135mm, 105mm, 85mm and 70mm primes. The tele end on the NEX is severly lacking in prime options.
Look, it has a decorative distance scale too!
It’s not just decorative
I wonder how would a 300-500 MF feels like with a NEX, especially since everything will have to be pre-focus with the DoF given
did i read last week sony has a mirror lens in the roadmap?
did sony say they will focus in extra compact zoom?
did rokinon pull a nikon (as in beat sony big realese 6 months early)?
did roKINON is a code name fOR NIKON?
ok the last one was just a letter game…
Absolutely perfect size for a longer focal-length on a NEX! I don’t mind the slower aperture and will be very interested to see how it performs in reviews.
Going to get one as soon as they are available.
I assume this will have no stabilization where most of the Rokinon lenses have no contacts on them. Which means these will be tripod bound for decent clarity.
contacts are not required for stabilization if lens has its own batteries 😉
Mirror lenses are never as sharp as conventional lenses but they have a very distinctive look especially the bokeh and they can’t be beaten for compactness. I’m interested to see how this lens performs. Samyangs older 500mm f/8 is terrible but the newer 500mm f/6.3 isn’t bad and the 800mm can be reasonable too if you get a good copy.
Traditionally thes lenses have been rather limited in quality.
If a mirror were made with an off axis parabolic primary mirror the secondary mirror would not block the primary and a very high quality mirror lens could eb made.(similar in structure to a tv satelite dish).
Mirrors have no chromatic abberations so a mirror only lens could be as good or better than the best glass lens. Not however in the typical CAT configuration.
This would be usrfull in very long focal lengths where the size snd weight savings woulld be considerable.
This type if lens would be quite usefull for wildlife for both a or e mounts.
Cats are ok as economical light entry level long lenses. The off axis lens would be a serious professional level tool.
Some manufacturing challenges exist in making the mirror but with todays technology should be easy to solve.