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The starblogger Ken Rockwell tested the new Samyang 35mm f/1.4 lens. he tested it on a Nikon but as you know the lens is available with A-mount too so you should definitely read the article: “For where and when you can take the time to focus precisely manually, this Samyang lens is a total winner.”
The lens is in Stock for $499 at Amazon (Click here), branded with the name Rokinon on [shoplink 7453 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and branded with the name Samyang on [shoplink 7380 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
The real bargain is the 85mm f/1.4 you can get for $274 on Amazon (Click here), branded with the name Rokinon on [shoplink 7456 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and branded with the name Samyang on [shoplink 7454 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
43 Responses
This lens just reminds me how sony lost their minds with current NEX lens selection,
all we want is 28mm and 50mm (ff equivalent) standard primes, and make them fast, its ridicules that NEX does not have the 2 most common focal lengths on earth
Defrost, mate, this isn’t about NEX here, this is about A-Mount. Otherwise I would have to contradict your all-we-want, since all I’m missing is an E-Mount Super Side Angle…
I second to that, fast 35mm for NEX is what I want since I bought my camera
Andrea, any info on Sony/G/CZ a-mount lens?
Waiting… 🙂
I disagree.. I’d say most would prefer 24mm over 28mm, and we have the 16mm F2.8 which is a Fast 24mm Lens. And it small.
I think sony made a good decision with the 16mm F2.8.. Its the perfect lens for the NEX bodies. I won’t deny a F1.4 would be nicer, but the NEX was not originally aimed at people purchasing F1.4 lens.
Which still leaves us without fast (f/2 or better) 50mm and 85mm equivalent focal length lenses.
11cm, 650g hunk of glass. Never, ever would I leave the house with something like this on my camera…
What happened to the days of compact 35mm SLR’s with huge prims and lightweight, compact lenses? Come back!!!!
edited.
I wish websites would stop feeding the troll Ken Rockwell, for every semi decent review on his site there’s about 10 articles full of disinformation and trolling.
Agreed, Ken Rockwell is an asshat. I’m usually left speechless whenever anyone brings him up in serious discussion.
I agree 100%.
No offense, but reading a photography review from Ken Rock (considered by many pro photographers to be a biased, sarcastic, and bad photographer) is like watching a 15 year old unbox a new lens on YouTube and review it from his bedroom. There is no quality or substance in a review like that. Ken Rockwell also bashed Sony 100x saying that they should make tv’s not camera’s! Just read his take on the a700 from a few years ago.
Totally agreed. I am hoping that Sony invests the time, money and effort to develop new lenses. Sony lost their minds in creating the E-mount in general. There is absolutely no need for dual lens mounts. It’s duplicative and wasteful.
Make excellent A-mount lenses and have the NEX use those. Win-WIn for consumers.
You might be correct about Sony’s lack of focus away from the A-Mount.
but if you make NEX use A-mount, NEX loses it’s size/weight benefit vs A-mount camera series…and remember that E-mount it’s optimized for the CDAF on-sensor, and A-mount optimized for PDAF off-sensor..so it’s difficult to make the NEX series work as good as the big brother series…
Also, remember, NEX it’s for people making the transition from point and shoot cameras to a more “serious” level and for people that needed a more lightweight gear…it wasn’t intended at all from the beginning to make Pro use NEX cameras… So maybe you don’t have your mind set with what Sony wanted by introducing the E-mount…
And do you remember the distance from flange to sensor of A-mount? (about 44.5mm???) You’re not going anywhere in decreasing size factor with the existing mount…so they had to create the E-mount from scratch to achieve a smaller size factor…for me It makes A LOT of sense to have two mounts…and remember that now that Sony made E-mount, they’re capable of offering people a way to use old, or MF only lenses that cannot be coupled with the current A-mount series because of the distance from flange to sensor…
EDIT: sorry, the entire comment was made to James C.
Come on, I totally dislike this stuff about DSLR for professionals, fixed lenses for consumers and NEX in between for amateurs in transition to whatever. Professional means making a living out of it, and there are even those doing this or something accepted as artwork with their iPhone cameras. Having a small camera with a large sensor in some situations is much more professional than having a too big one. In my opinion E-Mount is made for photography and video capturing growing together in small devices. That’s what convinced me to leave (D)SLR behind and that’s why I won’t buy such a massive Samyang lens at all.
I Have an NEX-5, and personally, I’m an upgrader from a DSC-W170 and DSC-S40…Originally, the NEX cameras were made for that, people with little experience with photography…NOW, there are several people coming from all directions to NEX cameras because of the powerful hardware in small package. But you can’t disagree with me, that originally the NEX were made for people coming from P&S or wanting a lightweight gear compared to big dSLR and that the intended use of MF and old lenses were made after it became noticeable that such an use could be made by making adapters. Sony wasn’t thinking at all about it, but they hit the right spot this time.
My response was made because there’s people saying that E-mount it’s a waste of time or resources..but everyone here should remember that Sony has also several lines, not only photography but also video, and TV, and radios, and cellphones, and etc etc etc…so they know better than anybody here if the E-mount was required for making profit or not.
You’ve got to keep in mind the VG-10 and especially the FS-100 to understand SONY’s E-Mount strategy: This is meant to be the Lens Exchange System for photography and video capturing finally growing together and that’s why they opened the specifications for free to make it a standard. In the foreseeable future APS-C will be fine for professional photography and also films made for standard cinema screens. Even μ4/3 could be enough for professional film makers. So NEX photography cameras are more made to establish E-Mount and gain high quality third party lens makers to produce for it. Nice bonuses like Focus Peaking were been given away for free and no chance for SONY to make money out of it only to catch professionals with old manual lenses for the E-Mount system. They’ve created a market for E-Mount lenses and are no waiting for third parties to take advantage out of it, while not caring that much about their own E-Mount lenses. It’s a long run strategy, but the FS-100 totally pointed out the direction. Looking forward how the NEX-7 will push this concept…
Ken Rockwell likes this lens? Definitely not getting it then!!
Good lens but Ken Rockwell is an asswipe, there I said it!
Ken Rockwell? This site just lost credibility to me 🙂
Who’s Ken Rockwell? =/
I don’t have a clue who’s that so named person
The dude called every sony lens he reviewed as crappy and preferred to go out with Minolta 50 f1.7 instead?? Totally lost in touch with reality. What a joke.
If you want serious and reliable reviews of Sony lens, go http://www.kurtmunger.com/ instead.
If this lens is anything like Samyang’s 85mm, it will be a winner. Its on my purchase list.
Looks huge for its 35mm length. I bet it has issues when tested with FF sensor in a lab and in the field.
I want A mount 20mm F2 SSM for $649 😀
Dunno if you’ve tried the existing Sony 20mm F2.8. Its one of my favourite lenses.. Not quite F2, but pin sharp wide open, and AF is very fast on it even if its not SSM. Pretty Cheap on the scale of things too.
77mm filter. They are nuts. Besides his direct sun shot has clouds in it(no good as a test). If you want manual lens with quality and reputation, get a Rokkor with adapter.
There are no 35/1.4 Rokkors. The 49mm thread version of the MD 35/1.8 certainly has a size advantage over the Samyang, though.
Photozone likes the lens.
http://www.photozone.de/nikon_ff/658-samyang3514fx
At least Ken’s size comparison made me realise that I wouldn’t buy an oversized lens like the Samyang 35mm, when I can have something similar with half the weight:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/samyang/35mm-f14.htm#comp
BTW the bashing here is so uncool, since nobody posted a link to a more serious review.
A useless photographer that recommends turning up at house clearances of the recently deceased to save money.
no thanks.
Did he really? Link! Link!
I love how my deep dislike for this useless individual is so universally shared. 🙂
I would really like you to find a description other then STARBLOGGER for Ken Rockwell. Sorry but KR doesn’t even qualify for (FT1)
Mentioning Ken Rockwell = FAIL
The Ken Rockwell lovefest continues. LoL
When it comes down to the lens, its alright. I own it.
The one thing I can add is that the flare is lols-worthy when it occurs.
Rockwell’s review is a joke. He calls the lens a “total winner”. I call it a total LOSER! This lens exhibits atrocious vignetting on a FF body. The construction is shabby. And having a diaphragm consisting of 8 straight blades guarantees lousy bokeh. I wouldn’t touch this thing with a 10-foot pole.
Ken Rockwell is a joke, but this lens is indeed amazing for the price – if you don’t mind the size and weight. Koreans call this lens and 85mm as Sam-Zeiss or “Zeiss lens for poor photographers.”
Don’t ignore the lens just because Ken Rockwell recommended it.
I own Samyang 85mm and 8mm Fisheye. They are great! If you don’t mind focus manually, hehehe.
I am looking forward to buy this lens.
If you like compact lens, buy a Pentax. They offer “Limited” pencake lenses.
Sorry, I don’t put any faith in anything Ken Rockwell says.
I’m really happy with this lens!
http://vimeo.com/27187394
What an inane series of comments
I definitely will be acquiring Neither the new Sony FF, nor the Nikon. Am going back to Large Format with a Sinar P2 with 5×4 and 6×9 backs together with 3 Super Angulon’s, a tripod, Head and Meter. It can all be obtained for less than £2K. mainly secondhand.
The final nail in the coffin was inserted by my 13 yr old Grandaughter, who visited Chatsworth in Derbyshire for the day and loaded 1344 images onto my Mac.
I would have been happy to produce 2 images. If I was feeling really prolific maybe as many as 4, and I get to use a meter.
Goodbye Sony Rumours.