The Rokinon 8mm fisheye via ThePhoBlographer.
Samyang (also known as Rokinon) is a well known company that makes some amaizng lenses for different mounts. But until now all their lenses were manual focusing only. But in a recent interview at Techradar (Click here) they unveiled that they are going to release their first autofocus lenses for the NEX system in 2013. Good to hear we don’t have to rely on Sony and Zeiss only to get some good quality E-mount lenses!
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I like Rokinon/Samyang lenses a lot and I recommend you the following two lenses for Alpha mount:
1) The 35mm f/1.4: In US you can find it as Rokinon at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and on [shoplink 7453 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. In Europe the name is Samyang and you can find it on [shoplink 7380 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and with the name Wallimex again on [shoplink 7831 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
2) 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].
71 Responses
Wow. Why a sudden change in policy? O.O how much did Sony pay Samyang to put in AF in their lenses? I am not surprised.. if they could convince Zeiss they could convince anybody else.
Dont think Sony paid them anything.
Btw, this is not a rumor. It is a fact and was published more than 10 days ago.
I want to know real rumors about the FF Sony replacements for the A850 and A900.
How come your “trusted” sources never seem to give information that people want to know but only what Sony wants to push at any given moment.
Personally I’m tired of the all-NEX-all-the-time here. I’ll probably get a NEX in the future for the small size but I really come here looking to get good rumors on A-mount — not the E-mount.
Did you not see the A57, 70-200mm, 150-400mm, the A99 with 24Megapixel and 104.000 ISO rumor we posted in one month? 🙂
Then go start your own website, Photo Nut.
Well that was mostly rehashing old rumors from even last year. Who cares if Sony is rereleasing the same old expensive lens again — even if it is now with SSM instead of screw-drive.
What I’m talking about is real news about next Sony FF camera. For example, how far along it is , whether it is being tested, how much it might cost?
I have to really hand it to the DSLR companies — they really know how to hide their unreleased products and keep testers, marketers and others from talking.
Unfortunately for SONY though, they have this image of a giant impersonal corporation which doesn’t care about the individual. They just don’t provide any avenue to interact properly with their customers and to receive feedback from them.
If SONY is listening, I am currently using A700 and A850 and will be willing to *discretely* test prototype next generation SONY FF DSLR. And especially a prototype full frame NEX type camera.
Currently, I find that my A850 and A700 just can’t shoot the type of pictures I like to shoot very well — ie, low light pictures. Once I hit ISO 400 I start seeing a good amount of per-pixel noise and when I’m in ISO 1000,1200 range, it is quite noisy and the 24mpx of image does not show much clear details. At ISO 2,000 and above the details and subtle color gradations are all gone and with RAW noise reduction everything is very smeared.
Note that there is a difference between shooting ISO 1600 in a bright location (higher shutter speed) and shooting ISO 1600 in available light (low shutter speed). The first scenario is not very good but passes, the second is the one that is unacceptable to me.
So I am in need of a new FF body refresh for high iso performance — something that matches the SONY 16mpx sensor or even the new 36mpx sensor — and support for video. I’m willing to cope with EVF if that guarantees a stellar product.
People compare the SONY FF cameras (A900 and A850) to the Canon 5D MkII but to me that is an inaccurate comparison. My A850 feels more like a 5D classic except for the increase in megapixels. Both the 5D classic and A900/A850 lack live-view & video.
Live view makes focusing manual lenses and landscape@infinity much easier/accurate while video makes it possible to capture shoot vignettes of an event without having to carry a camcorder and its associated accessories in addition to my camera gear. In many cases it is almost impossible to carry both at the same time and also you have to stop shooting and put away the SONY DSLR in order to use the camcorder to shoot video. It would be much easier to just switch to video mode and capture the desired scenes using the same camera and lenses in my hand and without dropping anything and fearing it will be stolen.
Anyway….. I come to this site daily but I’m really tired of all the tiny and numerous NEX articles. Please find/get more reliable SONY DSLR/SLT rumor sources.
150-400mm? Andrea – is this the surprise?
So the only reason Samyang would do AF was if they were paid to do it by Sony? Way to troll
What about basic economy? The cost of putting AF in the lenses are lower than the income gathered by a bigger sale (many people are put off by lack of AF)
Zeiss are not “convinced”, they have a business agreement. Sony pay them to do lens designs. Just as Panasonic do towards Leica. Zeiss and Leica both need more business. A win win.
So Sony paid Sigma to put AF into their Sony mount lenses too then did they? Er, no.
As for Sony Zeiss lenses, Sony manufacture them!
Not needed, Sony E-mount is open for anyone to make lens. Same as m4/3s and 4/3s. So they can make quite reliable AF without reverse engineering (which is what Sigma, Tamron and Tokina does in order to achieve AF on Canon/Nikon/Pentax/Sony). Tho theres slight exception that Tamron doesnt need to reverse engineer anything on Sony as they make regular lens for Sony. And I think Sigma had some silent agreement with Pentax (thats probably why Sigma usually behaves nicely on Pentax).
The more the merrier =)
And what about the new Samyang 8mm e-mount?
Is it still available this month ?
Like!!! Sony is not capable of satisfying ever-growing expectation from NEX users.. nice to see other brands investing on nex mount.. especially samyang is making good prime (and rare) lens! (my wish list: 24, 50mm f/0.95 pls)
Excellent news.
I was very happy with the original 8mm Rokinon Fisheye I tested, so this is awesome news!! They make really good fast glass for a very reasonable price.
The full Manual kept the price way down though, so hopefully they won’t cost to much. Don’t get me wrong, you usually get what you pay for with glass so whatever it costs it costs. I just can’t see them being cheap when they dump in all that R&D and add the electronics ect..
Time will tell,
Jay
amazing news, i can’t wait
Good news! I’m very pleased to hear it. I wonder what lenses will become available first? I’d particularly like to see a short tele lens in the 70 – 100mm range.
I’d be first in line to buy an 85mm.
I am looking forward to the Sigma 30/2.8. It has not made its way to Holland yet. The price makes (189 Euros) it the cheapest prime lens for the NEX. It is an all glass lens as well! 🙂
Their 35/1.4 is really impressive but it’s so big to be practical. I hope they release some lenses with that quality for the E-Mount too.
Yeah but that is because they are full frame, native E-Mount will be a lot smaller – check out their fisheye for E for example.
The Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens is not too large and is very nice. I wish Sigma would release a smaller version of that lens for E-mount.
What’s that viewfinder adapter thing in the foto above? Or is it part of the lens? Never seen before.
Erm do you mean the NEX-5n add-on EVF?
Really? Have you ever checked Sony’s NEX web page? lol
This is big and welcome news for samyang. They make great lenses and now they are started to release AF lenses there is nothing stopping them!
Why everybody happy about crap lenses?
John,
Have you ever used a Samyang lens?
They are certainly not crap, some of the best lenses ive ever used.
crappy?? they out-perform some of the Canikon equivalents in optical and built quality
they outperform the bottom of the heap worst of the worsts from canikon!
battle of the toy lenses? one eyed is king of the blind!
you sir, are an ill-informed jerk. Samyang optics are great- the addition of AF will make them a very competitive alternative to sigma and sony alike.
My guess is that because Samyang don’t have to license the mount/electronics for E-Mount that is why they are doing AF in E-Mount?
+1 sony open the E-mount license to anyone.
they dont licence, third-party companies have to reverse engineering the AF protocols, and that takes a lot of research and development costs, don’t always work, it was the case of some sigmas with the SLT’s that have to be re-chipped
No, not for E-mount. The Sony’s E-mount specifications are open.
+1 .
This was a very good decision from Sony. The specs are free, no royalty but you can not just download them at least for now. I suppose you need to ask Sony for them.
They should make it 100% public, that would allow a hughe range of lenses and accessories, and help the e-mount settle as a standard
correction, Sony do license the A-mount it’s just Sigma (unlike say Tamron) prefers not to pay the fess so they reverse engineer hence they can run into problems later down the line with newer bodies whereas you don’t get that problem with Tamron lenses.
The NEX E-mount however is supposed to be free and open to 3rd party lens makers
How do you now they would license it to Sigma? Sony maintains an 11% share hold in Tamron.
Sony will probably license A-mount to anybody that pays.
Tokina may also have paid as they don’t have the problems Sigma have.
It is too much of a coincidence that Sigma are unlucky at staying within the lens mount specifications, but Tamron and Tokina have not been unlucky.
Because it’s in their interests to do so. It’s free money to Sony and they get additional lens support (badly needed given Canon & Nikon have a better catalogue of lenses).
Or to put it another way why on earth would Sony refuse? You think because Sony has a stake in Tamron it’s makes sense for them to hinder Sigma’s access to A-mount? afraid the net affect of that would only be to cripple A-mount cameras and which game do think Sony wants to win at? being a top dog 3rd party lens maker for Canon/Nikon? or being a top dog camera maker?
Crappy? The Samyang 35mm f1.4 is the second highest scoring lens on the market on dxomark website. Not bad for a £360 lens!
So we have third party lenses with AF from Tamron, Sigma and now Samyang! the future looks good for E-mount, opening the E-mount specifications to third-party companies was a smart move from Sony
Yes it was! Sony look more interested in knocking out lots of camera rather than lenses. I hope we see a retro nex.
I hope Tamron produce some cheap primes. This is how i want to us my nex a 30mm prime on camera and a few more primes in my pocket.
I would appreciate UWA e-mount primes, but obviously that is the most difficult task not only for Sony.
Yeah, an UWA lens with AF would be awesome. Makes so much sense. lol
Sorry… Not adequate thread…
But I took the last one:
Rumors of OSS in 500mmF4
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1037&thread=40963022
@Andrea: Is it the BIG surprise ?
The original text doesn’t mention any OSS for the SAL500F40G.
I think the poster refers to this section (From google translation):
During the trial period with the body is A77, the lens is 750mm equivalent focal length of it, although the anti-shake feature, but are still quite dependent on the stent.
Presumably they are talking IBIS though?
Does that mean that prices will go up?
For sure. Hope it will remain cheaper than other 3rd party offering.
I have the 14mm and it’s an amazing lens when fitted to a full frame, amazingly sharp, but color does shift.
I hope they will release a large aperture 35 mm… The lack of this kind of lense (50mm eq) is more and more annoying…
“Good to hear we don’t have to rely on Sony and Zeiss only to get some good quality E-mount lenses!”
Tamron …
*runs away
We need more of that voodoo-magic VC.
sorry, mistake…
damn! i want amount samyang 85 1.4 AF 😀
So…. They’re doing the job Sony should be doing. Instead of releasing a continuos stream of cutting edge bodies without lens support.
pls make a 12mm pancake
and 85 1.8
Either way, that photo with the lens looks great! I sold my Leica M8 with Leica primes and then dropped down to a Leica/Panasonic. Now, it’s the A900 with Zeiss but once again its very specialized in where I can comfortably shoot. The NEX7 with a decent lens may very well be where I end up. I’m not at all a fisheye fan but that lens looks very nice.
What a no-brainer.
Will they focus to infinity? Or will they focus as usual?
“Good to hear we don’t have to rely on Sony and Zeiss only to get some good quality E-mount lenses!”
Tamron
Sigmas 30mm dn for the NEX is out this month but not particularly fast at F/2.8 but it will do me for the time being.
AWESOME news! I hope they make a 35mm 😀
This is great news, I have FS100 and i was looking to get 24mm 1.4 or 35mm 1.4 Samyang. lol. i was just get about to get 35mm.
With AF its gona be great.
24mm f/1.4 will gonna be huge. If they decide to make f2.8 or f3.5 lens, this could be a true pancake.
But some people just don’t give a shit about pancake, so Samyang can proceed with an autofocus lens in any size.
FS100 and AF? That’s an oxymoron. Typical FS100 use is with a tripod / rig / rails / Steadicam configuration and MF w/ a follow-focus wheel 🙂
Any updates on Rokinon e-mount lenses? I’d love to see their holy trinity (14, 24, 35) converted to e-mount.