Rokinon 21mm f/1.4

Marky12 said:

Hello,

Got a chance to test out this lens tonight after work. I believe both are at f8. I will shoot some more over the weekend to see if I like it but so far so good.

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/22946100@N02/

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Would love to see how this lens is on Stars. Perhaps a 15 sec shot wide open at ISO 800 and post as is.

Want to see stars in the corners and also how it handles bright star blooming.

I have a 20mm Minolta f2.8, and it takes wonderful terrestrial images, but the nighttime star images expose how much corner distortion it has.



Thanks

Marky12 said:

Waipingqi said:

That's a really nice lens. It's just a huge shame Rokinon won't add electric contacts to their E-mount lenses.

It would be perfect if they would just do what Zeiss Loxia and Voigtlander's new E-mount series did.

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It's probably cost and the fact that they made it for different mounts. I know they did it for the 85f1.4 for Nikon but not the rest. Although this is made from quality plastic, it would feel really premium if it was made from metal. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for that.

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I agree it is the cost which is making them not add the Electronic contacts for Aperture and other EXIF info from the lens. I'm guessing they have the lens designed in 2 (or more) modular pieces, where the inner optical elements don't change across mounts and only the outer ones (mostly plastic) change, and easier for them cost-wise to manufacture just different mounts to go with the same inner elements. Adding any electronic elements here would require designing multiple variants again for each mount.

I was actually quite satisfied with the build quality of the Rokinon 12mm, except for the hood which I'm afraid I'll break it easily (while taking it out from the bag possibly) and given the huge diameter of that lens. Also the lens cap usually takes some effort to fit correctly, otherwise could easily fall off.

JimH123 said:

Would love to see how this lens is on Stars. Perhaps a 15 sec shot wide open at ISO 800 and post as is.

Want to see stars in the corners and also how it handles bright star blooming.

Click to expand...

Check these sample images:


Apparently they took sample shots but did not publish test results yet on Lenstip.

Looks okay, the 21mm vignettes quite strongly and it seems that focus of the lens they used was sharp in the center but slightly off for the edges. They also show the new 50mm F1.2:


Here purple fringing is again present, even more than in the 12mm F2, but the general lens sample images I have seen look very good.

oscarvdvelde said:

JimH123 said:

Would love to see how this lens is on Stars. Perhaps a 15 sec shot wide open at ISO 800 and post as is.

Want to see stars in the corners and also how it handles bright star blooming.

Click to expand...

Check these sample images:

http://www.optyczne.pl/8944-nowość-Samyang_21_mm_f_1.4_ED_AS_UMC_CS_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

Apparently they took sample shots but did not publish test results yet on Lenstip.

Looks okay, the 21mm vignettes quite strongly and it seems that focus of the lens they used was sharp in the center but slightly off for the edges. They also show the new 50mm F1.2:

http://www.optyczne.pl/8929-nowość-Samyang_50_mm_f_1.2_AS_UMC_CS_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

Here purple fringing is again present, even more than in the 12mm F2, but the general lens sample images I have seen look very good.

Click to expand...

Here is what I am looking for. I am using a Minolta 20mm f2.8 lens on a Sony A99 full frame camera.

Image 1 is a conventional landscape scene. As you can see, the 20mm lens handled this scene perfectly. I have no issues at all.



Image 2 is a 30 sec shot taken straight up for 30 sec at f2.8. 20mm is enough wide angle that the stars are not showing trails. But look at the upper left corner and see what it does to the brighter stars. First, they are elongated. That is coma distortion. Second, they have grown wings. That is astigmatism. It is especially difficult to produce a fast, wide angle lens that doesn't have this distortion.



And here is a crop of the upper left just so it is more visible. East to see the wings it grew.



And for comparison purposes, here is a shot with a Minolta 100mm f2.8 macro lens. I find that the macro lenses that I have tried really work good.



And here is the above image, along with 10 more just like it stacked together and processed. I added some labels after I finished processing.



And here is a Minolta 50mm f2.8 macro. The stars are such tiny points, you will need to expand to see.



And finally, a shot with a Tamron 24-70 f2.8 @ 24mm to show that it is handling the coma and astigmatism quite well. The shutter was open long enough that tiny star trails can be seen.

oscarvdvelde said:

JimH123 said:

Would love to see how this lens is on Stars. Perhaps a 15 sec shot wide open at ISO 800 and post as is.

Want to see stars in the corners and also how it handles bright star blooming.

Click to expand...

Check these sample images:

http://www.optyczne.pl/8944-nowość-Samyang_21_mm_f_1.4_ED_AS_UMC_CS_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

Apparently they took sample shots but did not publish test results yet on Lenstip.

Looks okay, the 21mm vignettes quite strongly and it seems that focus of the lens they used was sharp in the center but slightly off for the edges. They also show the new 50mm F1.2:

http://www.optyczne.pl/8929-nowość-Samyang_50_mm_f_1.2_AS_UMC_CS_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

Here purple fringing is again present, even more than in the 12mm F2, but the general lens sample images I have seen look very good.

Click to expand...

The samples that convinced me was this : http://lenswork.tistory.com/m/post/entry/Samyang-21mm-f14-ED-AS-UMC-CS-Review

Here's a white wall to show how much it vignettes.



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Marky12 said:

Marky12 said:

JimH123 said:

Would love to see how this lens is on Stars. Perhaps a 15 sec shot wide open at ISO 800 and post as is.

Want to see stars in the corners and also how it handles bright star blooming.

Click to expand...

Check these sample images:

http://www.optyczne.pl/8944-nowość-Samyang_21_mm_f_1.4_ED_AS_UMC_CS_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

Apparently they took sample shots but did not publish test results yet on Lenstip.

Looks okay, the 21mm vignettes quite strongly and it seems that focus of the lens they used was sharp in the center but slightly off for the edges. They also show the new 50mm F1.2:

http://www.optyczne.pl/8929-nowość-Samyang_50_mm_f_1.2_AS_UMC_CS_-_zdjęcia_przykładowe.html

Here purple fringing is again present, even more than in the 12mm F2, but the general lens sample images I have seen look very good.

Click to expand...

The samples that convinced me was this : http://lenswork.tistory.com/m/post/entry/Samyang-21mm-f14-ED-AS-UMC-CS-Review

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/22946100@N02/

Click to expand...

I looked at the star images and I can see that this lens has done a very, very good job on the stars. I don't see much distortion at all. I paid most attention to the f1.4 image since this is the real test. I can also see that this person didn't achieve perfect focus. I can see that the stars are just a tiny bit too fat. But overall this is really good.

Here's another one. Sorry no star pics as you can see.



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Marky12 said:

night photo

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That 21mm seems to have an internal reflection where there is a bright light near the edge of the image. Just a characteristic to take into account. It could be worse, I used a Tokina 16-28mm which shows odd rainbow-shaped rings around all streetlights.

Please don't laugh at me, but I'm considering buying this lense and it would be my first manual lense.

I was wondering, on my actual 16-50 kit lense mounted on my a6000, when I change the aperture or the time exposure I see directly the modification on the screen. For exemple when I modify the aperture I see directly the image on the screen being brighter or more dark without taking any shot, make it easier to shot in manual mode.

My question is, with this lense, if I modifiy the aperture will I see the direct effect on the screen as with my actual lense ? I don't know if you got what I meant ?

Sorry for this question, thank you all for the answers !

bibop83 said:

Please don't laugh at me, but I'm considering buying this lense and it would be my first manual lense.

I was wondering, on my actual 16-50 kit lense mounted on my a6000, when I change the aperture or the time exposure I see directly the modification on the screen. For exemple when I modify the aperture I see directly the image on the screen being brighter or more dark without taking any shot, make it easier to shot in manual mode.

My question is, with this lense, if I modifiy the aperture will I see the direct effect on the screen as with my actual lense ? I don't know if you got what I meant ?

Sorry for this question, thank you all for the answers !

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Yes you will see the change on the LCD and the EVF just like any other lenses.

The main differences with Manual no-electronic lenses as against AF lenses are:

• This lens has no electronic contact, so you cannot control the aperture from within the camera (using the dials), it needs to be set directly on the lens. There is a clickable ring for setting the aperture on the lens.
• Since the lens has no electrical contact, AutoFocus will also not work. You need to put the camera in MF mode, and adjust the focus ring on the lens manually to get the desired focus. You'll still be able to see the result in your EVF and LCD.
• No EXIF data from the lens will be sent back to the camera, so aperture information, Focal length, lens information and any other EXIF gathered from the lens will be blank in the pictures. Shutter speed will still be recorded as it is set directly on the camera.
• You need to change the camera settings to allow Shutter Release without lens, as the camera thinks that there is no lens attached.
• You can use tools on the camera like Focus Peaking and Focus Magnification to help you with focussing. In fact you can use these tools with your current AF lens as well and play around with it in MF mode. Even AF lenses will have a Focus ring on the lens which do a Focus-by-the-wire instead when in MF mode.

I hope this info helps.
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Flickr PhotoStream - https://www.flickr.com/photos/tuxdude

Yes that help a lot ! I think I can deal with the manual focus, but without the direct view of the changes it would be way to hard.

Would you get this lense compared to the Zeiss 24mm which is way more expensive, slower and more narrow, the Sigma 19mm, way slower but wider ? If we don't take into account the manual focusing.

I would get an all around prime lense to take landscape shots, street shot and I really really want a fast lense for night hikking shots and don't wanna spend 1000€ for it (I can find an used Zeiss but I'm nt really confident with that)

bibop83 said:

Yes that help a lot ! I think I can deal with the manual focus, but without the direct view of the changes it would be way to hard.

Would you get this lense compared to the Zeiss 24mm which is way more expensive, slower and more narrow, the Sigma 19mm, way slower but wider ? If we don't take into account the manual focusing.

I would get an all around prime lense to take landscape shots, street shot and I really really want a fast lense for night hikking shots and don't wanna spend 1000€ for it (I can find an used Zeiss but I'm nt really confident with that)

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Not sure what you mean by not seeing the change but manual focus and using aperture ring is pretty easy.









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Well, when I change the exposure time, I can see directly the changes on the EVF without taking the picture same for the aperture and the ISO, which is pretty useful to shot in manual for a beginner.

I also want to know about which lense would be the best between the Zeiss 24mm the rokinon and the sigma 19mm as I want an all around lense to get landscapes, street and night shots. I surely cannot afford the Zeiss and he is less bright than the roki but I could find an used one ( I don't really like buying used things without testing them...)

A beginning of an answer:

http://lenswork.tistory.com/entry/Samyang-21mm-f14-ED-AS-UMC-CS-Review

I don't know much but it looks like the samyang is performing better than the Zeiss

bibop83 said:

Well, when I change the exposure time, I can see directly the changes on the EVF without taking the picture same for the aperture and the ISO, which is pretty useful to shot in manual for a beginner.

I also want to know about which lense would be the best between the Zeiss 24mm the rokinon and the sigma 19mm as I want an all around lense to get landscapes, street and night shots. I surely cannot afford the Zeiss and he is less bright than the roki but I could find an used one ( I don't really like buying used things without testing them...)

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I own the Sigma 19mm, from the posted examples I have seen on web the Rokinon 21mm, I think it is quite a bit sharper on the edges and corners. I have the Rokinon 12mm, and it is easy to focus.

Craig NC said:

bibop83 said:

Well, when I change the exposure time, I can see directly the changes on the EVF without taking the picture same for the aperture and the ISO, which is pretty useful to shot in manual for a beginner.

I also want to know about which lense would be the best between the Zeiss 24mm the rokinon and the sigma 19mm as I want an all around lense to get landscapes, street and night shots. I surely cannot afford the Zeiss and he is less bright than the roki but I could find an used one ( I don't really like buying used things without testing them...)

Click to expand...

I own the Sigma 19mm, from the posted examples I have seen on web the Rokinon 21mm, I think it is quite a bit sharper on the edges and corners. I have the Rokinon 12mm, and it is easy to focus.

Click to expand...

Like a lot of Rokinon's, infinity is not where the infinity mark is so you would need to play around and see where it is, then mark it. I love the 12mm but cannot use it as a general purpose lens.

Is it too wide to be use as a general lense ? Maybe it's better to go with the 21mm so

bibop83 said:

Is it too wide to be use as a general lense ? Maybe it's better to go with the 21mm so

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Sorry, I was not suggesting the Rok 12mm instead. I was just siting my experience with it gives me some idea what to expect from the 21mm. I use 12mm a lot for landscape, but 21mm is more versatile.

Craig NC said:

bibop83 said:

Is it too wide to be use as a general lense ? Maybe it's better to go with the 21mm so

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Sorry, I was not suggesting the Rok 12mm instead. I was just siting my experience with it gives me some idea what to expect from the 21mm. I use 12mm a lot for landscape, but 21mm is more versatile.

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I think you will find the focus quite a bit smoother than the 12mm which I also own. For sure the 21mm is better for general use. If I were to travel with 3 lenses today, it would be the 12mm, 21mm, and one af lens (SEL35F18). If I'm forced to take just one, it would be the 21mm unless I'm dealing with a lot of movements.

Here's another pic.









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