Need your Samyang/Rokinon/Bower/Walimex 35mm 1.4 experiences!

[sandymandy]

Hi there,

im seriously considering getting the Samyang/Rokinon/Walimex 35mm 1.4 lens since the Canon L lenses are too pricy for me yet i still want really good image quality. Greedy me...

Anyway what are your experiences with the Samyang 35mm 1.4 without using live view! I plan to use it solely with the viewfinder cuz liveview is just too slow for my needs. In my experience if i wanna take a portrait even my friends become somewhat nervous and "camera shy" so i wanna be quick when focussing.

Im mostly running around with m42 manual focus lenses on my APS-C so i imagine it cant be that much different having the Samyang but my fastest m42 35mm lens is just f/2.8

[Faaier]

I'm perhaps not the most experienced user, but I just bought the samyang 35 (for canon uhem... ) and it really is something different. I haven't L glass to compare it with, but I have the 17-55 as my "standard".
If you get focus right on the samyang it is razersharp. Yes it lacks autofocus, but I find it very natural to focus with it, instead of determining the zoom "distance"... 
And yes, you need to set your aperture manually on the lens instead of choosing it electronically.
Oh, I'm using the 50D and the viewfinder is standard, but a bit of practise and you get focus more right then wrong. Unless your shooting distance is 30cm and with an aperture of 1.4... focusing with the VF is not too difficult.

There is an option for an add-on chip to get AF confirmation from the camera, but at the moment I love the feeling of vintage shooting.
Another option is take aNother brands version which has some AF feedback and use an adapter ring.

No regrets at all.

[sandymandy]

Ive used other manual focus lenses before I just wasnt sure if having something wide open as 1.4 will be easy to handle with no AF confirmation or liveview.

[extremeinstability]

If it is anything like the Samyang 14 that I recently purchased, the manual focus ring/range will be loooonnnggg.  I'm guessing it will be quite similar.  It's a whole lot different than the ring on the canon's I've owned.  For infinity it is great, since you know on the ring about where to put it and a large area will be all similar.  Would take some getting used to over the canon's though, where you have such a small movement range that goes into and then back out of focus when spinning the ring.  The 14 is so long there is a long range you can't see any difference in the viewfinder.  And since it's so long and different than canon you can't feel it there.  But yeah again it's probably easier anyway given such a larger range is in focus.  Just feels really weird. 

[sandymandy]

I dont understand it. Do u mean having this large focus ring is negative to manual focus with the viewfinder or positive?

[koolman]

Hi,

I own the Samyang 85mm MF,and the 14mm MF

I use the 85mm as a portrait lens. The canon version does not have focus confirmation = you need LV.

The only real way to get a sharp shot, is to use a tripod, and have a subject who can sit still for a few seconds = not suited for most children, or in a casual setting where people are moving around.

For quick portrait shots, I would not recommend MF lens.

Having said all the above, the IQ of the 85mm is awesome, and I understand the 35mm is just as good.

[extremeinstability]

I dont understand it. Do u mean having this large focus ring is negative to manual focus with the viewfinder or positive?

I guess I don't even know.  I always shoot stuff at infinity so it's fine for me.  It's just a lot different than manual focusing most canon lenses where one can at least get used to the feel of where to stop, given it's quite a fast change from clearly soft to focus then back to soft.  And perhaps it's just most odd with 14mm where it's harder to tell a difference on stuff at infinity given how small it is.  But anyway, can't say if it's positive or negative.  Just a lot different. 

[Standard]

I do not have the 35mm version but I do own and shoot with the Samyang 14mm. My copy is the sharpest lens out of all my Canon L lenses when focusing is spot on (and when it's not, the image quality is still comparable to my 24L II...that's how sharp this lens is. Every blade of grass, every autumn leave is crisp and clean). I have shot with it both manually using viewfinder as well as Live View at x5 and x10 magnification. Because of the ultra-wide focal length, I find it superb for landscape and prefer to focus using Live View. It's fairly easy to use as I normally use a tripod with mirror lockup anyway when shooting landscape.

You may already know that while Samyang lenses are generally superb in many respect, there are a good number of frustrated users. This is because first off, it is a manual lens and as such manual lenses are different and a bit harder to use if you have only used AF lenses. It does not have focus confirmation, not on the Canon mount version and the Nikon version isn't all that great. I have installed a chip on mine. As a matter of fact, I have two different chips which I alternate using it with. I do not use the chip for focusing confirmation but rather simply for gathering correct EXIF data for organization purposes. The focusing ring on many copies are off, and I mean off quite a bit, so you will have to get use to your own copy to judge correctly distance so you can nail focus if you don't use Live View. There's a thread on POTN which I would be happy to find which explains how to do this as well as manually taking off the focusing ring and re-aligning it to read correctly.

And yes, as some have pointed out, if you're using the 35mm for shooting action shots it may be difficult to nail focus but this is generally true of all manual lenses. But don't let that stop you, I have found examples of great action images shot with this lens using VF with beautiful DOF. I am looking to own a 35mm lens and is patiently waiting for the Mark II version but the Samyang 35mm is looking like a beautiful alternative. I hope this helps.

[sandymandy]

Well im poor so an L lenses is highly unachievable thing for me. So my dream so far is the Samyang 35mm 1.4. I dont shoot action stuff anyway.

[extremeinstability]

Not sure if you've seen this site or not, but good review here:  http://www.lenstip.com/297.1-Lens_review-Samyang_35_mm_f_1.4_AS_UMC_.html

Quick glance it beats the Canon in vignetting and coma.  Resolution looks great stopped down just a bit, which ain't asking much coming from F1.4.  That might actually be my next lens.  Though I know I'll get all these primes built up, only to turn around and sell them all to buy the 24-70L II to simplify life. 

[Policar]

This is a very nice lens; the center isn't as sharp as the L at f1.4 and it doesn't get quite as crisp as the best lenses in the world once stopped down (edges are never perfect due to a tiny bit of CA mostly), but it might be the sharpest thing I own...definitely better than my L zooms. The 50mm f1.8 puts up a lot of competition for sharpest lens I own once it gets to f5.6 (and I know a major photographer who's published many books who swears by this lens for sharp images, and he has a huge kit of the nicest L telephotos you've seen), but the bokeh is poor, which is an issue for some more than it is for others.

The fact that other MF 35mm lenses go for so much more, even the 35mm f1.4 AIS Nikon (which is a very poor performer wide open), is ridiculous. Optically this is as good as the best. Bokeh is good. Build quality is good except the focus ring is sometimes marked wrong and the infinity stop goes beyond infinity. It might be a little longer than 35mm according to some anecdotes...

I can't stand it for stills, though, because it's too hard to focus. My favorite lens for stills is my 50mm f1.8, I think. So if you're shooting APS-C that should be a similar focal length, but focusing will be hard! If you get a split prism screen or didn't mind using live view you'd be fine, but for stills I'd choose a 35mm f2 instead unless you're okay with live view.

[sandymandy]

Yeah i figure i gotta wait til i get FF to actually make good use of the Samyang so probably ill just get the 35mm f2 even im not too positive about it.