Samyang 24 f/1.4 is coming

[dr croubie]

They've already got the 8mm fisheye, 14 f/2.8, 35 f/1.4, 85 f/1.4.
Now they're bringing in the 24 f/1.4.

My predictions: MF-only is fairly certain, centre should be sharp and corners maybe a bit fuzzy, 1/4 the price of the canon L, same size and maybe a bit lighter. Who wouldn't want one?

 

[jsixpack]

on these Samyang lenses is the aperture electric like the Zeiss ones or will you need to do step-down metering??

JSP

 

[dr croubie]

On photozone.de where they've reviewed the 8, 35, 85, all of them are pure old-fashioned turn-a-ring stop-down aperture, so i'm guessing the 24 1.4 would be too. But you gotta expect some shortcomings for the prices...

 

[Hillsilly]

And it has a red ring!

I've only started seeing the brand in recent months and they don't seem to get reviewed much. Just wondering if anyone has used one of their lenses? Their fisheyes and 14mm look well priced and MF wouldn't worry me. Optically, are they ok? Are they anywhere near the Canon 14mm or should I continue to keep saving?

 

[YoukY63]

And it has a red ring!

I've only started seeing the brand in recent months and they don't seem to get reviewed much. Just wondering if anyone has used one of their lenses? Their fisheyes and 14mm look well priced and MF wouldn't worry me. Optically, are they ok? Are they anywhere near the Canon 14mm or should I continue to keep saving?

I have used the 85mm f/1.4 and the 8mm f/3.5 on my previous pentax K20D and now I am using the 14mm f2.8 on my 5D mark II.

In Canon mount, they are all complete manual lenses. But for Pentaxians they have a "A" position on the Aperture ring, so they can work as any modern lens, just AF is missing. For Nikon, a version containing a chip is available for each model (AE) giving light metering on bodies, and aperture can be managed on body for D7000 and higher models if I am correct.

Optically, Samyang lenses are as good as their main opponents! You can find very good reviews on PhotoZone and on Lenstip websites.

More specifically, the 24mm I am using on the 5DII is as good if not better than the Canon 14mm F2.8L II! Especially, the resolution is razor sharp from edge to edge, even at f/2.8! The only drawback is a "mustache" distortion, difficult to correct for people doing architectural pictures (read the reviews on he previously cited websites for more details). Hopefully, you can correct easily correct the distortion using the cheap software PTLens and the integrated correction module.

Another very good and important news is the "almost" official announcement of the development of a Tilt & Shift lens by Samyang. The information was given by Rokinon, Samyang distributor in North America.
For memory, even Nikon and Canon's T&S lenses lack autofocus. So if optical quality of the Korean counterpart is just equal, that would be a "revolution" in the T&S little world!!

 

[Hillsilly]

Thanks for your comments. Had a look at the reviews. Makes for some interesting reading.

A low price tilt-shift lens would be very very tempting.

 

[J. McCabe]

Another very good and important news is the "almost" official announcement of the development of a Tilt & Shift lens by Samyang. The information was given by Rokinon, Samyang distributor in North America.
For memory, even Nikon and Canon's T&S lenses lack autofocus. So if optical quality of the Korean counterpart is just equal, that would be a "revolution" in the T&S little world!!

Canon's TS-E lenses are, indeed, manual focus.

I wonder if those lenses would be significantly cheaper w/o hurting performance, as in this case Samyang would be unable to cut price by not putting in the AF motor and electronics that aren't in Canon's lens to begin with.

 

[dr croubie]

A low price tilt-shift lens would be very very tempting.

Pentacon Six Tilt adapters are $100 on ebay, zeiss lenses $1-200, soviets down to $30. But nothing (good) wider than 50mm though (except 30mm fisheye)...
(and only tilt or shift at once, unless you shell out a few hundred for a zoerk adapter)

So if optical quality of the Korean counterpart is just equal, that would be a "revolution" in the T&S little world!!

i don't think anything's going to come close to the TS-E 24mm vII for resolution, even from canon themselves. But if Samyang can pull off the IQ-level of the 14/2.8 into a TS-E model for even half the price of the canon, i'd get one...

 

[NormanBates]

I've never actually used one, but from what I've read around the web I really like samyang lenses
(when they started coming out, I already had a nice set of vintage leitz primes; I'm lacking on the wide angle side of things, and I think I'll go samyang when the time comes to fill that gap)

for example, check out these tests: the samyang 85mm f/1.4 is much, much closer to the way more expensive canon 85mm f/1.2 or zeiss 85mm f/1.4 than to the canon 85mm f/1.8, specially in terms of bokeh, which is really important in a 85mm lens
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/483-samyang_85_14_5d?start=1
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/536-zeiss85f14eosff?start=1
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/502-canon_85f12ff?start=1
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/419-canon_85_18_5d?start=1

the samyang 8mm is the fisheye I want; for the 14mm I'm torn between the samyang and the tokina 11-16 (which can work as a 16mm on full-frame bodies); for 24mm I had my eyes on the canon 24mm f/2.8, but I'll have to consider this new samyang lens too

but first I have to wait and see what my next body will be...

(oh, and that's where another samyang advantage comes in: being fully manual, I can get a samyang lens for nikon mount and adapt it to canon, sony, m43, etc, whereas the tokina 11-16 or the canon 24mm would have to get sold if I switched to, say, nikon)

 

[AJ]

I wonder when Samyang is going to produce a fast fifty.

 

[pgabor]

I wonder when Samyang is going to produce a fast fifty.

A 50mm and a 135mm.

Btw here's a picture of the 24mm (from dpreview):