Three More XEEN Lenses Coming

[Canon Rumors Guy]

<p>Rokinon/Samyang <a href="http://www.canonrumors.com/2015/08/rokinon-launches-xeen-cine-lenses/">announced a new line of cine lenses this week called XEEN</a>. Along with the announcement came a trio of lenses at various focal lengths, a 24mm, 50mm, and 85mm all T1.5. Each lens is priced at a very competitive $2495 USD.</p>
<p>It looks like 3 more lenses are in the plans for the XEEN line, an ultrawide which is either 14mm or 16mm, a 35mm as well as a telephoto that is either 100mm or 135mm.</p>

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

Until proven otherwise, the new lens Xeen has the same optical design, in a new well-built housing, with standard sizes for follow focus, matte box, and other cinema accessories.

But it's worth paying $ 2500 for a lens with the same optical quality of a model that costs $ 400?

 

[kubelik]

Until proven otherwise, the new lens Xeen has the same optical design, in a new well-built housing, with standard sizes for follow focus, matte box, and other cinema accessories.

But it's worth paying $ 2500 for a lens with the same optical quality of a model that costs $ 400?

haven't been following this super closely, but is it confirmed that it's the same optical design? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but it just seems so ludicrous that Rokinon would suddenly upcharge by 500% just for an improved lens body but no new glass... struggling to think of why anyone at Rokinon would think this is a good business decision

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

Until proven otherwise, the new lens Xeen has the same optical design, in a new well-built housing, with standard sizes for follow focus, matte box, and other cinema accessories.

But it's worth paying $ 2500 for a lens with the same optical quality of a model that costs $ 400?

haven't been following this super closely, but is it confirmed that it's the same optical design? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but it just seems so ludicrous that Rokinon would suddenly upcharge by 500% just for an improved lens body but no new glass... struggling to think of why anyone at Rokinon would think this is a good business decision

Up to now no one put their hands on these lenses to analyze the optical quality. The release announcement speaks on 11 blade iris, and cites no more optical change. If it were a new optical design, I would expect to see a great buzz about it.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I'm wondering if advances in autofocus technology and the ability to remotely program and control the exact point of focus will finally start to make inroads into the cinema area and obsolete manual entry level cinema lenses..

Certainly, for wedding photographers and pj's autofocus is needed, and that could spread to indie movie makers, and many low budget users already take advantage of automation.

This might be why the price is so high, they see a need to recover costs as soon as possible.

 

[Bernard]

Certainly, for wedding photographers and pj's autofocus is needed, and that could spread to indie movie makers, and many low budget users already take advantage of automation.

Locally, the wedding photographers with the best reputations and highest rates don't use AF. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of successful wedding professionals who rely on AF, but it's not "needed."

AF is a timewaster on a narrative film set. You would need to pre-program which part of the image needs to be in focus at what time, how fast to rack between focus points, how much to compensate when actors miss their marks (you may not want another part of the frame to go too far out of focus), and a million other decisions that focus pullers make on the fly. In addition, you would want to be sure that the focus never (ever!) hunts or overshoots, because that can ruin a take.

The one thing that AF could do (in theory) is follow improvised action. You just have to hard-wire it to the director's brain so that it knows which actor to follow: do you want another actor's reaction to the improvisation? That's often the best shot.

 

[gregory4000]

New lens, design, coatings and optics.
NOT a rehousing of existing lenses.

 

[kubelik]

New lens, design, coatings and optics.
NOT a rehousing of existing lenses.

gregory, is this a gut feel or have you seen some info on this posted somewhere? if they are brand new optics (aka significantly improved sharpness and resolution), and if they maintain their coma and astigmatism performance, I think $2.5K wouldn't be too much to ask for a 24mm for use as an astrophotography lens that also does second duty as a manual cine lens. at least that's what I'm holding out hope for ... seems like despite all the action going on in the wide angle DSLR lens segment right now nobody is even trying to improve coma performance

 

[Bdube]

Most wide angles are already extremely well corrected for coma. The effect mislabeled as coma due to ken rockwell and lenstip labeling it as such is a combination of oblique sagittal spherical aberration and field curvature/astigmatism.

The length of the wings is largely to do with the quantity of OSSA while the "fatness" is due to field curvature/astigmatism.

Two examples - fuji 16/1.4 - http://www.lenstip.com/449.7-Lens_review-Fujifilm_Fujinon_XF_16_mm_f_1.4_R_WR_Coma__astigmatism_and_bokeh.html mostly limited by oblique spherical, one stop down pretty much removes it all (as it should for spherical aberration).

Voigtlander 10.5/0.95 - http://www.lenstip.com/445.7-Lens_review-Voigtlander_Nokton_10.5_mm_f_0.95_Coma__astigmatism_and_bokeh.html

Stopping down it turns into a diamond, basically. This is a classic image of a spot suffering from astigmatism.

Coma looks like a comet: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Baader_Rowe_Coma_Corrector_Comparison.jpg

 

[garret]

Lenstip uses a LED for imaging/ measure coma effects, this is adequate but with a light source emitted from a very small aperture (about 10 micron) the coma effect is far more clear, or imaging stars with any tested lens.