Dustin Abbott has completed his review of the Rokinon 50mm f/1.4 AS IF UNC. This is a lens that I find quite interesting, as it's now part of a very crowded field of capable autofocus 50mm lenses. The difficulty I have with this lens is its $399 price tag, which is above Canon's own, albeit aging (understatement of the year?) autofocus 50mm f/1.4. However, the reviewer here feels the optics of the Rokinon are superior to that of the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4.
That said, I do feel 50mm is a difficult focal length to manually focus accurately with the focusing screens that come standard in Canon DSLRs.
The challenge for most photographers will be the fact that this lens does not include autofocus. That makes it a lot more work! Despite the negatives here, however, you can probably tell that I enjoyed my time with this lens. In many ways it did win me over by producing some great images that I’m really proud of. I’ll also acknowledge that I am a bit of a masochist when it comes to photography; I enjoy the challenge of manual focus lenses. You will have to decide for yourself whether or not the excellent image quality from the lens is worth the challenges of acquiring images with it.
If Rokinon finds a way to sell this lens for $299, then they may get some takers. At the $399 retail price it sits at, I think only a select few will choose this lens over the multitude of other options out there. Even from a video standpoint, for $150 more, you can get the cinema version of this lens.