Choices for glass in 2013?

D

Dermot

Well-known member
I'm thinking of moveing over to a set of Rokinon cine primes in F mount + Speedbooster with a F to EF (semi)permentantly attached to it, it's really a dumb F to E adpt / SpeedBoster


My lens case might look like this;
Rokinon 9.8 /2.4 (14 + Speedbooster)
Rokinon 14 / 3.1
Rokinon 17 /1.0 (24 + Speedbooster)
Rokinon 24 /1.0 (35 + Speedbooster)
Rokinon 35 /1.5
Rokinon 60 /1.0 (85 + Speedbooster)
Rokinon 85 /1.5


Existing glass;
Nikkor 130/2.4 (180 + Speedbooster)
Nikkor 180/2.8
Nikkor 210/3.2 (300 + Speedbooster)
Nikkor 300/4.5
28-70 Angenieux / 2.6-2.8 (F mount)
20-50 Angenieux / 2.1-2.2 (with Speedbooster)
Zeiss 80-200 /4.0 (stays in a CY mount + CY to E adpt)




And i would be replaceing these;
Zeiss 16-35 /2.8 A mount
Angenieux 28-70 A mount
Rokinon 85 1.4 A mount
EA-1 A to E adpt
Sony Emount 16 /2.8 + 12mm coke bottle


Advantages seem to be;
- real cine lenses - the short Zeiss was not a favorite of my AC...
- much faster
- wider range
- everything (but the long Zeiss zoom) is now F mount

Disadvantages seem to be;
- no wide(ish) variable prime where i often need it the most
- gap between 17 & 24
- gap between 35 & 60 - both offset by the Angeneux + SpeedBooster 20-50 /2.2
- big color changes between the Rokinon's & the Nikkor's
- nothing with autofocus or stablisation for Glidecam'n
- SpeedBooster will be offered with F mount soon, and they say it will support Fstops in G mount glass opening up modern Nikon glass, so i would sell on the EF version, but can't really wait to long as i need this to be tested for a shoot soon(ish)

opnions? thoughts? warnings?

Oh yea, i shoot drama stuff and work with an AC....

d
 
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The only thing I would mention is I've heard people have had to get their Rokinons/Samyangs sent back to get the aperture blades un-stuck. Sure enough it happened to me on my Rokinon 35mm Cine.. aperture blades get stuck and open and close intermittently... I've been able to work around it for a while, but it's come to a point where I just have to send it to get fixed...

Apart from that (most likely due to the low price), I'd say Rokinons are your best bet for the image quality...
 
stefanvanjaarsveld said:
The only thing I would mention is I've heard people have had to get their Rokinons/Samyangs sent back to get the aperture blades un-stuck. Sure enough it happened to me on my Rokinon 35mm Cine.. aperture blades get stuck and open and close intermittently... I've been able to work around it for a while, but it's come to a point where I just have to send it to get fixed...

Apart from that (most likely due to the low price), I'd say Rokinons are your best bet for the image quality...
Click to expand...

This happened to me on my Rokinon 24mm also. Got stuck at f8.
 
I have all five Rokinon Cine lenses in E-mount and they have worked flawlessly to date.
Not having to use an adapter is huge plus in my opinion.

Hope they release their 50mm lens soon.
 
Dermot said:
How long did it take to fail? I have has an 85 that's been fine for the last year or so.... was it noticable when new, ie something i could reject if i test and buy localy?
Click to expand...


Happened about a month or two after I got it. My 35mm is still going strong without any hint of issues, and I got that long before the 24.
 
I had a Rokinon 35mm f1.4 and while I think it's good for the price, I definitely prefer my Zeiss primes and Canon L zooms over it. The Samyang is technically very good: sharp image, good focus throw, but compared the Zeiss and Canon Ls (which grade together pretty nicely), there's a noticeable yellow cast over the image, kind of like Sigma lenses which I definitely don't like.

I ended up selling the Samyang and replace it with a Zeiss 35mm f2. It's 2x the price so that's a bit hard to swallow, but dang... those Zeiss colors are so nice. But yeah, for the price the Samyangs are good for sure.
 
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