Does Rokinon match well with old Nikkors?

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eswaranb

Member
Hey Guys,

I am trying to put together a lens set for video work (to be used with Gh2) and I already have a couple of Nikkors (28mm f2 and 50mm f1.4, both AIs) and I was initially considering adding a 35mm f2 AIs to this set. But all this talk about Rokinon 35mm beating the old Nikkors hands down in sharpness/contrast made me think twice. I totally don't mind going with the Rokinon but I am worried about the color matching between the Nikkors and the Rokinon. Anyone here mixing and matching footage from Rokinons and Nikkors? I am trying to avoid doing post-work to match the footage coming from different lenses. Any suggestion/guidance is appreciated!

Thanks,
 
Don't take my word one hundred percent, but most likely they will match. I played with the Voigtlander 25mm, my AI-S Nikkors and an Oly zoom. The colors were not very different - only sharpness. But I have heard the Rokinons are more contrasty. I myself prefer the Nikkors for their less contrasty images, but do wish they were sharper for stills.
 
Night time with lighting, pretty close, Daytime NOT EVEN CLOSE..... This is the main reason I am getting rid of my older lenses. Nikkor lenses during the day have washed out low contrast look. Rokinon IMO look amazing in daylight and nigh time. Crazy that I just noticed this on a recent shoot and seen this post so I had to comment.

A great advantage of using the GH2 was because of older lenses, BUT those older lenses provide a certain "unique" look that cannot be corrected in post, meanwhile a modern lens in post can be given that older look.

I just bought the Rokinon 24mm and my next purchase might be the 35mm or now a more modern 50mm lens as I am going to be selling my Nikkor AI-S lenses.
 
That was very helpful. Yes, I do like the look of the Nikkors, but every movie doesn't need them. Sigh, I was hoping to go on and build a Nikkor set, now I am back to figuring out what's the best investment for the long term.

How is the Rokinon 24mm looking? Maybe I will just get the Rokinon 24,35,85mm and make it a set.
 
A number of guys over on RedUser are buying Rokinon lenses for their Scarlets - seemingly they work really well on 5K (not as good as Zeiss or Cooke, clearly, but well enough given the price). I have a full set of vintage Nkkors that I love, but they do have a 'look' that is hard to define, especially in sunlight, they are very warm and a bit soft. I am buying a full set of Rokinon, and keeping the Nikkors for certain projects where I want a look baked in, but I don't think I'll be mixing them.
 
My experience is that the 35mm Samyang gives a warmer tone to the image with reds, blues, and every other colour 'popping' whilst the Nikkors are 'cooler'. So you would need to match them. Samyang's have this 'commercial' look where the things you photograph are shown for you to 'eat' them. Nikkor's are for you eyes to 'enjoy' them.
 
simonpwood said:
A number of guys over on RedUser are buying Rokinon lenses for their Scarlets - seemingly they work really well on 5K (not as good as Zeiss or Cooke, clearly, but well enough given the price). I have a full set of vintage Nkkors that I love, but they do have a 'look' that is hard to define, especially in sunlight, they are very warm and a bit soft. I am buying a full set of Rokinon, and keeping the Nikkors for certain projects where I want a look baked in, but I don't think I'll be mixing them.
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Excellent post and I agree with you 10000%. I think in the future when I can afford the time and crew to have another set of lenses I will buy a Nikkor set from 24mm to 100+mm
I like the Nikkors a lot, but going for a more modern look now and I currently like the look of Rokinon lenses. Panasonic lenses on GH2 are overly sharp and I don't like them for people, great for buildings where you want sharp edges though.
 
I guess it will depend on how strict your demands are. For some people, I'm not even sure Samyang lenses will match each other perfectly: the 35mm is extremely sharp but has only-decent bokeh, the 85mm is not spectacularly sharp but has amazing bokeh. Not a Samyang-specific problem in any case: here you can read Timur Civan complaining that the Zeiss compact primes (mk1) don't match each other: http://timurcivan.blogspot.com.es/2011/07/examination-of-lenses-carl-zeiss.html
 
I have no problems matching all of my lenses... Nikkor, Samyang/Rokinon, Pentacon, and Contax zeiss. However, I never try the nikkor outside so I wouldn't know. With color grading, you wouldn't see that much different would ya?
 
Btw, I just bought a Rokinon 35mm. And I already have a Nikkor 28mm f2. I quickly tried some comparison shots indoors with both lenses at f2.8 and I kind of liked the look of Nikkors more :). They definitely look different and I don't think it would cut together very well without careful post-processing work. I am planning to do more comparison shots outdoors and I will post some pics here when I do that.
 
goodgoings said:
I played with the Voigtlander 25mm, my AI-S Nikkors and an Oly zoom. The colors were not very different - only sharpness.
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I recently did a two camera shoot with the A cam having the Voigtlander and the B cam using the 50mm f/1.2. Controlled lighting (tungsten), manual white balance. They looked close enough to make me happy.
 
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