More Rokinon and Nikon comparisons including 24mm...

Duke M.

Duke M.

Veteran
The 24mm Rokinon cine arrived so I thought I'd give it some stress tests and compare it side by side with the Nikon. Also, the 35mm Rokinon Cine with the Nikon 35mm.

Like the 35mm the 24mm Rokinon focus and iris rings turn smoothly. The fronts are the same size.

The pictures were uploaded as lossless PNG files at pixel for pixel crops. (They weren't made bigger or smaller.) All the lenses were set wide open. All were at the same distance and used focus assist.

Please keep in mind that I'm trying to do stress tests and I try not to change the settings. You can argue that its unfair since the Rokinon is definitely brighter than the Nikon and over exsposing both to try to get CA or flare is even harder on the Rokinon for that reason. Also, the Nikon 24mm is F2.0 while the Rokinon is T1.5.

First, a general size comparison. In order from left to right they are the Rokinon 35mm, Nikon 35mm, Rokinon 24mm and Nikon 24mm. The Rokinon 24mm is almost exactly the same size as the Tokina 11-16mm, and those two are about 3/4" shorter than the Rokinon 35mm.


35mm24mmSideBySide.jpg

Then pictures through the Rokinon 24mm (top) and Nikon 24mm.
Rokinon24-T15.jpg
Nikon24-F14.jpg

Then pictures through the Rokinon 35mm (top) and Nikon 35mm.
Rokonon35-T15.jpg
Nikon35-F14.jpg

My conclusions: The Rokinon 35mm is much sharper wide open than the Nikon. This is a valid comparison since they are at the same aperture. The FOV on the Rokinon 35mm is definitely wider.

The Rokinon 24mm seems ready to flare or thow some CA, but the Rokinon is set for T1.5 while the Nikon is set for F2.0 (its widest setting.) This would reduce if set for T2.2 or the light turned down. Even with that the Rokinon 24mm seems a little sharper. There the Nikon is tending to flare.
 
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I ordered the Rokinon 24 from B&H to be delivered Monday, it does look a little disappointing compared to the 35 in these images.
 
lasikdenver said:
I ordered the Rokinon 24 from B&H to be delivered Monday, it does look a little disappointing compared to the 35 in these images.
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll be disappointed in the 24mm when you see the images. As I said, this was a stress test and in my opinion the Rokinon 24mm is a tad better than the Nikon 24mm.

The Nikon won't even go where the Rokinon goes as far as low light situations. And if I had set the exposure for each lens individually the Rokinon would look much better. Even when a bit over-exposed the Rokinon had better contrast, richer colors and was as sharp if not a tad sharper.

@starcentral, here's all the Rokinon cine lenses that B&H is carrying so far:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=rokinon+cine&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma

Here are some of the ebay links:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw...udhi=&_sop=12&_fpos=&_fspt=1&_sadis=&LH_CAds=

Here are their authorized dealers. I bought one at B&H and one at bestpriceoptics.
http://www.rokinon.com/where-to-buy.php
 
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Keep in mind too that these were tiny crops from wide angle lenses. The 35mm is less of a wide angle. Below is the actual full sized image shot with the 24mm. [edit: the forum reduced it's size]

Rokinon24mmT15Full.jpg
 
I think thats totally acceptable for wide open. On that kind of lens you'd wanna be around T2-2.5ish and up anyway which should make things much sharper.

I think its on par with nikon glass, and we all know, nikon glass can be very pleasing.

I know I can't wait to buy a full Ronkina set - its kinda stupid not to at those prices. Good to have a cheap set of cine-lenses for the ability to make a cheap package deal for camera use
 
for some reason I thought that the 85 was suppose to be out around the same time as the 14 & 24... and I believe it was Duke that posted the 50 is coming soon after the 85... any ideas when they get here...
 
GaryinCalifornia said:
for some reason I thought that the 85 was suppose to be out around the same time as the 14 & 24... and I believe it was Duke that posted the 50 is coming soon after the 85... any ideas when they get here...
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The 85mm has no exact date yet, but very soon. They said probably next month. The 85, like the 35, 24 and 14 is an adaption of a model they are currently producing so its fairly fast.

The 50mm will be an entirely new model. They said they are working on it and it will definitely be after the 85mm, but no definite dates on that yet.
 
Thanks...

So lets say the 85 comes next month... what would be a good 50 to mix in with the rest of the lens if you want a set... so they sorta match...
 
Maybe you can survive with a new nikon 50mm f 1.2 AIS for the meantime...

My question would be, what get beyond 85mm that is fast...
 
Thanks for this info, quite nice to see. I have an old set of nikon glass all f1.8 that I was considering to get declicked. Thats a nono now :-)
 
macgregor said:
Can we see the rokinon 24 at f2 compared to the nikon 24 at f2?
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I don't usually redo things but I wanted to see this myself. Note, the Rokinon should be T2.2 to be F2 so I set it one quarter of the way between 2.0 and 2.8 by eyeball. Fortunately, since it doesn't have ball detents (clicks) I could do that. All the other settings and distances were as close to the last time as I could make them.

On the Nikon the metal ring on the left is just starting to flare a bit, and its totally under control on the Rokinon. The Rokinon had much better contrast. To me the Nikon looks muddy.

Doesn't the Rokinon 24 look a lot better now?

Rokinon24T22a.jpg Rokinon T2.2
Nikon24F20a.jpg Nikon F2.0
 
macgregor said:
Maybe you can survive with a new nikon 50mm f 1.2 AIS for the meantime...

My question would be, what get beyond 85mm that is fast...
Click to expand...

If I had my choice I'd want the 50mm to also be T1.5 like the 24, 35, and 85. That way you could switch lenses without changing settings (as you should be able to do with a cine set.) It would also be great to have something longer in T1.5. For technical reasons they probably couldn't do a 135mm, but maybe 105mm.

Once they get to T3.1 (F2.8) you might as well use a good zoom.
 
timbook2 said:
Thanks for this info, quite nice to see. I have an old set of nikon glass all f1.8 that I was considering to get declicked. Thats a nono now :-)
Click to expand...

Is there really 24mm f1.8 nikon? I have f2 24mm nikon but it hardly makes it out. I prefer 35mm f1.4 nikon but obviously not as wide as 24mm.
 
Duke M. said:
I don't usually redo things but I wanted to see this myself. Note, the Rokinon should be T2.2 to be F2 so I set it one quarter of the way between 2.0 and 2.8 by eyeball. Fortunately, since it doesn't have ball detents (clicks) I could do that. All the other settings and distances were as close to the last time as I could make them.

On the Nikon the metal ring on the left is just starting to flare a bit, and its totally under control on the Rokinon. The Rokinon had much better contrast. To me the Nikon looks muddy.

Doesn't the Rokinon 24 look a lot better now?

View attachment 60219 Rokinon T2.2
View attachment 60218 Nikon F2.0
Click to expand...


Yep thats exactly what I thought, the rokina would be much nicer at that Tstop. It's nice to be right haha. Thats excellent looking, nice contrast compared to the nikon. I'm sold :)
 
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