GH3 Rokinon 85mm 1.4 lens

Awesome lens. Very good at f1.4. The hood is a bit cheap & thin, though.

Do bear in mind which direction you are used to focusing - the Canon-fit versions turn the cine way (clockwise from your POV to focus closer), while the Nikon go the other way.

Also, you may be aware there are cine versions of these lenses with standard pitch gears and stop-less iris.
 
its ok for a lens at it's price range, i recently got the olympus 75mm 1.8, and wow, sold my rokinon immediately, i wouldn't even want to shoot with both lenses on a 2 camera shoot, the difference is astounding
 
Mercatus said:
its ok for a lens at it's price range, i recently got the olympus 75mm 1.8, and wow, sold my rokinon immediately, i wouldn't even want to shoot with both lenses on a 2 camera shoot, the difference is astounding
Click to expand...

Would you care to elaborate on what the differences are? Got any pictures to show?
 
Big difference for one is autofocus. I prefer the smooth manual focus of the Rokinon.

Trying to shoot a live event with a autofocus lens like the 35-100 Panasonic can be a nightmare when the speaker is moving forward and backward (side to side doesn't matter since focus doesn't change). Yes you can put it in MF but with no barrel markings for focus and short throw it is harder.
 
I don't know about the Rokinon, but I can confirm Soarprod's experience with the Panasonic lenses autofocus. I was shooting music in the park this weekend with my X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8, and when the singer's head moved back and forth or from side-to-side, focus kept switching to the grass behind his head, even though I tried keeping the point of focus on him.
 
i Have been using the Rokinon for about 9 months on the GH2 and F3.

no complaints so far very sharp and build is pretty good for the price.

I would go for it! 35 mm is great as well.
 
jonpais said:
I don't know about the Rokinon, but I can confirm Soarprod's experience with the Panasonic lenses autofocus. I was shooting music in the park this weekend with my X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8, and when the singer's head moved back and forth or from side-to-side, focus kept switching to the grass behind his head, even though I tried keeping the point of focus on him.
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't you just switch to manual focus?

My friend shoots stories for a a major sports broadcaster using only the 35 & 85mm Samyang/Rokinons and all the shots look fantastic. I would rate the images highly and the advantage of long, smooth focus throw coupled with the de-clicked aperture makes for great all round video lenses.
 
vtwiz said:
Why wouldn't you just switch to manual focus?

My friend shoots stories for a a major sports broadcaster using only the 35 & 85mm Samyang/Rokinons and all the shots look fantastic. I would rate the images highly and the advantage of long, smooth focus throw coupled with the de-clicked aperture makes for great all round video lenses.
Click to expand...

Depth of field was kind of shallow, and I thought he would go out of focus all the time on manual (I was shooting pretty tight, maybe at 70mm (35mm equivalent). I thought about that afterward - I should've upped the ISO to 400 or so for more depth of field and used manual. I'm still figuring things out!
 
Yesterday I saw the Olivia-Tech episode where the Rokinon 85mm Cine T1.5 lens is demo'd on a GH3, 5D MkII, T4i, and BMCC. That lens looked gorgeous at T2.8 on all 4 cameras. So a few minutes later I started checking price on that lens on B&H and in their Used Dept found one in conditon "9" for $289!!!

I dropped it in my cart along with a 72mm ND 1.2 filter and both are being shipped out tonight.

I'll let you all know what I think when I've had a chance to try it out.
 
All I've had a chance to do with it (I'm in between eye surgeries) is a few quick stills.

Wow!

The one I got is in Nikon F mount but I already had a Nikon F to m4/3 adapter. The first test was to see if it was reasonably sharp at smaller apertures, T11 looked pretty good. Second test was for shallow DOF and bokeh at T2.8 and I like the results. I didn't have access to decent subject material but may be able to shoot something worth sharing maybe over the weekend.

I know I'll wish I had the Olympus 75mm f1.8 instead, reports say that is a wonderful performing lens and compact to boot, but the Oly is a $900 lens...

This "beast" needs to be on a sturdy tripod. More later.
 
Thanks, Bruce for that update. I have the sammy 85 photo lens (not cine) in the nikon mount, and love it on my d300 - have not yet put it on my gh3 because I don't have an adapter... I'm thinking of getting a metabones.
 
Unlike just about everyone else, I was very unhappy with the performance of my Samyang 85mm and got rid of it after a couple of weeks. It had a lot of flare and ghosting when shooting with bright highlights in frame.

Recently played with a colleague's 85mm that he was raving about and found that it was nothing like the lens that I had and produced quite nice pictures. So if you get the opportunity, try the actual lens you are going to buy as there seems to be some variation in quality
 
I like my copy very much. It does flare or haze more than my other lenses but I know not to have lights hit it. Not a big deal considering the image is really very good.
 
Last edited:
I love mine (used on a GH2). It definitely flares and isn't as suitable for nighttime city shooting as I'd hoped. That said, it's terrific for portrait photos and for low-light video.
 
The link works, I just watched it again in the quoted section above.

I have this lens in Nikon F mount, have only had a chance to do some brief testing outdoors at night due to cataract surgery. I hope to get out by some night street activity tonight or tommorrow night and do some more. So far I like the results very much, even though I've pointed it directly at lights I see little or no flaring or haze. This may be because I religiously use lens hoods whenever possible with any lens.

The hood that comes with this lens is often described as "crappy" in reviews, nonetheless I'll use it. So far it seems to do the job.

I would really prefer the Olympus 75mm f1.8 for it's smaller size and lighter weight but that's a $900 lens and I found this Rokinon 85mm Cine lens in B&H's used dept for $289 listed in "9" condition. Didn't have a mark on it, looks and feels like new.
 
Carlos, How far away were you in feet from the subject to get that framing?
Just curios so I can get an idea of how much space I would need when using this lens. Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top