Rokinon cine lenses arriving!

Duke M. said:
Middle of the year? Man, that's a long time since when they were first talking about it.
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That's because a while ago, these guys did not even plan to have a 50mm high speed prime... All other focal lengths were in the making and announced for long, long time (few years) and the whole "50mm" story surfaced once they started with "cine" line.
Even if it is "middle of year", it would be faster than ANY of major still lens manufacturer. Just look at how canon and Nikon drag their feet to put out any proper high speed prime... It took Nikon more than a decade to make a "newer" version of wide angle high speed prime. Or how about Nikon "taking it easy" on TS lenses for years? And Canon? Don't even go there!
So, give Samyang (or what ever their name really is) a credit and let's be patient. They delivered BIG TIME so far. And I am sure they will continue...
 
Tata Steva said:
That's because a while ago, these guys did not even plan to have a 50mm high speed prime... All other focal lengths were in the making and announced for long, long time (few years) and the whole "50mm" story surfaced once they started with "cine" line.
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In reality they were clueless about cine lenses until one of our members told them what we really wanted in a lens. It wasn't until after then that they learned that what we really wanted was a set of lenses.


Tata Steva said:
Even if it is "middle of year", it would be faster than ANY of major still lens manufacturer. Just look at how canon and Nikon drag their feet to put out any proper high speed prime... It took Nikon more than a decade to make a "newer" version of wide angle high speed prime. Or how about Nikon "taking it easy" on TS lenses for years? And Canon? Don't even go there!
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In part that's because the 50mm lens is about the easiest to manufature of all lenses. Plus they could use the barrel of another lens, like the 85mm. The formula for good 50mm lenses has been around for awhile. Shoot, they said they were shooting for 50mm F1.8 which Zeiss had as a general lens in the 1930's. Now if their shooting for an F1.0, 1.1 or 1.2 it would explain the wait.

Tata Steva said:
So, give Samyang (or what ever their name really is) a credit and let's be patient. They delivered BIG TIME so far. And I am sure they will continue...
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Samyang is making them for Rokinon. It's probably because my (unfounded) expectation was that it would be February or so. Maybe March at the latest. I will freely admit that they gave me nothing to assume it would be February though. As my sergeant always said Assume = Ass / U / me. Next month's shoot I'll have to use a mix of lenses.
 
So with the EF set of lenses you can go straight on the 5D or C100, or adapt to the GH2, AF100, PL, emount (Sony NEX-5/6/7/EA50/FS100/700), pretty much everything but the Sony Amount SLT-A series cameras. Right? Aperture control is on the barrel of the lens and no worries about auto focus. I'm doing video and never use it.
 
Philip Goetz said:
So with the EF set of lenses you can go straight on the 5D or C100, or adapt to the GH2, AF100, PL, emount (Sony NEX-5/6/7/EA50/FS100/700), pretty much everything but the Sony Amount SLT-A series cameras. Right? Aperture control is on the barrel of the lens and no worries about auto focus. I'm doing video and never use it.
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I'm just about positive that you can adapt a PL mount to and EOS camera, but not and EOS mount to a PL camera.
 
Duke M. said:
I'm just about positive that you can adapt a PL mount to and EOS camera, but not and EOS mount to a PL camera.
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I am pretty sure of that also. The Canon EF mount (For EOS cameras) has a flange to focal distance of 44.00mm. The Arri PL mount has a flange to focal distance of 55.00mm. You can adapt lenses requiring a longer flange to focal distance to a mount designed for a smaller flange to focal distance with a mechanical adapter. Going the other way would require an optical element to make it work, like the Canon FD to EF adapters. Here is a Wikipedia page for the flange to focal distance of common lenses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flange-to-film_distance
 
You cant go from EF to Nikon either.

However the Rokinon Cine lenses in Nikon F mount are probably the most adaptable lenses in the line up (you can adapt these to EF and just about everything else). However, they focus in the Nikon direction, contrary to every other lens. So I got the EF set.
 
simonpwood said:
You cant go from EF to Nikon either.

However the Rokinon Cine lenses in Nikon F mount are probably the most adaptable lenses in the line up (you can adapt these to EF and just about everything else). However, they focus in the Nikon direction, contrary to every other lens. So I got the EF set.
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The Nikons do focus the other direction. But with a reversable follow focus that's a non-issue. All the decently designed FF, and even most of the cheap ones, are reversable these days. I don't even notice the focus direction when going from a Cooke to a Rokinon Nikon because of the FF.
 
A barreled ZF lens? How well is the barrel holding up? I mean... since it isn't manufactured this way, there has to be some weak spots?
 
The weakest thing is actually not the lens itself. It's the adapter I'm using to mount it to my MTF EF adapter on the F3. The focus is smooth with a 190 degree turn. Hard stops. Damped aperture ring and it's clickless. I'll do a comparison with my other 50mm lenses further on.
 
Duke M. said:
T All the decently designed FF, and even most of the cheap ones, are reversable these days. I don't even notice the focus direction when going from a Cooke to a Rokinon Nikon because of the FF.
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ehm sorry, but which FF-units do you mean, that are reversible?
a have not even one in mind, that is able to change focus direction, without adding a second gear.
 
No witness mark? Huh? Enlighten me here please. I assume this is one of those PCHood Cinematics lens adaptations. It looks very interesting on the web.
Aren't those footage markings on the barrel? There has to be a witness mark doesn't there.
From the look of the picture it looks like a longer focus throw than on the ZF lens but that doesn't really make sense unless they do more than just put a housing on it.
Are those footage markings just an "art project"?

I thought their adaptations of the Nikon 28 - 70 & 70m -200 looked pretty interesting ( as well as the Tokina 11-16)

What's your experience with these things?
 
It looks pretty much like a CP2 but it isn't. Let's be realistic. if you pay a tenth of what a CP2 costs it's only reasonable to expect the same when it comes to quality. I have not made any tests to confirm if the focus markings are just cosmetic or if they tell the truth. I don't expect them to do that honestly.

The lens used to make this CP2 look-alike is a Chinese Horusbennu 50/1.7. Not a stellar lens but okay. Zeiss 50/1.4 is not that great either but better than this lens I presume. I got it because I was curious and the footage I've done so far has been good. You can buy the Horusbennu lens for something like $60 so in a way the housing is expensive, on the other hand you do get a de-clicked aperture and gears for both focus and iris and something that looks expensive ;)

I don't think the housing will be a problem because it's a solid aluminium piece. How well the housing connects to the lens is something only time will tell. Until Rokinon/Samyang comes with a 50mm lens I'll use this or my Canon 50L.
 
The one I have been somewhat interested in is this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Excellent-M...38880739?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item3ccd1718e3

a) It's PL mount and I'd like to migrate to all PL mounts eventually.

b) It's F1.4. It has a witness mark, though in the pictures its hard to see. Look at the third picture of the back side, it has a mark at the very bottom the stationary ring.

c) It started life as Zeiss Contax. The early Contax were made by Zeiss when Contax was considered a revolutionary camera. There is a second generation of Contax after Contax closed it's doors. The name was revived but the lenses were actually made by second tier Asian company. I might be interested if it's a first generation Zeiss Contax, but I don't know that this one is first generation. It has the T* marking indicating it has modern coatings.

d) Its pretty damn close to a super speed, although if it is first generation it will flare more. I'm finding these older lenses have some interesting characteristics. Sometimes they require work arounds, but sometimes they make the shot look more artistic or give it a different 'taste'.
 
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Contax N line (this lens) was the latest series of Contax lenses, originally made for their auto focus "N" cameras. This line was the one that "killed" Contax as they were not successful in competing with Ca/Ni in the "new field" of autofocus SLRs... So, to answer your question, this would not be "first generation" Contax Zeiss if it is "N"... Want original? Look for old Contax Zeiss manual focus lenses (some dirt cheap)... I have a few gems: Contax 21mm/2.8 (still around 2K on used market), and 35mm/2.8 shift lens... These are my main lenses for still photography interior and architecture. Both can kill ANY wide angle EOS lens for stills. I also use 21mm for video on 5DMKII and F3 together with other Contax lenses ( 50/1.4, 135/2.8)...
 
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