I use a gh4 with a metabones speed booster. I have just ordered a 4 lens set of Rokinon lenses. I wanted to get the 16mm f2.2 too but saw it was for aps c sensor. I figured the 16mm would not work with the speed booster and would not be much wider than the 24 with the speed booster. Does any one have any experience with the 16mm lens.
GH4 Rokinon DS glass
- Thread starter newzhack
- Start date
Batutta
Major Contributor
I have the 16mm 2.2 Rokinon for Nikon F mount. Using it with a Chinese Speedbooster on the GH4 and it works great. Sharp, solidly built, with a super smooth focus gear ring and nice depth of field when close to the subject. Only drawback is that's it's pretty heavy, so on a gimbal or other stabilizer it might not be the best option. However, if using handheld the weight helps dampen vibration. I almost never get jello when using it.
Larry McKee
Active member
It works great with the original MB SB as well. No issues, just great images.
Sol M.
Veteran
Considering Metabones is a Chinese company, I certainly hope the Chinese Speed Boosters are "pretty decent"
Batutta
Major Contributor
Considering Metabones is a Chinese company, I certainly hope the Chinese Speed Boosters are "pretty decent"
Lol. You know what I meant. The Chinese 'knock-offs'.
refocusedmedia
Veteran
They're noticeably worse, it's just a matter of if that image degradation is worth paying $400+ extra dollars to eliminate or not. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3627547
I got 4 of the lens delivered today. 85, 50, 35 and 24. Nice feel to them. I still can't decide between the 14 or 16. The 14 will not accept a filter and I rely on tiffen variable density nd filter for outside and the speed is slower than the 16. going to sit on this decision for a few days. It sounds like the 16 will cover full frame 35 ok.
Considering Metabones is a Chinese company, I certainly hope the Chinese Speed Boosters are "pretty decent"
About Metabones
"Metabones has its engineering in Vancouver, Canada and its headquarters in Hong Kong, with its own production facilities in China."
So looks like business headquarters in Hong Kong, technical design and engineering in Canada and manufacturing in China. Most stuff is manufactured in China these days - including Apple. That doesn't make Apple a Chinese company. But the company is owned and headquartered in Hong Kong, so that makes it a Chinese company, though I suppose not what people mean by "Chinese speedbooster", because it's not headquartered in Mainland China, nor designed in Mainland China.
In these days of global and transnational companies that farm out work all over the world, notions like "an X company", where X stands for a nation-state, are increasingly irrelevant and not applicable. Technically some companies we may think of as traditionally "American" are actually headquartered somewhere like the Bahamas, or Lichtenstein, or some tax haven, but their actual design and business and manufacturing is all over the world... does that make them a "Bahamas company"? Sometimes "headquartered" is just a mailbox somewhere in the Canaries, with actual operations run out of New York etc.
It's also funny how many games are played when you see something as f.ex. "Made in Canada". It could be actually made in China, but then come to Canada and they add one button and by law they can now claim "Made in Canada", even if was actually designed in Germany, manufactured in China, marketed all over the world, profits going to Switzerland or Bahamas.
It's all marketing, promotion, market positioning and advertising. It's a different world out there than just 10 years ago. Can't apply old concepts to a new reality. Stuff is changing so fast people have trouble adjusting their knowledge and expectations.
Batutta
Major Contributor
That's what they say, and yet I see no evidence of degradation in my imagery. I think the tests are done on high megapixel images, which if you're peeping you can see the difference. In 4k on the gh4 (which is cropped a bit on the sensor) things look damn sharp edge to edge. The biggest issue is the blue spot problem.
I ended up getting the 16 mm lens for Aps type sensor. It is fine with a slight bit of vignetting on standard mode but I suspect it will be minimum in the slightly cropped 4 k mode. The extra speed and ability to use my variable nd filter were the points that tipped the decision in the way of the 16.
Larry McKee
Active member
I think you will be happy with your 16mm. I really like mine.