Samyang 85mm T1.5 MK2 VDSLR Canon EF Full Frame

Great lens. Focus and aperture rings are nice and weighted, came with a handy carry pouch. Obviously not the greatest lens out there, but for the price the quality is high and makes for a great stills/video lens.Would recommend for anyone on a budget looking for a pro-level lens without the pro-price.

Bang for the Buck

Tremendous bang for the buck. Solid build qualities with a smooth aperture ring. I feel that it's weighty enough for people like me that appreciate robust lenses but light enough to move on the fly. Doesn't get in the way in small spaces where slight movements are key. Love the small qualities of the image that it captures. The T1.5 is great for darker situations.I use this on a Canon C200 so autofocus is not enabled. However, focus assist is helpful in finding that crisp shot on your subject.

Cinema quality

This lens has been better than expected. I needed a cinema-style manual focus lens for video work on my Sony FS5 and this lens is ALWAYS on my camera. Here's my estimation of the good and not-so good of it: The GOOD LIST: First off, the optics on this are simply fantastic. Sharp all over even wide open (which is why www buy lenses like this). In technical areas, it beats almost all lenses except for the Zeiss/ Loxia, but only marginally. It has beautiful bokeh and a very close minimal focal distance. The focus gears are tactile and throw is smooth. I love that there is a significant amount of throw needed to change focal plane, but no so much so that you can't operate handheld. The Not-So-Good: This lens will require you to make some tough compositional choices due ... MoreThis lens has been better than expected. I needed a cinema-style manual focus lens for video work on my Sony FS5 and this lens is ALWAYS on my camera. Here's my estimation of the good and not-so good of it: The GOOD LIST: First off, the optics on this are simply fantastic. Sharp all over even wide open (which is why www buy lenses like this). In technical areas, it beats almost all lenses except for the Zeiss/ Loxia, but only marginally. It has beautiful bokeh and a very close minimal focal distance. The focus gears are tactile and throw is smooth. I love that there is a significant amount of throw needed to change focal plane, but no so much so that you can't operate handheld. The Not-So-Good: This lens will require you to make some tough compositional choices due to its close minimum focus distance. Bokeh is most pronounced when the subject is at the near end of your focal distance, so if you are buying this to get the big bulbous bokeh in shots, you will need to be close (within 5-7 feet) of your subject. The challenge here is that a 50mm on a Super 35 camera acts as a 75mm lens so you will be taking medium tight to tight shots to achieve the bokeh. If you want to keep your distance and get a 3/4 or wide shout of the subject with bokeh, you might want to look for a lens with a longer minimal focal distance. Overall, a gem of a lens.

Good lens for the price

This is the first manual lens Iâ€ve bought since switching to digital and love not focusing by wire. I got the cine version for focus pulling but itâ€s also great for stills. Very nice to handle and fast to adjust. The continuously variable aperture is a hoot. Very sharp at f2.8 and not bad wide open. Thatâ€s compared to a few lenses I have that cost 3 times the price. It may not be as rugged because of the plastic construction but itâ€s very well made and light. I typically try not to drop my lenses anyway. Nice going Samyang !

Grew to love this lens in less, fast!

Just received my SAMYANG T1.5/35mm Cine lens with Nikon mount for my D7000. Yes, I can focus manually, but from the look through the viewfinder the lens itself is not quite focusing on the camera's focal plane. It does not seem to have that problem when viewing on the camera's LED screen. Weird. The camera does not recognize there is a lens on it in shutter priority mode (duh, it's a manual lens, took me 20 minutes to figure that out), so when I switch to live view/video mode I get the F-- error message and no video functionality or operation. The camera works fine with the lens in manual and aperture priority modes. It does NOT adjust the shutter while in aperture priority, but I've already settled on shutter speeds as multiples of the 24p I'm recording in anyway ... MoreJust received my SAMYANG T1.5/35mm Cine lens with Nikon mount for my D7000. Yes, I can focus manually, but from the look through the viewfinder the lens itself is not quite focusing on the camera's focal plane. It does not seem to have that problem when viewing on the camera's LED screen. Weird. The camera does not recognize there is a lens on it in shutter priority mode (duh, it's a manual lens, took me 20 minutes to figure that out), so when I switch to live view/video mode I get the F-- error message and no video functionality or operation. The camera works fine with the lens in manual and aperture priority modes. It does NOT adjust the shutter while in aperture priority, but I've already settled on shutter speeds as multiples of the 24p I'm recording in anyway so I can use the LED screen and aperture ring to handle that if I forget to put it in manual mode. I tried taking some photos with it, including multiple consecutive shots. The auto white balance was confused on some shots and the camera's viewfinder shows no difference when turning the aperture ring during multiple shots, other than to show the aperture number itself. Put the Nikkor photo lens back on and everything changes in the viewfinder as the aperture is adjusted. I'll have to remember to put on my video hat when mounting this lens, as this is really not a bad thing. The results are obvious when reviewing those same multiple shots in the LED viewscreen. Use the LED screen to set the aperture for photos, use the viewfinder to take your shots and bracket them with the aperture ring. It will work fine. It's a smooth-turning ring (on my lens, anyway) so you can fade to and from black with it. I thought this lens was a lemon five minutes after I unboxed it; an hour later I wondered how I've done without one of these for so long. And I haven't done a real video yet. What a great buy!

Redecorate the spare room!

Good Things: The optics on this lens are brilliant for the price. The gearing is smooth and the T stops have no click so you can change the exposure DoF without any noticable steps. If you are using DSLR lenses, it's well worth selling and upgrading. The focus 'breathing' is minimal and on that point, it is also important to bear in mind that these lenses are manual focus only. If you are unsure about your focuing ability then make sure you have 'Peaking' or 'Focus Assist' on your camera to help you out. Bad things: The only thing I can think of is that it makes you want to spend more money buying the other lenses in the range. More glass or a happy marriage? Hard choice but, decided to redecorate the spare room just in case.

Samyang 85mm T1.5 cine lens

This is my fifth Rokinon / Samyang lens but this one is not tested yet. It's my second cinema lens, & looks perfect.*One of the others is an automatic focusing lens for Sony, 35mm f1.4, and I have the brick for firmware updates.*I've had good luck with 'Elite Brands' lenses and with an old history in manual photography, have no problem with that. My digital cameras provide highlight colour focus confirmation.*Good to deal with B&H. This completes my current orders, thank you!-

The most universal Cine lens with huge potential!

This is a spectacular lens! I believe this is most universal focal length, especially for full frame sensors. Truly universal with best value ratio (price / performance). Beautifully sharp, amazing bokeh, amazing contrast, smooth operation. Easy choice. Great for its main purpose: cinematography but also this follow-up toothed designed helps to get better grip even for wedding photographers. This toothed design helped me massively to boost my confidence in manual focusing when taking wedding photographs and improved my speed at focusing.

VFM

VFM is value for money and the Samyang range certainly is! For such a low price compared to other higher priced lenses these really hit the mark. I use these for feature films and for documentaries. Is you want a 'run and gun' type of this then this wouldn't be the lens range to look for. They are for planned shooting. They are great lenses with a sharp picture and no clicks on the T (f) stop which comes in very useful when filming.

Wonderful Tool for Cinema and Stills

I primarily use this lens on my Blackmagic Cinema Camera coupled with a Metabones Nikkor to BMCC Speedbooster. I like the build quality. It feels solid, good resistance on rack focus and aperture. Beware, however, the threaded filter end, while robust, is still plastic. Dropping the lens will break the plastic. Great edge to edge full frame sharpness. This lens has been compared with Ziess and has held it's own quite good. Distance markings are good but pay attention to infinity. Always check your viewfinder for focus. Pixel to pixel, focus assist and peaking are excellent guides but nothing beats the good old fashion eyeball. Also, I love the very close minimum focus distance. It's lovely to get that close, less than a foot, to your subject and still have room in ... MoreI primarily use this lens on my Blackmagic Cinema Camera coupled with a Metabones Nikkor to BMCC Speedbooster. I like the build quality. It feels solid, good resistance on rack focus and aperture. Beware, however, the threaded filter end, while robust, is still plastic. Dropping the lens will break the plastic. Great edge to edge full frame sharpness. This lens has been compared with Ziess and has held it's own quite good. Distance markings are good but pay attention to infinity. Always check your viewfinder for focus. Pixel to pixel, focus assist and peaking are excellent guides but nothing beats the good old fashion eyeball. Also, I love the very close minimum focus distance. It's lovely to get that close, less than a foot, to your subject and still have room in the frame to move and compose. The Samyang/Rokinon Cine line of lenses are not dimension standardized. Some prime lens sets are all the same length and diameter so it makes lens changes quick and easy by not having to readjust your matte box and follow focus. On the other hand you can get two complete sets of primes from Samyang/Rokinon for the price of one compact prime lens from Ziess so there are trade offs. Bottom line: if you're looking at this lens it means your budget has quite a bit to do with that. For the money these are terrific, high quality lenses that will get years of use and serve you very well for all kinds of projects and productions. If you're on the fence, jump off and buy this lens. You will not be disappointed. (other glass I own by Samyang/Rokinon: 24mm prime, 14mm prime, 85mm prime)