Samyang Lenses for Pentax

Now easy to get in the US!

By PF Staff in Third-Party Announcements on May 15, 2012

As you may know, generic lenses for Pentax and other camera systems have been sold under the Bower, Rokinon, Vivitar, and Samyang brands almost interchangeably in the past.  However, the supply of these lenses in the US has been limited, as there was great inconsistency in which were available and which were not, and when.

Now, it seems that Samyang lenses for Pentax will be much easier to acquire in the US, with the recent arrival of all 4 lenses at retailers!

The currently Samyang lineup includes 4 surprisingly-sharp, manual focus, auto-aperture, budget primes: the 8mm F3.5 Fisheye, 14mm F2.8, 35mm F1.4, and 85mm F1.4.  Interestingly, with the exception of the fisheye, they are all full-frame-compatible lenses.  These lenses are fully compatible with Pentax DSLRs, and work just like SMC Pentax-A lenses.

Read on for more information about these lenses!

In addition to the 4 current lenses, Samyang also announced a 24mm F1.4 lens during the summer of 2011, which has not yet hit the shelves.

Samyang Lenses for Pentax
	Lens Name	Price	Pentax Counterpart
	Samyang 85mm F1.4 As our in-depth review shows, this is a fantastic portrait lens for fractions of the price of what Pentax and Sigma have to offer. See our in-depth review!	$299	SMC Pentax-FA 77mm F1.8 Limited (~$700 more)
	Samyang 35mm F1.4 This fast wide-angle is unique in that there's no Pentax lens (past or present) with an aperture of F1.4 at this focal length.	$499	SMC Pentax-FA 31mm F1.8 Limited (~$500 more)
	Samyang 14mm F2.8 This lens is almost identical to Pentax's 14mm F2.8 lens, except that it's manual focus and full-frame.  On APS-C, however, it should prove to be quite usable, as manual focus isn't as much of an issue on wide lenses due to their wide DOF.	$399	SMC Pentax-DA 14mm F2.8 ($550 more)
	Samyang 8mm F3.5 Fisheye This is one of the few prime fish eye lenses currently available for Pentax- Pentax's offering is a zoom.	$299	SMC Pentax-DA 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 ($350 more)

If you own any of these Samyang lenses (or their Vivitar/Rokinon/Bower cousins), we invite you to post reviews in our lens review database. Entries for each lens are linked to from the table above.