[lesmore49]

Anyone have experience with either the Rokinon 14mm wide angle F 2.8 or the Rokinon 85mm F 1.4 ? Being out in the middle of nowhere I've never had the chance to see a Rokinon in the flesh....nor attach it to one of my Pentax bodies....check out the image quality...check out the build quality...etc. I would appreciate your assessment/view.

Price is good and focus is manual. I haven't used many manual focus lenses since 'aught 7' almost 10 years ago now and I wonder if my eyesight is still up to the job of focusing quickly. To test that facility, I'll set my macro 50 to manual and see how good the eye is at determining at the correct focus.

[Scorpio71GR]

Rokinon 85 1.4 on the K3

F4.5


F1.4


F6.3


Indoors no flash native light f1.4


F1.4


With the Pentax 1.7 AF converter which makes it a limited autofocus lens probably f5.6.



My only real complaint is the minimum focus distance is quite long.

[DeadJohn]

Note that Rokinon lenses are also sold under Samyang, Bower, and Vivitar names. They all seem to made in the same factory.

The 14/2.8 excels at night landscapes. The lens is acceptably sharp across the frame at f2.8. There's very little coma distortion so stars look good even near the corners.

This part is a commentary about ultrawides and isn't specific to Rokinon. It's so wide that you get depth of field to keep foreground and background objects in focus at the same time. Focusing through the viewfinder is tricky, though, because it *always* looks in focus. For daytime use I stop down to get extra depth of field to forgive focusing errors. At night, I almost always use a tripod and rely on liveview magnification to get focus.

[Dlanor Sekao]

My Bower 14mm 2.8 is a really decent lens.
Now for the downside.....it needed calibrated on the distance scale which nearly every one does. And it also had a bit of PF while pixel peeping.
In spite of its minor quirks , I would never consider its use on any camera without live View and focus Peaking........... I call it my Giant Killer !

[rr1736]

I have the both the 85mm and the 14mm Rokinon other than the fact they are manual focus they are really great lenses

[clackers]

I have both and they're really good, Les.

Do check out all the forum member reviews.

[cali92rs]

I have had the 85mm in the past and its optics are pretty awesome. I dont know which body you plan to use it on, but magnification and focus peaking make focusing a snap

[rawr]

I have been happy with the Rokinon 85 on Pentax. It's a good performer, and certainly a good value lens.

It is challenging to nail focus sometimes, particularly in very poor light, but with practice focus is doable. The focus aids in the camera - like focus peaking or even just watching the green hexagon or listening for the focus confirm beep - can certainly help too.

[CDW]

I've owned two of them over the past several years. My second purchase this year for astro use with my K1, resulted in receiving a very badly decentered sample. Rokinon customer service seemed convinced that I didn't know how to properly focus it until I printed out a grid chart, shot frames at various F stops and documented my technique for properly aligning the camera/lens with the chart. At that point they sent me a replacement which is perfectly centered.

As others have noted in various posts, centering can be an issue and is the first thing that should be verified when purchasing the lens.

[Outis]

I have the 14mm Rokinon. OH HOLY COW IS IT SHARP. The only disadvantage is that I had to go through three copies before I found one that wasn't decentered. That, and it's hard to tell through the viewfinder if it's in focus. The best I can do is figure out where infinity focus is (trial and error the first time, since the distance scale isn't calibrated properly), and use that.

[lesmore49]

Thank you to all who contributed to this thread. I'm always appreciative of the wealth of knowledge and experience and the willingness to share from Pentaxians. Good information, advice and I like the pictures.

Thanks again,

Les

[Lowell Goudge]

Check the sample image archive.

I have posted shots from both in the archive.

For me they are superb performers for the price, but I will caution you the 14mm has some barrel distortion

[chardie]

currently i am bidding on a 85mm m42 if that goes much higher than what an 85mm samyang goes for i'll drop the m42 in favour of the samyang. the 85mm samyang seems to good reviews generally . i just not that interested in paying huge prices for a 40 year old lens. i do like the 24,35,50,200 pentax m42 i already have the 3000mm its a tad soft for my liking but i use it on the moon every now and then . i payed reasonable prices for those lens but i'm not paying exorbitant prices lol

[aurele]

currently i am bidding on a 85mm m42 if that goes much higher than what an 85mm samyang goes for i'll drop the m42 in favour of the samyang. the 85mm samyang seems to good reviews generally . i just not that interested in paying huge prices for a 40 year old lens. i do like the 24,35,50,200 pentax m42 i already have the 3000mm its a tad soft for my liking but i use it on the moon every now and then . i payed reasonable prices for those lens but i'm not paying exorbitant prices lol

For what it's worth :

The Tak wide open are soft / glow a bit, making portraits with less skin defects. There is some sharpness thought, but not obvious at first sight (i had the 85mm f1.9).

The Samyang is sharper wide open, because there is no glow feeling.

My point is : if you intend to shoot often wide open or around f2, get the Samyang.

If you plan to always stop down to f2.8 or more, the Tak will appear as good as the Samyang, and you will avoid some unecessary weight.

[clackers]

For what it's worth :

The Tak wide open are soft / glow a bit, making portraits with less skin defects. There is some sharpness thought, but not obvious at first sight (i had the 85mm f1.9).

The Samyang is sharper wide open, because there is no glow feeling.

My point is : if you intend to shoot often wide open or around f2, get the Samyang.

If you plan to always stop down to f2.8 or more, the Tak will appear as good as the Samyang, and you will avoid some unecessary weight.

Good advice.

The Samyang has a lot of extra glass to correct spherical aberration wide open (the 'glow').