Originally posted by beholder3 Test out the Samyang. I firmly believe there are no lenses on the market which clearly outperform it in the <$2,000 range for any mount.
I was actually toying with the idea of trying out the Samyang, it would certainly be much easier on the wallet. It would be nice to see a direct comparison of the two lenses, kind of like I've seen between the Samyang and the Canon 135, as I'm sure my fond memories of shooting with the A* might be a bit tainted by the passage of time.
Except for the 2 1/2 stops of vignetting at the longer focus distances on full frame, (and I don't see myself shooting distant landscapes very often with this lens), the Samyang has gotten some really good reviews. I have a couple of other Samyang lenses and I have been quite happy with them. The only area where I've heard it might fall short at all, might be long term durability. I guess that I've been wanting to replace the A* 135 lens for so long that I keep thinking that anything else would be just 'settling', but I might have to rethink this a bit in this case.