I have been testing the remarkable manual focus 85mm Samyang Cine lens. The 85 mm focal length is ideal for clos-up portraits and 85mm is one of my favourite prime lenses. Samyang Cine lenses are designed for professional video. A focus gear ring is installed for a follow focus system and you can also change the aperture quietly and smoothly. Distance scale and T numbers (Transmission or T-stops are more accurate than f-stops for measuring the amount of light reaching the sensor) are marked on both sides of the lens for convenience and the lenses produce the same image color and have the same location for the aperture and focus rings to make switching lenses in your rig easy. I really enjoyed using this Manual Focus lens without a follow focus rig and if you don’t mind a little diffused glow effect (image softness) you can separate the subject using the maximum aperture of T1.5 when you are quite a distance from your subject. The lenses are very sharp – sharp enough enough for still capture on an A7RII! I tested the 85mm alongside Sony’s FE90M2.8 G (the fourth sharpest lens ever tested on the DxOMark website) and when the Samyang is stopped down to T2.8 it produces very respectable sharpness on the A7RII.
Michaels Cameras in Melbourne have a kit of five Samyang Cine lenses that can be hired for use on Sony E-Mount cameras.
http://hire.michaels.com.au/online_hire/equipment/270
The kit includes:
- Samyang 50mm T1.5
- Samyang 85mm T1.5
- Samyang 14mm T3.1
- Samyang 24mm T1.5
- Samyang 35mm F1.5
Check out the relative sharpness of this extremely affordable lens from these 4K Samples on Flickr:
- For a 4K sample image from the Samyang 85mm T1.5 Cine Lens go to: https://flic.kr/p/yaQfAi
- For a 4K sample image from the Sony FE90M2.8 G go to: https://flic.kr/p/xWHQX7
- 4K sample at T1.5 to demonstrate the softer focus effect when the lens is wide open: https://flic.kr/p/xEZ3Uq
To purchase this Lens go to
- B&H USA : 85mm T1.5 VDSLRII Cine Lens for Sony E-Mount
- Michaels Cameras Australia: Samyang 85 Cine lens