New Samyang lens

Apparently Samyang are going to be releasing a 24mm f/1.4 lens including a PK fit model. Sounds a very tempting proposition to me. I'm more than happy using manual focus so the lack of AF is of no concern to me.

K.

I would be very tempted by such a lens too. Do the Samyang lenses have the A setting for aperture control from the camera body or are they purely manual on the lens too?

Other recent Samyang lenses are all PKA, so it should do.

It definitely sounds tempting, my one concern would be the size. Their 35mm f1.4 lens is already flippin' enormous

It is enormous!
http://www.samyang.pl/article,8,news

77mm filters, 83mm diameter, 96mm long, no weight listed yet. Dimensions are pretty much the same as the DA*16-50.

Matt

As soon as they put a screw-drive AF in those lenses, I'm in. I'll have the 35, 85 and 8 for starters.

Regards

Not certain why you'd need AF for an 8mm lens... Stick it on about f/8 and everything will be in focus!

K.

Yup, definitely not subtle but still tempting to have a 24mm f/1.4 lens as, in terms of FoV, it is a nice focal length on APSC.

K.

Size sometimes matters, my 85mm f1.4 has been used a lot this wedding season, clients are amazed at what we know is bokeh. I think everyone expects enormous DoF because of P&S cameras. Might still buy the 8mm for a big shoot next week but procrastination is always the thief of time

Hi Ken how do you rate the 85 1.4 dont know very much about this brand but mf does not bother me I have quite a few old pentax mf lenses.
Ian

It's a nifty lens. Mine doesn't see as much use now I have the DA* 50-135mm but it's sharp, fast, and relatively compact considering the maximum aperture. I still take it if I think there's a chance of very low light shooting where f1.4 makes the difference between a photo with very shallow DOF and no photo at all.

AP magazine reviewed it a while back and if it had AF then it would have got the same rating as Nikon and Canon at £1000 more. They appear under various labels depending on which market they are intended for, so Samyang, Opteka, Falcon and others are all the same lens. Build quality is excellent apart from the hood which isn't a very positive fit.

Apparently it loses sharpness at small apertures but that doesn't matter since that isn't what its for. It works on 35mm cameras too. Lower contrast than Pentax lenses but that's no big deal.

Two other forum members had mine before me so maybe it isn't for everyone but at the price you can hardly go wrong

My 85mm is very impressive at f/1.4 providing I can focus it correctly - although with care it can be focussed quite precisely via the viewfinder. Stopping it down a couple of stops gives very sharp results indeed. The focus does shift slightly at smaller apertures, that's going to give worse results with test charts than it does in real life.

Under some lighting there is an annoying iris-shaped flare spot at f/11 or f/16, this is probably caused by an internal reflection. The spot is completely central and occurs when there is a large and much brighter area outside the picture area. It is absent at apertures wider than f/11. This lens is intended to be used at wide apertures though, and it is brilliant at that.

Hey Pentax, how about a small 24mm f/2 Limited sometime this decade?

(In the meantime I have my Vivitar and no over-sized Samyang will tempt me.)

Yes that would be nice, just delete the word 'limited' from the equation stick a plastic lens mount on and I'll buy it!

Nice focal length and speed, but boy it's a bigun!
I hope the focus ring is not as stiff as the 35mm version I tried at Focus.....But then again old pentax lenses do have a creamy smooth focus ring that not many other makes can meet....