Looking to buy a 85mm; Rokinon, Samyang, Bower Difference?

[Evan55T]

I understand that rokinon, samyang, and bower are all under the same company (samyang), but i can't tell the difference or don't know/notice the difference actually between each of their lenses and products that they have.

Is there some sort of significant difference that i'm not aware of between the 3 brands and what would you recommend to me for an 85mm portrait out of the 3?

 

[astroNikon]

Yes, dependent upon what you are looking at they may or may not contain a focus-confirm chip, or other features PLUS different versions of a lens. It would be best to provide a link to what you are looking at so it can be reviewed, rather than guessing what you are looking at based upon your description.

 

[Evan55T]

Yes, dependent upon what you are looking at they may or may not contain a focus-confirm chip, or other features PLUS different versions of a lens. It would be best to provide a link to what you are looking at so it can be reviewed, rather than guessing what you are looking at based upon your description.

Thanks for the relpy, do have 1 more question in regards to t-stop

Rokinon Cine Lens

So the lens above has a t-stop of 1.5 what's the diff between that a f/1.4 not much i'm guessing in terms of f-stop vs. t-stop, but overall what is the major diff between both lenses

 

[Derrel]

The one Samyang they have for sake has a focus-confirm chip, and will work with auto-exposure--according to what their web page says. Samyang 85mm F/1.4

The Rokinon has the aperture clicks disabled--it is "clickless". The difference between f/1.4 and T-1.5 is minimal. Light lost due to reflections will cause the T-stop to be "under" the physical width of the f/stop...VERY common, especially with zooms that have 20 to 23 elements, where an f/2.8 focal value can easily be a T-3.4 or even T-3.5...due to light lost due to many air-to-glass surfaces in a complex zoom. These 85mm primes have far fewer elements, hence the f/1.4 being a T-1.5--a very fine performance.

The Rokinon cine lens has the outer gear-cut focusing ring, into which a focus pulling gear can be fitted, so that focusing can be done by a mechanical contraption: this is NOT needed for still photography, but is super-useful for modern video work.

To be totally honest: the advertisements for these are shamefully, woefully incomplete and LACK the proper wording. How about Adorama gets it sH*+ together, and uses 50-year-old words like "automatic diaphragm operation", and "aperture coupling via Ai mechanism", and so on? That is **IF** these various 85mm and 135mm lenses they link together as buying options actually have such features?

Adorama's total LACK of accurate, reliable, and basic information on these lenses is shameful. And I mean that seriously--totally,totally inadequate, shameful,disgraceful marketing.

I am a Nikon lens expert...but the bare-bones, disgraceful way these lenses are advertised is sickening. I "think" the Samyang has both a CPU chip and contacts, and has an automatic diaphragm; I cannot say the same thing for several of the other cheap 85mm lenses they have for sale. The advertising copy that goes with these lenses--again, an utter disgrace. And I used to sell cameras and lenses at retail.

 

[astroNikon]

Yes, dependent upon what you are looking at they may or may not contain a focus-confirm chip, or other features PLUS different versions of a lens. It would be best to provide a link to what you are looking at so it can be reviewed, rather than guessing what you are looking at based upon your description.

Thanks for the relpy, do have 1 more question in regards to t-stop

Rokinon Cine Lens

So the lens above has a t-stop of 1.5 what's the diff between that a f/1.4 not much i'm guessing in terms of f-stop vs. t-stop, but overall what is the major diff between both lenses

Are you looking for a "Video/movie" lens or a Photography lens?

"Cine" is for video/mpvie. Reference Derrel's response for it's functionalities.

 

[Derrel]

Look at the B&H Photo pages for more information. See how lens sales ought to be done properly.

Samyang 85mm f/1.4 Aspherical Lens for Nikon SY85MAE-N B&H Photo

But note that this type of lens (Samynag-Bower-Vivitar,etc) has been made for a fairly long time now, approaching 10 years, and in the past there were some models that had a purely mechanical f/stop ring that lacked an instant-return or "automatic" lens diaphragm. Also...if you are planning on using this lens on a NON-Nikon camera, like a mirrorless, you'd also be looking at using it stopped down to working f/stop, which would not be a big deal if you were framing/composing with Live View and its auto-gain.

The above B&H web page has an instruction manual available in .PDF format, but the Samyang lens they are showing looks different from the Adorama photo. My memory was that earlier SammyBowyRokiVivi lenses had manual, not-instant-diaphragms in Canon and Sony/Minolta mount--because those cameras have NO f-stop ring on their lenses, so making a cheap, manual, mechanical f/stop on the lens meant they did not need a CPU to contact to those brands of cameras; Nikon F-mount has long had an f/stop-ring-on-the-lens-itself option (pre-Ai,Ai,Ai-S,AF,AF-D,early AF-S lenses) option.

If the lens claims it will work in Auto modes on a Nikon, and has a focus-confirm feature, and will work in A and S modes (the way the B&H Photo manual says....), I'd be fairly condident that the lens would meter right on a Nikon body, and that the f/stop could be set on the camera body, using the control wheel. Again...this type of inexpensive 85mm lens has been around for a long time, and is not really designed for one, exact, specific brand of camera, and I think there's a chance of NOS or New Old Stock making for the weird price variations among the multiple brands and models.

 

[Evan55T]

Yes, dependent upon what you are looking at they may or may not contain a focus-confirm chip, or other features PLUS different versions of a lens. It would be best to provide a link to what you are looking at so it can be reviewed, rather than guessing what you are looking at based upon your description.

Thanks for the relpy, do have 1 more question in regards to t-stop

Rokinon Cine Lens

So the lens above has a t-stop of 1.5 what's the diff between that a f/1.4 not much i'm guessing in terms of f-stop vs. t-stop, but overall what is the major diff between both lenses

Are you looking for a "Video/movie" lens or a Photography lens?

"Cine" is for video/mpvie. Reference Derrel's response for it's functionalities.

That makes sense now yeah i thought t-stop stuff was for cinema-photography primarily

Well tbh i'm looking for a portrait lens and possibly a wide angle lens only have 1 lens atm being a 50mm f1.8 but i don't have the budget to get both i'm thinking i can just use the 50mm as a wide angle somehow (ik that makes 0 sense)?
Doing portrait/event photography.

 

[astroNikon]

What camera do you have ??

 

[Evan55T]

What camera do you have ??

nikon d700

 

[astroNikon]

What camera do you have ??

nikon d700

save yourself some money and headaches and buy used Nikon AF/AF-D lenses
85/1.8 AF-D
35-70/2.8 AF-D Push-pull
24mm/2.8, 50/1.8 or 1.4, 28mm, 35mm AF-D

 

[Derrel]

The older AF-D lenses are actually pretty good on FX Nikon 12 or 24MP. The 35/2 AF-D is a favorite lens of mine for events (parties, reunions, bbq's,after-parties,etc.). The 24/2.8 AF-D is good too, but does give some wide-angle distortion at the frame corners which can be either bad, or good; good for artistic shots, not so good for groups of people!

If you use a flash on a bracket, the old, cheap lenses like the 28-80 f/3.5~5.6 AF-D are quite sharp at f/7.1 or f/8, and with a speedlight with Auto Focus-Single shot enabled and the focus assist beam enabled, can focus in the dark or in very dim lighting; this is like a $35-$40 lens. I used one last week in fact.

The 50mm lens is a fine lens. On 12MP FX, there is no real, pressing need for high-performance or high-cost lenses.

 

[astroNikon]

and if you like Manual focus lenses and want to save even more money (generally) search for Nikon AI-S lenses.

I was just looking at a Nikon 85/2 AIS lens for BIN $170 USD.

 

[Evan55T]

Thank you astronikon for the AF-D lenses btw really helpful, tokina also has some decent wide-angle lenses but aren't that cheap.

All the other aftermarket manufacturers ik either aren't very cheap or don't have many wide angle lens selections.

Also i've noticed that wide angle zoom lenses are way more $$$ vs. wide angle primes.

So yeah just recently bought a E-rated nikon 28mm f2.8 for $180, and when i was testing it out today the focus ring wouldn't turn to infinity but it eventually did anyone know why that happened? I might have dropped my bag too hard the other day with the lens but everything seems fine now... lol what a lame bump.