Is anybody here who can commit to the quality of Samyang/Rokinon/Wallimex Optics?
I own or have owned 3 of the Samyang/Rokinon/Bower/Pro Optics/Walimex lenses. The 14mm, 35mm and 85mm. I used them both on the Nikon D600 and Nikon D800E camera bodies.
They all are extremely sharp. The 14mm's distance scale was off by quite a bit on my copy. I simply marked infinity on mine. Typically it has not presented a problem. I have heard that this has been addressed by Samyang and is not as much of an issue with the newer examples. Also, there are a few articles, posted on-line, on how to make the correction yourself. Distortion is complex. I found a few lens correction profiles for LR that do a great job correcting it. Build quality? Seems rather well built. The focus ring is large, well dampened but may be a but long for some. I read the same article by Roger at Lensrentals.com. that is mentioned earlier in this thread. Here is exactly what he had to say about the Rokinon 14MM while recommending it as one of his bargain lens choices.. " It's manual focus, but at 14mm focus is basically 'everything I can't touch is usually in focus' so that's not critical. (Manual focus is the reason I didn't include longer Rokinon lenses as bargains.) It has a lot of barrel distortion, but everything else at this focal length has some. Not as much, but some. But it's amazingly sharp. Better than the Nikon 14mm f/2.8 prime (which is way dated) and 1/3rd of the price. I will note, this is held together inside with plastic, glue, and small screws. You won't be using it for years. But the price of a new one is less than the price of a repair on a 14-24 f/2.8." After 3 years of use, If mine was lost, stolen or broke..I'd buy another. For most uses, this is an EXTROIDINARY lens. INMYHOP.
The 35mm, being one of my most used focal lengths, is my favorite Samyang lens. This lens is crazy sharp, even at 1.4. It is sharper than anything made by Nikon or Zeiss. (Per DXO)) It is only beaten marginally (an unnoticeable amount) wide open by the Sigma 35MM 1.4 Art. Stopped down to F/2 and beyond it matches or beats even the Sigma in sharpness. I find it to be a large, heavy(compared to most 35mm) well built lens with a great feel. It's only down fault, for some, is being a manual focus lens (Nobody complains about Zeiss being MF!)
The Samyang 85mm F/1.4 is another great lens. SHARP>>>SHARP>>SHARP! Much smaller than the 35mm and again can I say sharp. Also, INMYHOP has pretty darn nice bokeh as well.
For me, it all boils down to this. When I can purchase all 3 of the Samyang lenses mentioned for less than the price of a Sigma 35MM Art and almost half the price of a Nikon 85MM 1.4G, it is well worth taking a very close look at their line of lenses. Also, being manual lenses, it would be my guess, that they may be around longer than their AF counterparts, before heading in for repair.
Note: I originally purchased the 3 lenses as an inexpensive set of dedicated video lenses. Being quite impressed...I began to use them for stills. For photography that does not require AF and if you are comfortable using MF lenses, the Samyang line of lenses are affordable and can produce excellent images. One could spend much more and do far worse.
