Korean lens manufacturer, Rokinon, released yet another prime lens earlier this year: the Rokinon 135mm f/2.0 – a budget telephoto prime lens earning its place in the competition with other portrait lenses.
The Rokinon 135mm f/2.0 is currently available at Adorama for $549, about a quarter of the cost of its competitor, the Zeiss 135mm f/2.0 Apo Sonnar T* ZF.2 Lens for Nikon F Mount. What does this lens lack to be a huge fraction of the cost of its competitor and what are the perks to owning one of these telephoto monsters? Let’s find out.
Compatibility
The Rokinon 135mm f/2.0 is produced in 10 different mounts: Canon, Canon M, Nikon, Sony A, Sony E, Samsung NX, Pentax, Fujifilm X, Four-Thirds, and MFT mounts. For the purpose of this review, I tested a Nikon F-mount lens on a Nikon D810 camera body. While this is designed mainly as a full frame lens, it also works on APS-C Cameras at a focal length equivalent to 202.5mm. An unfortunate downside is that the viewfinder of this lens dims when stopped down on these types of cameras.
Look and Feel
This lens has 11 elements in 7 groups with an aperture range from f/2 to f/22 that is completely adjustable in half stop increments, a focal length of 0.8m. It has a 9-blade aperture that makes for a perfect circular shape for terrific bokeh behind your subject. Weighing in at 815g with a length of 4.7”, this is a little bit of a heavier lens, however, it still comes in under the Zeiss lens, which weighs 920g and has a length of 5.03″. The density of this lens does provide security of good glass. Do note that the Rokinon line does not have weathersealing, so a 77mm filter on the lens at all times will help to protect from any dust elements making their way inside your lens. The lens casing has very clear and bold markings for hyperfocal distance, aperture and depth of field, which many other manufacturers stopped including – why? I am not sure. I find this a very helpful feature to have on a lens. The Nikon version of the lens is the only lens that has a coupled aperture that can be adjusted electronically through the camera body. The other mounts have a decoupled aperture that has to be adjusted using the aperture ring. The focus ring is a bit tight to turn but does have a long focus throw for accuracy in sharpening your frame. This lens has a lot of great perks, so long as you apply lens filter right away. Now, more importantly, let’s talk about the image quality.
The sharpness and color quality of this image is astounding.
Image Quality
The most surprising quality from this budget lens that had me falling over is its stunning clarity from accuracy in vibrant colors and tack sharpness. The only downside in trying to achieve this result is that the lens is manual focus only. Once you get past the learning curve of a manual focus lens, you may not go back as the quality of the images they produce are far better than many other images I’ve ever seen. The lens lacks any distortion, however, when used wide open, there is a bit of fall off and a tiny bit of vignetting is introduced, but once you get to about f/2.8, that problem disappears. All in all, even with a little bit of a shaky hand, this lens is very forgiving and still produces amazing realistic images.
I was a bit far back on a very sunny morning when I shot this beautiful city garden. Untouched, there appears to be a wee bit of ghosting that can be fixed in Lightroom or Photoshop.
Recommended Uses
This is obviously a great portrait lens, but because of its intensity in capturing of detail, I found it to also be a great landscape/cityscape lens. However, in all honesty, if you are good with taking a few steps back, this lens can work for multiple uses and will produce a beautiful bokeh behind your subjects when using a wide open aperture.
Additional Accessories Included
A gold star to Rokinon for its thoughtfulness in protecting your lens from the get-go. Included in the box are a drawstring bag and a cup-shaped reversible lens hood – something other manufacturers should step up and consider doing to protect your investment. Most other brands require you purchase these items separately.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The Rokinon 135mm f/2.0 lens makes for a great portrait lens to have in your toolbox at a huge fraction of the cost of competing lenses selling at $549 at Adorama. Available in Canon, Canon M, Nikon, Sony A, Sony E, Samsung NX, Pentax, Fujifilm X, Four-Thirds, and MFT mounts.
