Rokinon 35mm f/1.2 ED AS UMC CS Wide Angle Lens for Sony E Mount, Black

2021-12-01T19:57:54

This lens lived on my Fujifilm X-T2 for about 2 years. Such a joy to use. Insanely sharp from f/1.4 onward. F/1.2 was still very sharp, but a tad softer than f/1.4. It struggles with chromatic aberration when shooting brightly backlit subjects (mostly purple fringing) with our Fuji X-Trans cameras. However, that is a common issue on these cameras as it is, and 99% of the time it is handled by Fuji's in-built lens corrections anyway. Once in a while, you may have to adjust a bit in post-processing. Absolutely beautiful color rendition. The Rokinon lenses I've used all have a sort of matte color tonality. The color rendering coupled with the surreal look you get by throwing the aperture ring all the way to f/1.4 on a basically 50mm equiv focal length is stunning. Skin tones are a bit muted, which is really nice for portraits, because I've always found the vibrant film simulations on our Fuji's a little too red in the skin tones. Focusing was very easy. The focus ring is pretty heavily dampened, which is a good thing on a manual focus, wide-aperture lens. Infinity does not appear to be marked appropriately on the lens barrel, but I don't know that anyone really trusts those markings in critical focus situations, like astrophotography, anyway. The lens hood is great. Seems silly to praise the lens hood, but it's a noticeably better lens hood than the one that came with my XF16-55.... When it's "clicked" on, it's on. The grooves engage positively and quickly. When it's on, it's ON. When you reverse it for storage, there's no cross-threading or fiddling with it. It just goes on. Nice quality textured plastic. The rear lens cap is terrible. Doesn't stay on in my camera back at all. A little ingenuity might allow a person to put a dab of silicone here or there on the inside edge of the rear cap, which would give a little extra friction. All I know is, the Rokinon rear cap comes off in my bag, but if I put my Fujifilm rear cap on the Rokinon lens, it stays put... The front lens cap is fine. Does its job, as you would expect. The fitment to the camera left a bit to be desired. There was play between the lens and the lens mount on the body of the camera. When mounting the lens, it "clicks" decidedly into place and the interface between the back of the lens and the face of the lens mount on the camera stays visibly tight, but the lens can wiggle side to side... It can slide a bit... I investigated this thoroughly and never found any effect on image quality. However, I wouldn't trust this lens in a rainstorm. Just my thoughts; your mileage may vary. I absolutely recommend this lens. If you're into serious video, there is a "cine" version with a clickless aperture ring, geared focus/aperture rings and t/stop values.

Ryan H.

2019-02-19T11:53:59

Great lens for the price!

Mario M.

2018-09-27T12:10:55

I was not impressed with the build quality of the Rokinon lenses. I returned it.

Mark E.