Deal: Rokinon 35mm T1.5 Wide Angle Cine Lens – $479

Top rated (and authorized dealer) vstarsales (12832 ratings, 99.7% positive) on eBay has a good deal going on. Get the Rokinon/Samyang/Bower 35mm T1.5 Wide Angle Cine Lens with De-Clicked Aperture for . Bonus items: Lens Cleaning Pen and Deluxe 5 Piece Lens Cleaning Kit. Free shipping.

  • Very Fast T1.5 Maximum Aperture
  • Geared Focus and Aperture Control Rings
  • Multi-Layer Coating to Reduce Flare
  • Hybrid Aspherical Lens Element
  • Full-Frame Coverage
  • Depth of Field Markings
  • Min. Focusing Distance of 12″
  • Bayonet Mount Lens Hood

Canon Announces Development Of 35mm Cinema Prime Lens

35mm Cinema

This came quietly. Yesterday Canon announced the development of a new 35mm prime lens for their cinema line-up. The lens is designed for 4k.

The press release:

Designed for Film-Style Operation, Canon Cinema Prime Lenses Deliver 4K Imaging Performance
MELVILLE, N.Y., April 3, 2013 – Canon Inc., the parent company of Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, has announced the development of a 35mm cinema prime lens for large-format single-sensor cameras employing Super 35mm, full-frame 35mm, and APS-C size imagers. The 35mm cinema prime lens will look to join Canon’s line of 14mm, 24mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm EF-mount Cinema prime lenses. The 35mm cinema lens in development will look to become the sixth in the line, filling a strategic optical need between Canon’s 24mm and 50mm lens offerings. As with Canon’s precision-matched, competitively priced CN-E prime lenses, the 35mm lens under development will look to deliver 4K optical performance and inherit the professional operability of the existing CN-E prime lens line.

Canon Cinema prime lenses are part of the Canon Cinema EOS System of professional digital cinematography products, which also include the EOS C500 4K/2K Digital Cinema Camera, EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera, EOS C100 Digital Video Camera, EOS-1D C 4K DSLR Cinema Camera, and four Canon Cinema zoom lenses. A development sample of the 35mm cinema lens will be on display in the Canon booth #C4325 during the 2013 NAB Show in Las Vegas, NV, April 8-11, 2013, and the lens itself is currently expected to officially launch sometime this year.

“Canon is committed to supporting cinematic culture and the continued advancement of tools for visual storytelling at all levels,” affirmed Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Canon U.S.A. “During the past 18 months, Canon has brought our Cinema EOS product line to market, and in that time we have introduced HD, 2K, and 4K cameras, lenses and workflow solutions, as well as structured a comprehensive service and support network for professionals in the theatrical motion picture and television markets to enable customers to create and deliver exceptional imaging content and cinematic brilliance.”

Current Canon Cinema Lens Lineup

Each current Canon Cinema lens is equipped with an 11-blade aperture diaphragm, which is ideally suited to help achieve creative depth-of-field manipulation and pleasing “bokeh” effects. The Canon line of Cinema prime lenses is precision-matched for consistent and solid optical performance throughout the line, and the inner focus mechanism helps minimize focus-induced changes in the angle of view. All feature a full-frame image circle in a lightweight, compact design, and they incorporate proven Canon lens elements designed to fulfill contemporary 4K production standards. All Canon Cinema primes also deliver color tone and balance that matches Canon’s top-end Cinema zooms and compact Cinema zooms. Canon Cinema prime lenses deliver the operation and reliability required in professional film-style shooting environments.

All Canon Cinema prime lenses are fully compatible with the Canon EOS C500, EOS C300, EOS C100, and EOS-1D C digital cinema cameras. The EF-mount design of all Canon Cinema prime lenses provides communication with these cameras for such handy features as display of the ƒ number in the electronic viewfinder, recording of focus/zoom position and f number, and, later this year, Peripheral Light Compensationi.

Strategically integrated motion-picture style mechanical attributes (as opposed to those for still photography lenses) are also an important design feature of Canon’s series of Cinema prime lenses. These film-style characteristics include 300-degree rotation on the focus ring for precision focus control as well as large, highly visible engraved focus scales for convenient operation. These markings appear on the angled surfaces on both sides of the barrel, making them easy to read and to adjust the “stepless” focus and/or aperture settings of the lenses from behind or from either side of the camera for camera operators or focus pullers. Focus markings can be switched from standard labeling to metric, and control rings are engineered to maintain the proper amount of resistance with consistent operating torque and familiar tactile “feedback” for satisfying manual control. All of Canon’s current Cinema prime lenses also share the same uniform gear positions, diameters, and rotation angles, as well as front-lens diameters, making them compatible with a wide variety of matte boxes, follow focus gear, marking disks, and other third-party film-industry-standard accessories. Film crews can quickly change lenses without the need for accessory gear-position adjustments or other changes to the rig setup.

The versatility of image-capture options using Canon EOS digital cinema cameras can be further extended with Canon’s Cinema Zoom lenses (the CN-E14.5-60mm T2.6 wide-angle and the CN-E30-300mm T2.95-3.7 telephoto) and Compact Cinema Zoom lenses (the CN-E15.5-47mm T2.8 wide-angle and CN-E30-105mm T2.8 telephoto). All four lenses are available in both EF- and PL-mount versions, and the mount can be switched at a Canon service facility in the United States for added flexibility. Almost all of Canon’s EF Series photographic lenses can also be used with these Cinema EOS cameras, including Image Stabilized zoom, tilt-shift, and macro lenses.

Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM Video Review (DigitalRev)

DigitalRev’s Kai has a look on Canon’s new EF 35mm f/2 IS lens. This lens has rather high price tag, $849, and  people is questioning if it is worth the money. Have a look at the video above to learn what Kai thinks about.

There are alternatives to the Canon’s EF 35mm f/2 IS USM (price & specs) to choose from if you are looking for a 35mm lens, as the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM which comes with f/1.4 and is getting very good reviews, or the manual aperture and focusing Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 (price & specs). The Rokinon is a very interesting lens, with a price tag of $479. For featured reviews of the Canon and Sigma lenses see herehere, and here. For the Rokinon see here.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

[via dslcamera]

Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM

Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG

Sigma EF 35mm f/1.4 DG Reviews Round-Up

 

Sigma EF 35mm f/1.4 DG Reviews

Well, just two Sigma EF 35mm f/1.4 DG Reviews. :-)

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG (price & specs), part of Sigma’s “A” (Art) line-up, is getting very positive reviews allover the web. Having a price tag of $899 it is also affordable for most of us.

Photography Blog has to say:

If the new 35mm F1.4 DG HSM lens is anything to go by, Sigma are definitely raising their game with the recent introduction of their three new lens ranges (Art, Sports and Contemporary). The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM is a fast and tack-sharp lens that exhibits low chromatic aberrations and very little barrel distortion. Vignetting at wide-open apertures is the only real optical issue of note, something that other fast lenses also suffer from, and stopping down to F/4 solves the problem altogether.

SLRgear writes:

Sigma’s produced an excellent lens in the 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG HSM, with comparatively great performance at the ƒ/1.4 aperture setting, where the lens will no doubt be used for the majority of the time. There’s a lot to like here: great results for sharpness, low chromatic aberration, and low distortion. There is some significant corner shading when used wide open, but coupled with the corner softness at the same aperture settings this contributes to an interesting look and subject isolation. If you’re looking for corner-to-corner image sharpness you’ll need to stop down. The Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 is definitely priced to compete, and designed to perform.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Review (The Digital Picture)

The Digital Picture reviewed the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 (price & specs), a lens highly appreciated also by other reviews. About Sharpness:

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens is an impressively sharp lens – with very sharp center and mid image circle results even at a wide open f/1.4 aperture. Full frame f/1.4 peripheral image circle results are still quite good, but softer than the center results. Results are slightly sharper at f/2, but the clearing vignetting is the biggest difference noticed by stopping down. Don’t expect center-of-the-frame image quality to noticeably improve by stopping down beyond f/2. Corners slowly improve until becoming very impressively sharp at f/5.6.

About image quality:

The impressiveness of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens’ image quality becomes most apparent when comparing the results to the other great 35mm lenses. I have not used a lens of any focal length (Canon, Nikon, Zeiss, …) that delivered better/sharper image quality at f/1.4. This comparison of course includes the also-impressive Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon T* ZE Lens and the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM Lens.

About auto-focus:

While it is not perfect, I’m finding the Sigma 35 to perform close to the Canon 35 L in AF accuracy. A somewhat consistent and quite noticeable front focus problem on both of my 5D Mark III bodies required AFMA to correct. You may want to capture multiple images in situations with especially shallow DOF – which will be closer to MFD (Minimum Focus Distance). Note that the focus-and-recompose technique can begin to fail as shallower DOF is achieved.

And finally:

I think that the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens is my new favorite Sigma lens. Perhaps the “A” plate on the barrel represents this lens’ report card grade average, showing that it has brains to go along with the great looks.

There is much more in The Digital Picture‘s review, lot’s of details, so be sure not to miss it.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Reviews Round-Up

Note: for a previously posted video review of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 click here.

Let’s start with The Phoblographer’s first impressions (lots of samples) about Sigma’s latest entry in the “Art” category of its lens line-up, the highly praised Sigma 35mm f/1.4 (price & specs), which has been tested using an EOS 5D Mark II:

Everything about this lens feels super solid. I’ve had other staffers hold it and proclaim that it feels like an entirely metal lens. When putting a Zeiss lens right next to it though, it is clear that this lens’s exterior is not made of metal. However, if you squeeze the lens, it feels even more solid than previous optics made by Sigma.
[…]

So far, I’m still quite head over heels for the lens. The wide open and stopped down performance is really quite good and it’s made me reach for my 5D Mk II much more than I used to. In many ways, its breathed new life into the camera.
The build quality so far is stellar and is the way it feels in my hands. And for the price, I really can’t see anyone going wrong with this lens.

The price is one of the big points of this lens, at $900 it is ways cheaper than the equivalent brand lenses.

Just a few days ago DPreview published its review of the Sigma. In the conclusion they write (emphasis mine):

It’s remarkably sharp, even wide open, outperforming not only its Canon, Nikon and Sony equivalents, but also the far more expensive Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 1,4/35 in lab tests. Chromatic aberration is also impressively well controlled (both lateral and longitudinal), distortion is low and vignetting more-or-less typical for its class. The rendition of out-of-focus regions is generally quite attractive, although complex backgrounds can end up looking rather ‘fussy’. The overall result, though, is a lens that delivers fine-looking images with the minimum of fuss, shot after shot.

It appears as if Sigma made a definitely outstanding lens. Quoting DPreview:

Every now and then we come across a camera or lens that hits a sweet spot of image quality, usability and price that makes it an easy recommendation. The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM is just such a beast – it manages the impressive trick of being substantially cheaper than the camera manufacturers’ equivalents while matching or beating them optically. If you’re after a top quality fast prime at this focal length it should be right at the top of your short list, and it easily earns our top award.

Image credit: ephotozine

Finally, ephotozine (also with sample images) reviewed the Sigma:

Even at f/1.4, sharpness in the centre portion of the frame is excellent, although as you might expect at such a fast maximum aperture, sharpness towards the edges of the frame falls away to just below good levels. This is still very good performance for a lens of this type. Stopping the lens down improves sharpness across the frame with clarity towards the edges of the frame reaching very good levels by f/2. Peak sharpness across the frame is achieved at apertures between f/4 and f/5.6 where the clarity achieved in the centre is outstanding, and sharpness is excellent towards the edges of the frame.

More samples can be checked on the Sigma blog.

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM price check: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA