Samyang announces “Xeen Meister” line of T1.3 full-frame cine lenses and a 50mm T2.3 2x Anamorphic

Samyang has today announced a new set of Xeen Meister cine lenses. The new collection is kicking off with three lenses at 35mm, 50mm and 85mm focal lengths, all with a maximum transmission of T1.3. Oh yes, these are some WIDE aperture lenses! As well as the three new T1.3 primes, there’s also a new Xeen Anamorphic 50mm T2.3 2x.

The Xeen name has been around for a while in the Samyang lineup, but Xeen Meister is the name Samyang is giving to their most premium of cine lenses. What is very new, though, is the anamorphic lens. Rumours have been around for a while now that Samyang was working on an anamorphic lens, but it’s taken a while to bring it to fruition. Well, now, Samyang’s first anamorphic lens, the Xeen Anamorphic 50mm T2.3 2x, is official.

There’s no word on a price yet for the Xeen Anamorphic 50mm T2.3, although rumours suggest that Samyang’s target price is around half that of similar products on the market. Don’t get too excited, though, even at half price, a 50mm T2.3 2x anamorphic lens still probably isn’t going to be cheap, but if you’ve already got your mind set on something expensive, it might be worth holding out a little longer if you’re not in a huge rush.

But what we do know about it is that it has a large image circle of 43.2mm, a full-frame field of view of 68.4° x 26.9° (on full-frame cameras) and will be available only in PL mount. It has a built-in 158 tooth module 0.8 gear for the focus with a 300° rotation angle for precise focus control from 1 metre to infinity. A 136 tooth module 0.8 gear drives the iris with an 89.5° throw. It’s also a heavy lens, weighing in at a whopping 3.9kg (8.5lb) and has a front diameter of 114mm.

As for the Xeen Meister 35mm T1.3, 50mm T1.3 and 85mm T1.3, well, there doesn’t seem to be any prices on those yet, either, but Samyang says they’re the fastest full-frame cine prime lenses out there with a bright T1.3 aperture and they’ll produce sharp results at resolutions up to 8K. These ones are available in multiple mounts, including PL, Canon EF and Sony E for native support on a wide range of cameras.

All three lenses are essentially identical in form factor, measuring 127mm in diameter and 122mm, 130mm and 156mm in length for PL, EF and E mounts respectively. Their weights, while slightly different to each other are also fairly close in the 1.9-2.3kg range depending on focal length and mount. This allows you to easily swap between them without having to rebalance and adjust your whole rig.

All of the lenses feature a 13-blade aperture and have a minimum focus distance of 34cm, 45cm and 80cm for the 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses respectively, and each has a module 0.8 focus gear with a 300° rotation and an aperture ring rotation of 92°. Like the Xeen Anamorphic 50mm T2.3 above, the front diameter is 114mm.

While there are no prices on the new lenses yet, nor an official release date, I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long. Samyang says that the lenses will see their grand unveiling at Micro Salon AIC in Rome, Italy between November 26-28 and Micro Salon AEC in Madrid, Spain, December 10-11th. If you can’t make it to those shows, though, there’s more info on the Samyang website about both the Xeen Meister Prime and Xeen Anamorphic lenses.