Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
The company, also known as Rokinon, has been rumored to release a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and the teaser posted on its Facebook page suggests the announcement is just around the corner.
Samyang did not reveal much information, but left room for imagination as it promised unmatched featured.
If the Zeiss Otus can be described as superb quality at a superb price, Samyang (known as Rokinon in the US) can be described as Good quality at a good price. This a reason that many choose those lenses as go to lenses when starting out and looking for decent quality primes and wide angles.
Today, Samyang announced the addition of a new lens to their arsenal: The Samyang 12mm 1:2.8 ED AS NCS. This is an Uber wide lens, with a 180˚ field of view on a full frame sensor and a 118˚-124.6˚on APS-C.
We mentioned the Rokinon 8mm f2.8 several times on the blog as being a great lens for its price. One thing that is kinda hard to do with this lens is use filters. This is both because the curvature of the lens extends beyond the filter thread and also because of the shape of the petals of the built in lens hood.
This makes it practically impossible to place an ND filter on such lens. The folks at CheesyCam just shared a sweet hack using a Rosco ND gel and some blue tack. The trick is to place the gel at the back of the lens rather than in the front of the lens as we usually do. For ND CheesyCam uses the 3404 gel from the Rosco cinegel sample book, which cuts 3 stops off, and placed it using some blue tack.
Even zoomed in at 400% I was actually quite surprised that the gel almost did not introduce any softness.
[Adding ND Filter Gel on Rokinon Fisheye Lens to Block Light via CheesyCam]
P.S. You can use a similar hack with the Rokinon 8mm f2.8 to shoot infra red photos.
I have devised a way of using the very popular Rokinon 8mm F2.8 fisheye lens that comes under several other branded names including; Samyang and Bower. The photo included is of no great interest. In fact it’s just a photo taken at the rear of a house. But, the significance of the actual image lies in the fact that it is an infrared photograph taken by using a 8mm fisheye lens on an unconverted Fujifilm X-Pro1.
Surely a filter cannot be fitted onto the front of the 8mm fisheye lens? So how did I do it, I hear you ask? The answer is after the jump, but lets just say that, this is going to be one of those try-it-at-your-own-risk kind of posts :)
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know how much we fancy the Rokinon (US) or Samyang (rest of world) line of lenses. Having a strong focus on prime Rokinon lenses deliver some great quality at affordable price.
Now Rokinon announces a flood of new lenses and an update of mounts for existing lenses with a strong focus on mirrorless and MFT cameras.
Here is a short summary of types, speeds and focal lengthes, for the full breakdown hit the jump:
Mirrorles: 10mm f/2.8, 12mm f/2.0, 8mm f/2.8 Fish-Eye, 8mm T3.1 Cine Fish-Eye
MFT (added mounts): 35mm f/1.4, 24mm f/1.4, 8mm f/3.5 Fish-Eye, 8mm T3.8 Cine Fish-Eye, 14mm T3.1 Cine, 24mm T1.5 Cine, 35mm T1.5 Cine, 85mm T1.5 Cine
DSLR: 8mm T3.1 Cine Fish-Eye
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!