Gear Rumors
Samyang to Announce New 50mm f/1.5 for MFT At Photokina
Photokina is going to be quite the show this year. I just wish I was going to be able to make it out to Cologne. We have received word of a pretty big announcement from Samyang (whose lenses are also branded as Opteka, Vivitar, Rokinon, Falcon, Bower, and Walimex).
According to a report over on 4/3 rumors, which gave this their highest rumor rating – meaning they are 81-99% sure of its accuracy, Samyang is poised to announce a new 50mm F/1.5 (yes, F/1.5, that is not a typo) lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras (Like the new Panasonic GH4, for example).
[REWIND: Tamron 150-600mm Has Arrived, Initial Thoughts]
As with other Samyang releases, it is expected to be very reasonably priced, while still providing excellent optical quality. There are also some rumblings that it may have autofocus, which would be a first for Samyang, but chances are, it will be just another manual focus only lens.
I am curious about the F/1.5 aperture. I mean the difference between F/1.4 and F/1.5 is negligible, but F/1.4 is a standard aperture, F/1.5 is not. I am curious about the decision to go with such an odd aperture. Otherwise, I think this is great news for GH4 and other MFT owners who want some quality low light optics on the cheap.
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What are your thoughts on this Samyang rumor? Do you think they can pull off a 50mm F/1.5? How about AF? Leave a comment below!
[via 4/3 Rumors]
I hope the build quality is better than it looks on the photo… I hope the glass is better than some of the other one’s I’ve seen them produce.
Their glass is fine, it’s the build quality that needs improvement.
I’ve noticed more than a few cinema lenses going at t/1.5 max aperture, including Samyang ones. That may have something to do with these rumors that the new 50 will have a max aperture of f/1.5.
The lens is likely either (a) designed to be T1.8, and let the f-stop at that T-stop fall where it may, or (b) it uses a front element that can be easily produced on tooling they already have in place (and that may include parts of the lens element mounts/lens body as well). (For those not familiar with the concept, the T-stop is a measure of light transmission stated in terms of the f-stop equivalent of a “perfect” lens that would somehow magically let all of the light through, with no reflection or absorption. It’s a much more important number than the f-stop for critical exposure, especially when matching exposures from shot to shot and lens to lens. Cine lenses are usually marked in T-stops rather than f-stops, since even small shot-to-shot variations in exposure in the same scene stand out like a sore thumb painted day-glo pink, wearing a large tartan bonnet and playing death metal on the bagpipes.)
I guess its for them to prove us right or wrong with the F 1.5 aperture though i think they would have just stuck to the 1.4 so as to allow for side to side comparisons and reviews
Often times, cine lenses have oddball apertures because they calculate the number based on their actual light transmission, not just the diameter of the aperture iris. That’s why certain Roki-Bow-Yang lenses that are normally f/1.4 or f/2.8 are listed as f/2.2 or f/3.2 cine lenses…
=Matt=