We told you that they were teasing about a new lens, and that the rumors said it was a 50mm. Those thoughts/rumors were proven to be true (at least partially) today as Samyang/Rokinon/Bower announced their new 50mm T/1.5 Cine Lens.
According to the company press release, the lens will actually be first shown and officially introduced at Photokina in a couple of weeks. The announcement of this lens will no doubt make many fans of the Korean company very happy as it slots nicely between their 35mm and 85mm lenses.
Now, I realize that some of you may not know what a T-stop is, and how that relates to photography and an f-stop. That is a post for another day, but for the sake of this lens, the T/1.5 relates to an aperture of F/1.4.
Some were hoping for an F/1.2 aperture, but no doubt F/1.4 should still be sufficient. It is also notable that the company says that a stills/photographic focused version of the lens will also be available (see image).
At this time, the lens is not available for purchase, but we will update you once we get information about pricing and availability. If you would like more details, you can find the full press release from Samyang here, along with sample images from the lens.
**Update**
Pre-order links are now available over on B&H for the Cine version, the lens is available in Canon, M 4/3, Nikon, and Sony E & A mounts. It will run you $549, and is expected to start shipping on September 5th. That price is not bad, though more expensive than Canon/Nikon variants that include autofocus. I will be interested to see if the price is justified by performance.
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What are your thoughts on this Samyang announcement? Do you think that this 50mm will be a good option in an already saturated focal length market? Leave a comment below!
[via Samyang]
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looks like a good deal!
I wonder what the filter thread will be. 77mm?
From the look of it, a minimum of 67, and probably 72 or 77.
=Matt=
I hope they match it to the 77mm filter threads of their 24, 35, and 85… would be quite convenient.
Interesting view on Video Lenses.
Depending on how good / bad the vignetting is, I’d say people ought to be perfectly happy that it’s f/1.4 and not f/1.2. In other words, I don’t know of any f/1.2 lenses that are actually delivering f/1.2’s brightness anywhere but the dead-center of the image, the rest is vignetted to crap.
The fact that this lens’ cinema version is T-1.5 is actually very encouraging, I think. I bet the likes of the Canon 50 1.2 L would be “T-2.0” or something horrible like that, LOL)
=Matt=
“Some were hoping for an F/1.2 aperture, but no doubt F/1.4 should still be sufficient.”
How will that be sufficient?! It’s .2 less good! How can I possibly use that?!
I have a 1.4 lens and it is sharp enough, there is really no point in getting a 1.2 if a 1.4 can get you great results.
I wouldn’t have any problem as long as it’s not sold at Sigma “ART” prices
Just announced and available for pre-order at B&H for a tad under $ 550
Sigma art doesn’t really have any competitors though. I mean, there are no other lenses where you can fine tune the focus according to the distance you are focusing to. That alone is pretty awesome. Until someone else comes along with the ability to do that, they are pretty much free to charge what they like for it.