Rokinon 85mm f/1.8 Reviews
Overall good for the price but a bit disappointed
By Ryan
Rated 3 out of 5
Date: 2022-01-27
Pro:
-Good portrait lens with enough aperture blades to stop down to f2.8 and still have good back ground blur.
-Minimum focal distance of 0.65m
-Has good contrast and minimum flare in most conditions
-Well balance on my aps-c sensor camera
Con:
-Infinity focus and indeed any focus is more difficult than it should because of the 1/4 turn focus. The difficult and lack of sensitivity at infinity is puzzling.
-Mount on my camera has very slight rotary play.
-Shooting into the sun results in an interesting flare which may or may not be to your liking.
In conclusion I would have overlooked the flaws except that my vintage Canon fd 100mm f2 lens outperforms it in most categories.
really good APS-C lens
By Nathaniel
Rated 4 out of 5
Date: 2021-06-26
this is a nice lens,especially for stills, probably even more so for video. Manual focus. very sharp in the center, corners clear by 2.8. there are no contacts, so exif date (especially f stop ) will not be displayed (F 0.0).
Astounding
By Siddhant
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2020-08-18
I have Fuji 1.4 lenses and the Samyang 12mm. I have never used a lens as astounding as the 85 1.8!
It has quickly become my favorite lens and is always on my camera. Focusing is very easy with the peaking on my Fujifilm.
There is a very noticeable rainbow flare in direct light, but I love it for the character it adds.
I would highly recommend this lens over the 85 1.4 for it's weight, size and sharpness!
Relearning manual control
By Emmet
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2020-01-13
Feels solid no complaints enjoying engaging with manual controls.
Light. Sharp. Fun.
By Joel
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2019-09-24
This is my 2nd Rokinon and I am a fan. This lens is quite compact and light and fits really well on my Fuji X-T20. The image quality is great. It’s a little bit soft wide open and has a noticeable vignette 2.8 but it’s a nice effect and easily removed in post. The bokeh is gorgeous. The Aperture ring clicks wonderfully and the focus ring is very smooth with good resistance.
Incredible lens
By Gocha
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2019-09-24
My favorite lens! Razor sharp even at f/1.8 with nice bokeh and no CAs!
Good lens for the price.
By Ryan
Rated 4 out of 5
Date: 2021-09-06
+: Pretty sharp by f2.8, good color, good contrast in direct sunlight, close focus to 0.65 m, seems well built, sized right for camera balance.
Neutral: Maybe pretty but not desirable special effects off axis flare, 1/4 turn focus is not nearly enough making it hard to nail closeup and infinity focus, mounting has some very slight rotary play.
Just wow
By David
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2021-07-29
This thing has been in my wish list for a long time, and I held off buying it for all the things it doesn't have: autofocus and image stabilization. Logic told me that's a problem for a telephoto lens (136mm equivalent on my Canon) and several reviews reported difficulty in focusing accurately with its shallow depth of field wide open. Recently, however, I acquired its big brother (OK, huge brother) the Rokinon XP 85 f/1.2. Oh my, what an incredible lens that is, and on the EOS R, the eye detection coupled with manual focus guide make it really easy to nail focus. I was tempted to lug that sucker along for family portraits during some upcoming travel, but the M5 is my preferred travel kit for obvious reasons. Which brings me to the subject of this review . . . This Rokinon APS-C mount f/1.8 is just so much like the bigger lens in a travel friendly package. Build is very solid, and everything from the mount to the control rings to the hood operates very smoothly. Image quality reminds me very much of the XP 85, too (136 equivalent at f/1.8 has a similar depth of field, albeit different framing). Center sharpness is amazing and bokeh is very smooth. What about focusing? Actually, not hard at all, assuming you don't have a moving subject (think portraits, not sports for this lens.) The focus ring throw is sufficient, and I find that focus peaking seems to work better on longer focal length lenses like this one.
OK, two things that aren't so great. 1) I really wish it could report EXIF data, not so much to identify the lens but to record the aperture for later evaluation. If that's what keeps the price down, I can live with it. And 2) the lens hood is hard to get back on with my chubby fingers down inside the rather deep hood. Again, I'll take that trade for an effective hood that packs compactly when reversed.
If you want/need a portrait lens for Canon M (that fits the small and light design philosophy, that is) I don't think there's a better option than this. 85 at f/1.8 on the crop sensor is just beautiful.
One bit of weirdness. I bought the Rokinon branded version, but it still came with a Samyang branded hood. Go figure.
credit card.‡