Category: Lens

Samyang 35mm f/1.4 Review & Test Footage.

14/2/2012

As you can see above, I love absolutely love this lens and highly recommend it, no matter what interchangeable lens camera use use. It's not incredibly cheap, but it offers a great value for money, comparing to the similar alternatives from the high-end companies.

My lens is a de-clicked, but not one of the new CINE version, which have the fluid aperture adjustment as standard. This feature is absolutely amazing for video work. The standard version one has a clickable aperture adjustment and you would have to get it de-clicked to achieve the fluid adjustment.

By the way the footage of the lens in the video above was shot with a lovely little Sony NEX 5N, which I now constantly use as my slow mo and b camera. Used it with the Samyang too, work great!.

Samyang 35mm f/1.4 (where to buy in UK)
Samyang 35mm f/1.4 (on Amazon.com)

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First Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Test and Overview

29/12/2011

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I don’t usually use Nikon lenses, because I prefer to keep my setup clear, especially when using a follow focus, which I use a lot. Nikon and Canon lenses focus in different direction and to me it is confusing when trying to focus quickly and precisely , so I usually use lenses that focus anticlockwise from foreground to infinity, unlike Nikon which focus clockwise.

Saying that, I still decided to get hold of a decent Nikon lens to see what the whole fuss is about.

Well, to start with, the lens is really nicely built. Weird thing is that my lens doesn’t look the same as all the other Nikon 50mm f/1.4s I found on internet. My one has 3 lines on the focus ring, just like Nikon 50mm 1.2 and unlike all the other 50mm f/1.4s I’ve seen, which have 2 (see the pictures below). Very weird, if someone could demystify this, that would be great. My 50mm actually looks nicer than the other Nikon 50mm f/1.4s I found (not in my picture though, so I’m not 100% the build quality and the optics are exactly the same. If I had too much money I would buy another 50mm and compare them, but I’ll just go with the copy I have. The focus ring on this lens feels really nice, it is smooth and easy to turn, but not loose.

Optically this lens is really nice, at least from my first little test I’ve done. Images are sharp, great contrast and colors. Bokeh is also one as would be expected from a f/1.4 lens. I decided to use it in a low light situation, with a combination of a small LED light on top of the camera. By no means this was a scientific test, just sort of real like user experience and I did enjoy filming with this lens a lot. I might do another a bit calmer test video for this lens with a bit more emphases on resolution and it’s performance in natural lighting or external evening street lighting.

If you are already a Nikon lens user and you don’t have a 50mm yet, this lens is definitely worth looking at. It is nowhere as cheap as some other lenses I already tested, but it is f/1.4 and it’s Nikon which pushes the price even higher.

At this point I would give it 4.5 out of 5, just because of it’s price, which is not incredible value for money. Otherwise it would be a 5, especially if you are a Nikon lens user.

If you are going to use it on a Canon DSLR, make sure to buy a decent adapter, because the cheap one I bought on Ebay has play and ruins the good feel of this lens.

Click to find this item on Ebay

Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 on Ebay

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Samyang 35mm f/1.4 Review & Test Footage.

First Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Test and Overview

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