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Not wanting to spend the $1200 on the Nikkor 85mm, and knowing it's not going to be a lens I use all that regularly on my D300, I decided to venture into unknown waters, and buy my first non-nikkor lens. My particular model being the Rikinon 85mm F1.4 (also sold under many other names).

Here are some first-day shooting results with this $369 MF beaut!



F1.4


F1.4


F1.4


~F4 (excuse lightroom & flickr sharpening, will fix up this arvo)

Right, so first impressions... Absolutely amazing.

MF isn't a problem with LiveView, even 1.4 is easy to focus on the D300. And the focusing motion is smooth and well dampened. The build quality is extremely solid, and the lens feels better made and much more robust than my 18-200mm. Sharpness at F1.4 is great (not perfect), but anything above F2 is very good. Vignetting also not really noticeable, unless you're shooting blue skies at F1.4...unlikely though.

Negatives are some slight out of focus CAs when used wide open, however not really noticeable unless you make a living photographing newspaper articles at ridiculous angles at F1.4.

Sorry to turn this into a bit of a review, but I am just a huge fan of this cheap, surprisingly high quality lens, and the photos I was able to take with it!

-=Monty=- wrote:Sorry to turn this into a bit of a review, but I am just a huge fan of this cheap, surprisingly high quality lens, and the photos I was able to take with it!

Nothing to apologise for. I've moved this post into our equipment reviews section, where it may feel slightly more at home.

For the price you paid, this certainly seems like good value. From where did you buy this lens? eBay, B&M, ????

How big/heavy or small/light is it?

Bought it from eBay in the US. There are some that are being sold out of poland too (original samyang brand).

It's about as thick as the 18-200mm, and only about an inch shorter. Same weight too. Very nicely built!

A more famous name for this lens (made in Korea) is Vivitar and is a very, very nice lens.

Awww shucks...I have been tempted by this lens for so long.....MUST NOT BUY!! Bah I think I will have to convince myself that the Carl Zeiss is better and I should buy that (knowing that I am too tight at the moment to do so)

Enjoy this lens!

Thanks for this info. Never heard of this brand. I wonder whether they service Canon...

Yeah, you can get mounts for all DSLR brands it seems.

aim54x wrote:Awww shucks...I have been tempted by this lens for so long.....MUST NOT BUY!! Bah I think I will have to convince myself that the Carl Zeiss is better and I should buy that (knowing that I am too tight at the moment to do so)

Enjoy this lens!

When this lens was tested alongside a Zeiss it had the better bokeh

sirhc55 wrote:

aim54x wrote:Awww shucks...I have been tempted by this lens for so long.....MUST NOT BUY!! Bah I think I will have to convince myself that the Carl Zeiss is better and I should buy that (knowing that I am too tight at the moment to do so)

Enjoy this lens!

When this lens was tested alongside a Zeiss it had the better bokeh

That is not helping buddy...but I remember reading that it had less light transmission....

I suppose the best test is testing this versus the 85 1.8 branded lens. The prices are similar the branded lens would offer auto focus which would be a nice bonus.

surenj wrote:I suppose the best test is testing this versus the 85 1.8 branded lens. The prices are similar the branded lens would offer auto focus which would be a nice bonus.

Well I've read a couple of sites that actually put the 1.4 Samyang sharper than the Nikkor F1.8, wide open.

Here is also a comparison posted on dpreview between the 2:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readf ... 234&page=2

That test might be accurate but it's possible they used the 85mm f1.8 on autofocus and either the lens or the body was front- or back-focusing. You can't tell from the image.

Wow that is some really nice shot. Thanks for sharing

Monty
Thanks for that link! Very interesting lens. Worth further investigation.

An oldie but so worth revisiting....I wonder who Monty is going with this lens now