Blackmagic Cinema Camera vs. Red Scarlet – Zeiss vs. Samyang Part 2. By Frank Glencairn | Film & Cinema |

Posted by Frank Glencairn on May 13, 2013 • 


"In part 2 of our comparison, Felix Patzke of Heimspiel and I, looked at the differences of famous Zeiss cineglass and pretty affordable Samyang (Rokinon/Walimex) cineprimes. As in our first article, we where quite surprised, that the differences are not as huge as we thought.

Felix just got his hands on a set of wonderful Zeiss Superspeed glass. These are the older (MKII) lenses with the typical triangle bokeh and the aperture and focus rings are oil dampened. They are famous for their special look and the way they render microcontrast.


In the other corner we had a set of Samyang (Walimex/Rokinon) lenses. When they came out, they generated quite a stir, because of their speed and optical quality for the buck.
Samyang produces those lenses in two different flavors. A traditional version for still photography and a cinevized version. The cineglass has the same optics, but comes with standard gear for focus and aperture, declicked iris and markings on the side, so your focus puller can see them. The focal lengths and speeds are 8mm/f3.5 fisheye, 14mm/f2.8, 24mm/f1.4, 35mm/f1.4 and 85mm/f1.4.
Why there is no 50mm/f1.4 is beyond me though. I hope Samyang comes up with that missing link as soon as possible, since it’s not a complete set without a 50mm.


So here is the challenge. How can those affordable Korean cinevized still lenses hold up against expensive professional cineglass?"


Via Thierry Saint-Paul