In recent years Samyang have grown to be amongst the premium lens manufacturers in the word. From very humble beginnings, and their famous 8mm fisheye and 14mm ultra-wide angle lenses, Samyang now produce some of the finest, affordable, autofocus lenses available for the Sony E mount system. This is a growing range with the 35mm f1.8 FE being the latest addition available for Sony E mount and, once more, they are all compatible with both the APS-C and 35mm (full-frame) format bodies.
Of course, Samyang also produce a growing number of auto-focus lenses for both Canon and Nikon DSLRs and with the introduction of the 14mm f2.8 RF AF Samyang have entered the world of Canon mirrorless. Nikon Z next?
Not forgetting their manual focus beginnings, Samyang launched two Nikon Z series and Canon RF series manual lenses last year. These are the ubiquitous 14mm f2.8 and the sublime 85mm f1.4 lenses. Moving on, they have now updated these two iconic lenses for DLSRs (also available for Sony FE) with mark II versions that incorporate, not just more advanced optical coatings, but an aperture ring that can be decoupled for increases exposure accuracy and to also make them more user friendly when utilising them as videography lenses. Of course, the update also treats these two lenses to a much more up-to-date design and both have a much more premium feel to them.
You can check all the Samyang lenses out here: Samyang Lenses
Of course you can check out Campkins Cameras own Web Pages for the latest lenses: Samyang Lenses
As with any great lens manufacturer Samyang haven’t stopped with traditional stills photography. Samyang have become a leading brand within the film industry manufacturing cinematographic lenses for both serious amateurs and pros alike. Again, Samyang started from humble beginnings by simply converting their DSLR lenses for use with cine cameras. This involved de-clicking the aperture and installing focus and aperture gearing for use in filming rigs. These where quickly developed by unifying the size and spacing of these geared rings for ease of use and, just recently, by fully redesigning the lens barrels, casings and coatings; the type and formulae have been standardised to facilitate post production colour grading.
Samyang also boast the Xeen Pro and Xeen PR CF cine lenses. Here we have cinematography lenses that can match the best out there all for a fraction of the cost. These have been a huge hit with up-and-coming cinematographers working to tight personal budgets and Xeen lenses are currently being used in a number of Universities around the country. My own experience here is with Salford University based next to the ITV studios in Manchester.
It is fair to say that both students (some having won awards for their work) and lecturers alike are overjoyed with the quality Samyang and Xeen have brought to the department.
For more information and advice on Samyang lenses, or if you wish to purchase, please contact Owen at Campkins Cameras. I’m also happy to try and answer your questions as best I can: davehardy@intro2020.co.uk
The following pages showcase a few sample images taken with Samyang lenses by myself.
