The lens is the most important part of your camera. It controls everything about the light that hits the sensor short of the length of the shutter speed. It is much better to put a great lens on a cheap camera than the other way around, something which goes frustratingly unheeded: just check a few photo forums to see people sticking crappy kit lenses onto Nikon D700s and Canon 5D MkIIs.
That’s not to say that Samyang’s range of lenses for Samsung’s mirrorless NX-series are bad. Without testing we won’t know for sure, but experience says that own-brand lenses are best, followed by those from top-tier third party makers like Sigma.
Three lenses are being ported to the Samsung mount. An 8mm ƒ3.5, a 14mm ƒ2.8 and an 85mm ƒ1.4. Of these, the 8mm would seem to be the most interesting. It will come in at around 12mm (35mm equivalent) on the NX APS-C sensor, and usually the main point with a fisheye is impact rather than absolute quality. The price has not yet been announced but the lens can be had for as little as $350 in other mounts.
The 85mm, on the other hand, is a flat-out portrait lens and goes for around $400. In this case, quality needs to be high. If Samyang manages this, then the ƒ1.4 lens will be an absolute bargain.
Tempted? Think twice. There is one huge drawback when using the lenses on a modern camera: No autofocus. This will probably be fine for the fisheye, but try that with the insanely shallow depth-of-field that an 85mm ƒ1.4 will give you and you’ll learn a thing or two about manual focussing and just how wobbly your hands really are.
Product page [Samyang via BJP]
See Also:
- Zero to Hero: Five New NX Lenses Put Samsung in the Game
- Do Mirrorless Cameras Spell the Death of DSLRs?
- Sony's NEX Mirrorless Cameras Are the Smallest in the World …
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