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Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Lens – Sample Photos and First Impressions!!

In this first impressions article on the Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical Lens, I will go over several sample photos and more. I’ve actually been holding onto these lenses for about two weeks now as I needed to finish the DSC-HX300 Review (Click Here), before I dove into the three Rokinon lenses I have to review!!
In any event, I slapped on the Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 Asperical lens and WOW is it pretty awesome so far!!

Killer bokeh, razor sharp, very close minim focus distance which is great for macro or close-ups, and the focus is very smooth. This lens is full manual, so the aperture has to be physically set as well as the focus. The aperture ring has a nice notched click for each f-stop, so it’s pretty easy to just turn it and count to get where you need to be. I was notable to do this just yet though as the lens is brand new to me and I just look at the aperture when I set it for these shots below. Seems like I’ll get the hang of it next time out for sure!!
I shot mostly wide-open at f/1.4 for these first sample photos, but I did take a few at f/8, for you so far!! 😉


My Nex-6 and the La-ea1 lens adapter were used for these sample photos.

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens mounted to Nex-6
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens mounted to Nex-6 w/ LA-EA1 Lens Adapter

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical Lens – Sample Photos

Some tree bark up close with more more to the right-side in the distance out of focus.

Be sure to click on these photos for the full crisp ~10o0px versions!!

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens - Sample Photos
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens – Sample Photos


Layla’s sneaker was steady enough for me to grab a quick sharp shot!!

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens - Sample Photos
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4


The picnic table out back goes out of focus pretty quick at f/1.4!

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens - Sample Photos
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4

When very close to the subject like in this next photo, the background becomes total butter, which in my opinion, looks very similar to my Canon L quality lenses!! Oh Yeah 🙂

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens - Sample Photos
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4

From the Supermarket on Sunday 🙂 Shhh, not supposed to take pics in there!

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ /1.4

I took these next two Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 lens photos in the parking lot on the way home at f/8!!

Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/8
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/8
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/8
Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/8

These last two were taken on the deck outside 🙂

_Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/1.4
_Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/1.4
_Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/1.4
_Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 UMC Aspherical lens @ f/1.4

Closing Remarks

That is it for now, but stay tuned for more sample photos with 100% Crops in the full review coming soon!! I also have sample photos articles in the works for the Rokinon 14mm and 85mm f/1.4 lenses, www.lightningruletoyna.com so stay tuned for those in the next few days!
Thanks for your support and have a great day,
Jay

Rokinon Lenses for Sony Cameras @ BHPhoto >>

  1. i´ve been waiting for this, veri good quality for a bargain of a lens.
    I´d really like to see hoy performs the 85 1.4 with the Nex 6 , hopefully searching for the best in camera jpg results by tweaking the controls, that would be sweet to see what the nex 6 had to offer in body.
    Salutes From Chile, very good work BTW.

    1. Hello Juan and thanks for the comments and kind words!!
      I took a few pics with the 85mm f/1.4 today and it’s very similar to the 35mm, only a bit less contrasty. It’s also really sharp though with a killer bokek rendering!! Some sample pics soon 😉
      I’ve been shooting raw as I much prefer the larger dynamic range and minor tweaks Lightroom 4 offers so easily. I can tell you for certain that the jpeg images will be over sharpened, and possible to contrasty, but as you said with tweaks could be mint strait off the camera!!
      I honestly don’t think I’ll have the time to do that, but the raw results will show you what the lens really does with no in camera processing. Anything I do in lightroom 4 will be disclosed, but it’s usually just a mild exposure adjustment, wb, and perhaps a crop. Never and lens flaw correction unless I specify to show you how easy it is to fix for example. Sometimes I do that with the Fringing or vignette. Remember that you can almost always create a better jpeg image from a properly developed Raw file, It is of course more work though 😉
      Thanks again for stopping by, and perhaps I’ll get the time to take some jpegs for you!
      Have a great day and thanks again for the comments,
      Jay

  2. Jay, thanks for the preview!
    To my eye, the Rokinon 35mm 1.4 shots look more contrasty than the Sony E35F18. I am considering both optics and I’m curious to see which you would prefer. I’m not worried about size.

    1. The Rokinon is way better Josh, No question. Sharper, significantly better contrast, and the bokeh is out of park killer in my opinion 😉 The size and weight is pretty significant though in comparison to the SELf18 lens. It’s literally like 3x the size and weight!!
      Thanks again for the comments Josh 🙂 Always nice to hear your thoughts, observations, and /or questions!
      Jay

    1. Hi Joe and great question!!
      Yes, I used the focus peaking feature on my Nex-6 although it was hard to see at f/1.4!! F/4 and f/8 it was much easier to use. I ended up using the Magnify zoom assist to verify sharpness even though I was hand holding. It works really well with the EVF in bright sun situations when the LCD screen is useless for focus verification purposes, and/or the focus peaking lines are hard to see ect.. I have my focus peaking set to the low setting red color, and I should have raised it up for the f/1.4 shooting and/or tried another color. I will today if I get time. The low setting makes it more accurate, but harder to see as a trade-off 😉
      Have a good day Joe,
      Jay

  3. Are the Sony la-ea1 adapter and the la-ea2 adapter the only ones that will enable focus peaking with a Rokinon (or other manual focus lens) attached? Is focus peaking a contrast detect ONLY feature, or does it benefit from the la-ea2’s pellicle mirror and phase detect AF (and distance information if one was to attach an autofocus lens)?
    Ben Welland,
    owner, byfield~pitman photography
    http://byfieldpitman.com

    1. Hello Ben and thanks for the comments/ question!!

      Are the Sony la-ea1 adapter and the la-ea2 adapter the only ones that will enable focus peaking with a Rokinon (or other manual focus lens) attached? Is focus peaking a contrast detect ONLY feature, or does it benefit from the la-ea2?s pellicle mirror and phase detect AF (and distance information if one was to attach an autofocus lens)?

      The Focus Peaking feature will work with any adapter as it’s not reliant on the lens or the lens adapter. It just looks at the contrast in a scene and helps you find the focus, so no the PDAF would not help on the LA-EA2 in this case. That only works for Auto-focus purposes as far as I know, and not focus peaking!! The “CDAF on Sensor” is what is used, just as you suspected 😉
      I got the LA-EA1 adapter for this set of reviews, because I’m considering buying it for myself anyway. I want to have it in the “Lab” so I can do A-Mount lens reviews easily with the nex-6, and both AF and non AF A-Mount lenses will work!! I also want to by some Legacy A-Mount lenses on Ebay to test out 🙂
      I hope that helps, and thanks again for the great question!!
      Jay

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