Samyang and Rokinon which is one and the Same have made a ton of amazing lenses Over the course of the last couple of Years they started out really with Manual focused lenses and then Eventually they got into autofocus and Now they're innovating in new ways that Are unexpected and I am excited about it In today's video I'm taking a look at The vaf series which stands for video Autofocus basically it's a line of Full-frame cine lenses that have Autofocus and some very cool other Features and while most reviews are Going to be focused on getting these Lenses on a full frame camera I'm gonna Focus this review on how these lenses Perform on my Sony fx30 with its aps-c Sensor and I think this is a combination That is meant to be and I'll show you Guys that here in a moment but first Let's take a look at how these things Come packaged so this is a trio of Lenses the 24 T 1.9 the 35 millimeter T 1.9 and the 75 millimeter T 1.9 these Lenses come in nice gray and black boxes Inside there is some padding and Instruction manual and the lens plastic Rear lens cap and a tension fit plastic Front lens cap First Impressions these Lenses are unbelievably light and Compact in fact all three lenses weigh The exact same and are the exact same Size each one is 282 grams on my scale
And measures about 3 inches in overall Length the design is unique and I quite Like it the body is made out of plastic Mostly but has a gunmetal metallic front Element that has electronic connections More on that later there's a nice little Red accent ring that's tucked under the Focus ring as well which I'm a fan of Starting at the rear there is a metal Lens mount with electronic connections The cutout is large again as these are Designed for full-frame Sony mirrorless Cameras there's a nice rubber gasket Here and there are several other rubber Gaskets throughout the lens body for Weather resistance moving up there are Some lens specs and M1 or M2 switch Which in stock form decides whether the Ring on the body controls the focus or The aperture there's a focus hold button Minimum Focus markings and a samyang Logo the focus ring is good but not Excellent It's not mechanical so I'm Surprised that it isn't smoother than it Is the resistance is okay but there's a Little bit of plastic noise here And then we come to that metal ring at The front and it is where the lenses are Labeled on both sides around the front The lens elements are all different Large convex element on the 75 Millimeter and a concave smaller element On the 35. the real surprise for me is That they got a 24 millimeter T 1.9 to
Be this compact it's impressive on the Fx30 these lenses look like they were Designed to be together the body of the Fx30 is nice gray and the darker Metallic silver on the front of these Samier lenses just makes everything look So amazing and the size is perfect it Really makes for a nice and light good Looking setup and the best part is the Built-in tally lights these lenses have Two tally lights each one on the front And one on the sides they glow green When the camera is on and red when Recording and on the fx30 when you are Recording That means you have a total of six Indicators that you are in fact Recording so you have the square around The back of the screen that's glowing Red you have the tally light up on top Here you have the light around the Record button right there another tally Light right here on the top of the Camera and then you have one here on the Lens and one on the front of the lens so In total again six indicators that you Are in fact recording Hopefully you won't have to wonder next Time you are if you have a setup like This anyway let's see what these lenses Are capable of doing with the Sony fx30 Here are a couple of sample videos all Of these are straight out of the camera No post processing no color grading
Nothing these are straight video files From The fx30 Ready Set Go [Music] All right [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] Thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Well that was perhaps a little bit more Dramatic than it needed to be but these Three lenses did great now let's start With the important bit as a set the Colors from these three lenses are all a Uniform again this Montage had no color Grading at all so everything that you Are seeing is straight out of the camera And I swap lenses on the fly a lot During this shoot and doing this was Quite easy because even on a small Gimbal which is normally very sensitive To slight changes in weight and center Of gravity there was nothing to worry About with these lenses because they are
All the same exact size and weight Autofocus performance was excellent on The 24 and the 35 I would say excellent 90 of the time on the 75 millimeter but On occasion it did this thing where it Just couldn't decide what to focus on so It hunted around that being said the 75 Millimeter was still my favorite lens Because of how close it got you to Everything and then the subject Separation and resulting bouquet Excellent as far as sharpness as these Lenses are very sharp in the center of The frame wide open the corners are good But not quite as sharp as the centers But that's okay if you are looking for a Technically perfect lens this cine lens Set is not for you comparing the 35 Millimeter to the sigma 30 millimeter Both wide open what we see is this Confirmed the center is nicely sharp the Corners are okay but not quite as sharp As the center and in the case of both The 24 and the 35 there is some Vignetting which is odd but the corners Do brighten up when you stop down in Terms of flare there is some noticeable Flare when you point the lens into a Bright source of light when there is Something less intense the flare is Better controlled and it can be used in Cinematic ways so I'd say it's good Overall Barrel distortion on the 24 and The 35 millimeter is well controlled
With in-camera corrections turned on the 75 millimeter looks nice and flat as Well so no problems there but then we Get two chromatic aberration and that's Where the small size of these lenses This really starts to show Some compromises there's a bit of green And purple fringing against bright Contrasting lines it's unfortunate but It is there and it shows up in the Center of the frame on the wide angles And it's particularly strong when you Are close to your subject but the other Problem is that it's not consistent Across the lenses the 35 millimeters Seem to have more than the 24 and the 75 Which is just a shame you can stop the Lenses down and that does help but I was Hoping for a little better control of That fringing at least wide open but That still isn't the biggest problem the Piece the resistance of these three Lenses is something that only matters When it comes to cinema lenses and that Is focus breathing I tested this with The 24 millimeter and it was okay not Bad but when I tested this with the 35 Millimeter and 75 millimeter I had to Confirm again that I hadn't mounted a Zoom lens on my camera by accident it's Pretty strong a lot of movement yeah Overall all these lenses are quite Unique they are built well they have Cool features that I haven't seen on a
Lens before the tally lights the Electronic Connection on the front great Design small compact bodies that are Fast at T 1.9 all the same size same Colors there's a lot to like here but I Feel like samyang could have gone a step Further step or two further really and Made them more cinemasque versus just Kind of basic lenses with a little bit Of Cinema attributes in my eyes they are Great and definitely worth checking out But what would have put them over the Top is if they had added or fixed three Things number one a dedicated aperture Ring number two a focus ring with hard Stops and markings and number three a Focus ring with real gears for Motors Not these shallow pitch gears those Three things would have made these some Serious Cinema lenses and of course if They had tidied up the chromatic Aberration and the focus breathing that Would even be ice icing on top the Problem is I don't think that they could Have done that with the small size and Weight that is the compromise that had To be made once you start adding all of This extra stuff the lenses wouldn't be Three inches long and wouldn't weigh 282 Grams anymore they might be double the Size and the weight and probably double The price too and this is where my jaw Hit the floor because I'm wrapping up This video I'm just doing a little bit
Of quick research online and I come Across this and I don't know if it's Real or if it's some sort of horrible Joke but it looks like the answer to Most of my complaints okay I just found It on the samyang website it is 399 on Pre-order and it fits a 95 millimeter Matte box but there's a 10 off code Maybe so that's just cool and that is Just another thing that makes these Lenses so exciting the ability for Samyang to develop accessories and Add-ons to these things for the info Infinite future who knows they can come Out with anamorphic adapters for the Front of these they can come out with ND Filters that are swappable I don't know For the front of these there's a lot of Potential things that they could launch To make these lenses even better than They are right now and this is just the Beginning samyang has two more lenses a 45 and a 20 millimeter already planned For release later this year so that will Make this a five lens lineup all the Same size and weight which is impressive I have no idea how they're going to make A 20 millimeter T 1.9 this small and Light but I can't wait for the Opportunity to check that lens out so in Conclusion if you shoot Sony in 2023 Well you are pretty much spoiled for Choice when it comes to buying lenses And these three lenses have made your
Choice That much more interesting as well I Can't wait to see what they come up with Next as far as accessories for these Things It's an exciting thing for sure let me Know what your guys's thoughts are down In the comment section below stay tuned For more a lot of exciting things coming Up see you guys in the next one bye
