Samyang announces premium lens lineup, gets the ball rolling with 14mm f/2.4 and 85mm f/1.2 primes
posted Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 5:59 AM EDT
2016 is turning out to be a huge year for South Korean optics manufacturer Samyang. The company has already launched nine lenses this year with, between their different mounts, a total of close to 50 different variants. Now it has launched a new premium lens line, and populated it with two new prime lenses, one of which is a Canon EF exclusive, and the other slated to arrive for Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony E-mounts.
To date this year, Samyang's announcements have included a pair of 14mm f/2.8 and 50mm f/1.4 lenses for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras, two 35mm f/1.2 and 35mm T1.3 lenses for sub-frame Canon M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-mount cameras, another duo of full-frame 20mm f/1.8 and 20mm t/1.9 lenses for Canon EF / M, Four Thirds, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon F, Pentax K, Samsung NX and Sony Alpha / E mounts, and a triplet of 14mm T3.1, 35mm T1.5 and 135mm T2.2 lenses under its XEEN brand for Arri PL, Canon EF, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon F and Sony E-mount cameras.
For the new premium lens line, the first two optics will be the Premium MF 85mm F1.2 and Premium MF 14mm F2.4. Both of these manual-focus lenses are said to provide sufficient resolution for 50-megapixel still imaging or 8K video capture, and feature aluminum alloy bodies.
The 85mm f/1.2 is, says Samyang, its brightest full-frame DSLR optic to date. It has a 10-element, seven-group optical formula with one aspheric and two high-refractive elements, a nine-bladed aperture, and uses Samyang's Ultra-Multi-Coating to control flare and ghosting. It can focus as close as 2.6 feet for a 0.13x magnification ratio, accepts 86mm threaded filters, and has a length of 3.9 inches with a 3.7-inch diameter. Its weight is 2.3 pounds.
The 14mm f/2.4, meanwhile, has a complex 18-element, 14-group optical formula with two aspheric, one hybrid aspheric, two extra-low dispersion and one high-refractive element. It, too, has a nine-bladed aperture, and uses Samyang's Ultra-Multi-Coating to control flare and ghosting. It can focus as close as 11 inches for a 0.08x magnification ratio, and has a length of 4.3 inches with a 3.7-inch diameter. Its weight is 1.7 pounds, and it doesn't accept filters.
Both lenses will ship later this year. Pricing had not been disclosed at press time.
(via Sony Alpha Rumors)