Adam Wilt has written this uncommonly extensive and articulate review of the Rokinon (Bower/Samyang) line of cinema prime lenses, comparing with Veydra and other pricier competitors. Check out his new post at dvinfo.net.
I have the 16mm, 24mm, 35mm and 85mm Rokinon Cine lenses, and look forward to getting the new 135mm one when it’s scheduled to drop in February. They offer good value with high quality after stopping down just a bit, and as I mention in my Blackmagic rigging video, it’s advisable (as Adam notes in his review) to get the Canon EF version for adaptability across (almost) all lens mounts. That also buys you the flexibility to add things between the sensor and the lens, like a variable ND filter or, better yet, a focal reducer to increase your effective field of view and gather more light.
That link doesn’t go to any review. Also, I can’t speak for the other lenses, but the 35mm Rokinon is garbage. Ghosting, poor contrast, poor sharpness. Just a travesty.
You clicked on the name Adam Wilt, but both the picture and the dvinfo.net links go to the target article at issue.
I suspect that the drama in your comments (“travesty”) is partly of your own making; those of us who understand that the Rokinons are a budget compromise in lieu of buying $10k Zeiss primes and so forth, know also to stop down just a little from wide open. Not necessarily describing you, I’ve noticed that amateurs always open up lenses as wide as possible, to the hard T1.5 stop in this case, because they think ultra-shallow depth of field is hip and rad. Yes, the Rokinons have “ghosting, poor contrast, poor sharpness” there. The rest of us stay away from that zone, just a notch or two away.
The rokinons are terrible to focus pull on. Only 8-10 marks at most nowhere near enough marks to pull by distance.
Things got a little better with their updated Cine DS line, FYI.