Rokinon 21mm f/1.4 Lens for Micro Four Thirds (Silver)

Optically the lens is quite good. But the mount ring is defective and the lens is not securely attached once placed on the camera. Unfortunately I noticed the problem past the return deadline. Sending it back to the US from Spain to be repaired is more expensive than buying a new lens. And in Spain, Samyang is not responsible for the warranty and does not have the spare part anyway.

I was looking to use this lens for astro-photography as well as general use. My copy arrived and during testing it was immediately apparent that it lacked any kind of sharpness on one side at any aperture. I was disappointed but I have to admit I was half expecting it to happen given past experience with Rokinon. Poor QC is the name of the game for them and it's why they're able to sell these fast lenses at a lower price than the competition. As such buying this lens is a gamble.I honestly think Rokinon/Samyang has the ability to make fantastic manual focus lenses. The crop community doesn't have any high-quality market in that area as Zeiss and Voigtlander are all-in on the Sony E mount. The designs in these fast lenses are pretty good but the shoddy QC ensures that copy-to-copy variance remains very high and that optical defects are seen more often.

I was looking for a fast lens for landscape, architecture and night scenes to complement my Sony SEL18135 zoom lens on my a6000. I've used manual focus lenses for many years so I decided to go for this one. Pros: I go for performance rather than show, but I must say the lens looks just great on the a6000 camera. It feels well made and all controls are smooth and tight, no slop or play anywhere. The lens mount is silky smooth but firm. Focus and aperture rings are easy to grip and operate. The focus ring has a nice speed similar to other manual focus lenses I have liked in the past. I find slow focus action annoying and this one works well for me. Action is tight, absolutely no play. Way better than fly-by-wire. Resistance is low so if you're new to MF it might take some getting used to. Aperture ring action is just right. The low distortion is simply wonderful, I love it. Raw ARW looks good without correction. Colours are true and contrast is better than my SEL18135. The viewfinder even seems brighter. Focus is internal so your polarizer filter doesn't rotate with focus adjustments (no bellows action either). Neutral: Sharpness is good. Vignetting is OK. Cons: There is some chromatic aberration at f1.4 on sharp high contrast edges that are out of the focal plane. This happens corner-to-corner throughout the image, including the centre (checked using ARW). It disappears in the mid F-stop range where the lens performs better. The lens hood bayonet detent is stiff to mount and just crazy stiff to dismount. You almost need Channellock pliers to remove it. Quite at odds with the excellent overall mechanical action of the lens mount and the other controls. Never before have I run into a lens hood this hard to remove. How long will it survive intact? I find using the Focus Magnifier feature is essential at close-to-intermediate range with a low f-stop and shallow depth of field. If you're into manual settings, it's just another step before taking the shot, no problem. If you prefer autofocus convenience and speed, this could be a deal killer. Conclusion: This lens complements my SEL18135 nicely with its faster speed, great contrast and low distortion. I suspect that to like this lens you will need to be comfortable working with manual focus and using aperture preferred mode, regardless of its performance capabilities. This was my first order and I got excellent service. The lens was well packaged and it arrived intact (no round corners on the shipping box) exactly on time as promised. And that included crossing the continent and an international border. 5 stars for .

I've had this lens for a couple of weeks now, and it is my first new lens outside of the efm 50-200 and kit lens (15-45) I got it for it's wide aperture capabilities, size, sharpness, and medium wide focal length. The lens is quite sharp and pretty easy to focus with focus peaking turned on, and the whole lens feels much, much higher quality than the kit lens, though it is quite a bit heavier so if you like to go backpacking like me, keep that in mind. The infinity marking seems to be correct on my lens, but it is frustrating that I can't focus beyond infinity and come back to it to ensure that I'm at the perfect point for very distant objects. It appears to be only marginally sharper than my kit lens at infinity but has better colors and contrast. The lens appears to be sharpest at around f5.6 but is still quite sharp on closer subjects even wide open at f1.4. The amount of detail you get on close/medium distance objects is awesome, and the bokeh look great in my opinion.I went with the 21mm instead of something wider because I wanted a lens that was narrow enough to still take pictures of people, but was wide enough for landscapes and some astrophotography, a good compromise for backpacking trips. If you're going for taking pictures of big Milky Way scenes, you're probably better off with a wider lens, though this one still works fairly well in my opinion.Overall, this is a great lens as my first prime and I've really enjoyed using it the past couple of weeks for everything from pictures of people, landscapes, close ups of objects, and astrophotography. Having f1.4 is a huge step up from the kit lens.