Now, onto the surprising buy of 2014 for me.
I have a 85mm F/2 that I LOVE. When I use it it is usually fast enough for me and the bokeh is beautiful.
But like any shooter that has aspirations of taking better and better shots the more they grow in skill and in
learned-from mistakes, I let my eye wander.
Enter a used ROKINON 85mm f/1.4. I wanted it. It was "cheap". I knew that Rokinon was just one of half a dozen brands
that stuck nameplates on these cheap Korean lenses. What could have been a disaster turned out to be awesome.
No one knows what you will get out of one of these. if the lens is PERFECT, you still can have issues with true
focus depending on tolerances on your camera body in relation to the lens. I was prepared for the worst.
But it was the best under-$200 I've spent on a lens so far. Its not that its SHARP, it is BRIGHT. I am OLD, and
almost all of my best lenses for 'working' are manual focus only. When its DARK in any venue, I can't SEE to focus.
I can't find the POP as lines come into sharpness and back out again. I get by, but only because I am persistent.
This lens POPS. Again, your mileage with any lens may vary, because this same lens on your camera might not
be the same distance to the mirror or sensor as mine and it can affect a person's impression of "the lens"
to the point where its all the lenses fault. For anyone that needs a couple of good portrait lenses, this 85mm f1.4
from Rokinon (Samyang, Vivitar, Bower, etc) is AWESOME. Even I, worst eyes east of the Pecos, was able to
easily manually find the sharpest focus at 1.4 and 1.8. I can hardly do that with my 50 f/1.4.
