Great A7Rii Portrait Lens: Rokinon 135mm f/2

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I've been debating whether to spend a million dollars on the Batis 85 and suffer moderate fringing and get decent bokeh or a bajillion dollars on the 85 GM and get great bokeh, little fringing and suffer only from some mediocre focusing. 

 

I ended up spending only $550 on a 135 f/2 manual focusing Rokinon. I've spent very little time with it so far, but I can say that the quality really is surprisingly good. It fringes (green/purple on contrast lines) noticeably less than my Zeiss 55 and Sony 28 wide open! The Bokeh is fantastic looking so far. A tad swirly like the Batis, but rather pleasurable and very smooth (coitus). 

 

Anyhow, there's definitely a learning curve and its not very forgiving even with the A7rii's internal stabilizer. I've also come to the realization that I have to shoot with EFCS turned off anytime I use the lens for over 1/200th of a second. Not ideal, but also not a big deal. 

 

Here is one single test shot for y'all. Pretty sure I shot it wide open at f/2 and at 1/800th. Full shot and a roughly 150% crop for sharpness reference. (:

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[Ennui]

Nice. I'm looking for a portrait lens myself, and really don't want to spend that much if I don't have to. Is it focus by wire? 

[FantomeP]

It's focus by fingers

I've used it for more than a year now, it's quite heavy and big, but it's also great.

[thomas81]

Hello folks, I've bought one too (Samyang), huge and heavy but sooooo nice, qty/price ratio is great.

 

It's nice option before we got a Loxia Macro planar 2/100mm (and teh money to buy it)

 

Also a nice bargain is the Samyang CS (apsc) F2/12mm, compact and 18mm like, with A7II it's already 16MP, very usable and so compact to bring with you everywhere.

 

My go pack is now : 

 

Samyang 2/12(18)mm

Sony FE 2/28mm

Contax 2/35mm

Loxia 2/50mm

Contax 2.8/90mm

Samyang 2/135mm

 

That's quite a good setup at an almost reasonnable cost

[Emptymind]

The biggest factor is weight and size - often overlooked but I travel extensively and shoot all day long for both stills and video. The Zeiss Batis is half the weight of the Rokinon and quite a bit smaller in size. This is important on mirrorless cameras - the lens to body ratio. 

[IamJF]

 

My go pack is now : 

 

Samyang 2/12(18)mm

Sony FE 2/28mm

Contax 2/35mm

Loxia 2/50mm

Contax 2.8/90mm

Samyang 2/135mm

 

 

Why don't you use the Contax 50/1.7 instead of Loxia? I liked mine a lot, but to be honest after I bought the Seiss 55/1.8 I rarely use it.

Also the Contax 135/2.8 is very nice (and quite cheap), so if you don't need the 2.0 you can save a lot of weight.