Samyang/Rokinon Remaster Slim 21mm/28mm/32mm: They Did The Thing. First Impressions.

Samyang/Rokinon Remaster Slim 21mm/28mm/32mm: They Did The Thing.

I already documented that Samyang created a “Shut up and take my money!” proposition with the Remaster Slim lens… …lenses… kit… modules…? However you put it they did the thing. What thing? I am glad I imagined you asked.

An honest to goodness full frame pancake lens for Sony.

You may say, but wait, what of the… Hold on a minute. I can explain. Small lens? Yes. There have been a few. And I have owned many of them.

Sony 20mm f/2.8 APS-C

Logically this should have been it for me. A tiny pancake lens with a capable APS-C camera. I tried to make it work. I would have even made peace with it being APS-C. But… I do not like it. More specifically I did not like the images it created. Personal opinion? For sure. But after two tries and only 39 images in my Flickr gallery, I gave up, never to return.

Past Rokinon/Samyang f/2.8 lenses.

The issue… small… but not pancake lenses.

Sony 40mm f/2.5

Successful in every way and produces wonderful images. One issue. While small it is not a pancake lens. So I eventually traded it and the Tamron 17-28mm…

…for the Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8. And it was a great success.

What I wanted was a truly tiny pancake lens. Like this:

Easy fix. Get Canon, right? No. I did try. But one lens does not cut it and I have other issues with Canon. Not their cameras. But Canon. Them restricting third party lenses is a deal breaker for me.

I wondered why no one, Sony or third party companies, had made a truly small pancake lens. Started to wonder if this was related to the FE lens mount size shaming I had heard of a while ago. But Samyang/Rokinon stepped up. Not only did they step things up, but they apparently decided to go full SIGMA Foveon/RICOH GXR engineer crazy while they were at it. I would have been happy with one lens. But not only did they get the form factor right…

…they included an AF/MF switch and focus ring,…

…included a USB-C port for updates,…

…made three focal lengths available with easily swappable lens elements.

Even included a case.

All for a reasonable sum at $399 all in. For effectively three lenses. Nice. Samyang Rokinon’s own 24mm f/2.8 lists for that price alone right now. Add up the larger 18mm, 24mm, and 3 5 mm Samyang Rokinon lenses and you would be spending far more.

Not only that the aperture is adjustable, one lens offers a relatively bright f/2.8 aperture, and from what I can tell so far AF is swift and accurate. While not silent AF it is quiet enough that I would use it for video.

And most importantly it successfully creates what I have been searching for when combined with an A7C body. A truly small camera and lens full frame pairing.

The size even compares favorably to a MFT set up.

But what of IQ? None of this matters if they do not produce a pleasing image. Well, after a few test shots that seems to be sorted as well. Used the 21mm module for a few test product pics.