Samyang/Rokinon Remaster Slim 21mm/28mm/32mm: They Did The Thing. Day One Pics.
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.
I talked about other small-ish lenses I had tried before, but none of them being actual pancake lenses did not do it for me. I also walked through features and such.
This post here? Simple. As stated above, day one pics. Took my Mom out to dinner for her birthday. A perfect use case for the Remaster Slim. Carried the camera and put the lens modules (What I have decided to call them.) in my jacket pocket. Here are the pics with a few thoughts afterward.
28mm.
21mm.
32mm.
Thoughts.
Yes. These modules take images that I really like.
- Surprisingly good AF performance.
- Acceptably sharp.
- I like the colors.
- Decent bokeh considering the humble aperture specs.
Given the ambitious engineering and small lens module size I expected and honestly would have accepted a poorer performance. But none of that is necessary. The image quality just about matches the conventional smaller lenses I have owned in the past. But that is a bonus and not the main draw of this lens system. What is? The portability. This set up fit in my jacket pocket.
This is new for me. The smallest lens I had previously were all just large enough where this was not really a thing. Getting it into a jacket pocket was not swift and getting the camera and lens out of pocket took some physical negotiations. Not the case here. This was an experience that was closer to my MFT and point and shoot cameras. As small? No. But much closer than before. And a perfect fit for the A7C body style.
Nice.
The lens to fit the camera.
I think this is the thing many camera companies ignore. There are two parts to this thing. The camera and the lens. I spoke about this with the Lumix S9. A small camera without a “real” small lens. I do not count the manual focus pancake lens with a fixed aperture that was released with it. Panasonic should give Viltrox a call. An even smaller lens with a faster fixed aperture with AF would be a huge upgrade. A new zoom the released afterward is an improvement , but still not a truly small set up. Canon went the other way. As mentioned in my prior post on the Remaster Slim they have just the RF lens I was looking for, but all of their RF cameras keep the faux SLR hump body style.
There is another example that is not size related but involves spirit. I love the look of the Nikon Zf and 40mm f/2. But there was an issue. I have owned the very Nikon cameras and lenses that these lenses call back to.
The Zf was closer to the feel of Nikon SLRs. The 40mm looked the part but in hand it completely missed the mark in my opinion. Walked into the camera shop optimistic that day, but left with no sale made.
Sony lucks up by having no legacy to compare to. I do find it odd that Sony did not offer a pancake solution to match the energy of the A7C. But I am glad Samyang Rokinon stepped up.
Well done Rokinon/Samyang.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 