Samyang 135mm T2 2 VDSLR ED UMC Review | 54 Data compared

The Samyang 135mm T2.2 VDSLR II ED UMC is a budget-friendly, cinema-optimized lens that delivers faultless optics, extreme edge-to-edge sharpness, and a complete absence of image distortion, rivaling much more expensive glass. Praised for its exceptional value and build, this Editors' Choice winner features cinema-geared focus and aperture rings designed for professional, mounted video production. Despite its performance, the lens exhibits vignetting when shooting wide open at T2.2 and is not ideally suited for handheld, casual photography due to its specialized, heavy design.

The Samyang 135mm T2.2 ED UMC CINE DS (also known as the 135mm f/2 ED UMC) is a manual telephoto lens optimized for video production with seamless controls, though it shares the exact same optical formula as its photography-focused sibling. Tested on a full-format Canon EOS system, the lens boasts excellent mechanical build quality featuring a robust mix of metal and plastic parts, a metal mount, and a fixed physical length during focusing. Its standout features include a 9-blade circular aperture, an 11-element optical construction with one Extra-low Dispersion (ED) lens element, and smooth-as-silk step-less control rings ideal for filmmakers. Though the review notes its impressive, professional-grade optical quality, the lens is held back from the mainstream due to a complete lack of autofocus and electronic coupling to the camera body. A major pro highlighted in the review is the outstanding optical quality that competes directly with major established brands. The video-centric design delivers smooth aperture and focus transitions, while the internal floating focus system ensures a highly reliable minimum focusing distance of 0.8 meters. Conversely, the primary cons revolve...

The PCMag review highlights the Rokinon Cine DS 135mm T2.2 ED UMC as a budget-friendly, Editor's Choice cinema prime lens delivering incredible sharpness, zero distortion, and professional features like geared, clickless aperture controls. While boasting optical performance rivaling much more expensive options, the lens is noted for its hard plastic barrel construction and light fall-off (vignetting) when used wide open.

The Samyang 135mm T2.2 VDSLR II ED UMC is an outstanding, cinema-geared manual focus telephoto lens that offers impeccable optical clarity at a very reasonable price point. Designed primarily for videographers, it features a clickless aperture ring and integrated hard plastic gears built for focus pulling systems. It is equipped with dual aperture and focus distance scales printed on both sides of the barrel for easy visibility. Optically, the lens delivers incredible edge-to-edge sharpness that completely doubles standard baseline metrics when wide open, making it a budget-friendly competitor to the high-end Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 2/135. Available across all major SLR and mirrorless camera mounts, the lens features a 9-blade circular aperture for smooth bokeh, a long 180-degree focus throw, and a 77mm front filter thread. The lens stands out for several major pros, including its extreme edge-to-edge sharpness, a complete lack of distortion, a wide aperture that captures a high volume of light, and its specialized cinema design. However, it does come with a few notable cons, such as being uncomfortable to hold and adjust during handheld shooting due...

The Rokinon Cinema Lens Kit—featuring the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm T1.5 prime lenses—offers exceptional speed and a true cinema feel at an incredibly accessible price point of $1996 for the bundle. Designed as stills lenses rehoused for film, they feature a smooth, de-clicked iris and geared rings, though they utilize a plastic housing instead of metal to keep costs low. Their standout advantage is the ultra-fast T1.5 maximum aperture, making them ideal for budget-conscious filmmakers working with limited resources in low-light environments. The kit generally delivers a pleasingly low-contrast aesthetic suited for a high dynamic range look. While the focus throw is shorter than traditional cinema lenses at 150 degrees, this remains longer than standard stills lenses and serves as a functional sweet spot for solo, run-and-gun operators. However, the budget kit does come with notable optical and design trade-offs that filmmakers must consider. Sharpness varies significantly when shooting wide open; the 50mm performs as the sharpest and highest-contrast lens of the group, whereas the 24mm is noticeably the softest, exhibits the most distortion, and suffers from color inconsistency,...

The OpticalLimits review of the Samyang 135mm T2.2 ED UMC CINE DS (internally identical to the photography-centric Samyang 135mm f/2 ED UMC) highlights its impressive performance potential. On the positive side, the lens delivers stunning image quality across the entire frame, providing very good sharpness even wide open at T2.2 and achieving outstanding results at medium apertures. Optical distortions are completely absent, lateral chromatic aberrations are minimal, and there is a commendable lack of bokeh fringing—a rare feat for lenses in this category. Mechanically, the lens boasts an excellent, tightly assembled build quality featuring internal focusing and super-smooth control rings. However, the reviewer notes several downsides, starting with a slightly weak bokeh where the foreground blur and out-of-focus highlights are not completely smooth. Additionally, the design of the lens hood leaves room for improvement. The most significant drawback is its all-manual operation; at a 135mm focal length, focusing accurately is incredibly difficult. Using a conventional DSLR viewfinder is deemed virtually impossible, meaning users must rely heavily on a tripod alongside Live-View, an electronic viewfinder, or a split-image screen to successfully...

The Samyang 135mm T2.2 VDSLR II ED UMC lens earned an "Outstanding" 4.5 out of 5 rating and an Editors' Choice award for delivering faultless optics and an ideal design for videography at a reasonable price of $649. Evaluated using a 50MP Nikon D810, the lens demonstrated extreme sharpness from edge to edge, scoring an incredible 3,620 lines wide open—double the standard benchmark—and peaked at 3,718 lines at f/8. It features zero distortion, a clickless aperture ring spanning t/2.2 to t/22, a 180-degree manual focus throw, and dual focus and aperture scales on both sides of the barrel to easily accommodate camera focus pullers. Built with high-quality hard plastic, the lens is widely available across multiple SLR and mirrorless camera mounts, utilizing a large 77mm front thread element and a 9-blade circular aperture for smooth, round bokeh. Despite outperforming the much pricier Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 2/135 in pure sharpness, the review highlights distinct design tradeoffs for users. The primary pros include a wide cinema-geared aperture, an incredibly sharp performance across the frame, and a total lack of image distortion....