The Rokinon Samyang AF 24mm FE F2.8 needs to go Back

I am so disappointed in this lens.  I had high hopes for this small and lightweight 35mm equivalent (on my A6000) autofocus Rokinon lens. Since the Rokinon is designed for full frame Sony cameras, perhaps the full frame guys will have different results. I wrote about my interest in this lens, several weeks ago here.

I took delivery of the pre-ordered 24mm FE F2.8 lens a couple of weeks ago, but didn't try it out until recently, as it didn't make it in time to go on vacation with me.

Though obviously two different systems, I like to compare any new lens with the performance and sharpness of either my Olympus 12-40 F2.8 or 12-100 F4.  These two Olympus lens are more than sharp enough for me, and they focus fast and quietly.

Unfortunately the Rokinon 24mm lacked the sharpness I was hoping for.  I tried upsizing the 16mp Olympus files to match the 24mp Sony files, and I tried downsizing the 24mp Sony files to match the 16mp Olympus files. Either way, the results were disappointing at F2.8 and F4.

In absolute terms, I found the Rokinon at F2.8 to be terribly soft.  At F4 it was slightly better. Things looked reasonable at F5.6 and F8, but got softer at F11. For a "modern" F2.8 lens my expectation is for nearly the highest sharpness at F2.8 with peak sharpness perhaps at both F4 and F5.6.

When comparing the Rokinon images with the Olympus, I found that the Olympus wide open at F2.8 gave a far sharper image than the Rokinon at either F2.8 or F4, and a slightly sharper image that the Rokinon at F5.6.

Yes, the Olympus has image stabilization while the Sony with Rokinon does not.  But it was a sunny day and shutter speeds were fast enough to freeze motion.

Center sharpness overall was unacceptable on the Rokinon. I never tested the edges or corners as there was no need to.  The lens was going to be returned regardless of edge or corner performance.

Here are several screen shots comparing the Rokinon 24mm (35mm equiv) with the Olympus 12-40 at 17mm (35mm equivalent).  Hopefully, even with these compressed 800 pixel wide screenshots you will be able to see the differences.

These are 200% crops from the center of the frames.

The Rokinon at F2.8 and F4 is especially painful.

Rokinon on left.

Olympus on right.

Light bulb in the lamp was my focus point.

Original images were shot in RAW format; however, these are jpg screenshots taken within Lightroom.