Review on Rokinon Xeen XN50 C Professional Canon by Drew Panah

I am a professional cinematographer and have used six position lenses. I know what a quality lens looks and feels like. This lens is similar to the Zeiss CP.2. In fact, it appears to be an exact clone. The only difference is that Rokinon doesn't advertise them as interchangeable lens mounts, but looking at that it looks like if you have a lens mount kit you can switch mounts just like the CP.2. Anyway, focus and aperture. feel very smooth. Not too hard and not too loose. Again, it feels almost identical to the Zeiss CP.2. Another aspect of a good cine lens is the focus scale and T-stop calibration. Although I haven't had a chance to check the focus scales, I did check the T-stops and compared them to my Canon 50mm 1.2L. Wide open at F1.2, the Canon is about a stop brighter than the Xeen at T1.5, which is to be expected. Once you set the aperture to T2 and above, the exposure levels match perfectly with the Canon's same F-aperture. Finally, what I like about this lens is that it looks very professional and doesn't say Rokinon anywhere. Your customers will never suspect that you are using an inexpensive Korean lens. While I won't be using this lens for shots where I can afford good glass, I will definitely use it for lower budget work where I would normally use Canon L glass. I hope to update this review by adding focus scales and color matching between lenses once I have the other two in the set.