Rokinon’s new 24mm lens has a helpful astro-photo mode

Rokinon’s adding a new Prime lens to its Tiny Series lens lineup. The Rokinon 24mm f/1.8 Prime’s specifically made for astrophotography, offering wide-angled, fast shooting with an astrophotography mode for shooting stars.

Rokinon 24mm f/1.8 Prime overview

Rokinon describes the 24mm f/1.8 Prime as a “masterpiece for astrophotography.” It leverages a light, weighs just 8.1 ounces, with a wide-angle and fast maximum aperture. Its Custom Mode includes a LED indicator and a Focus Hold button. This button allows you to shift the focus to infinite quickly. When the focus value doesn’t match, the lens will turn on a small red LED. After clicking the Focus Hold button, the lens will automatically move the focus value.

“For astrophotography enthusiasts, this is an extremely useful function for those who need to spend long periods in darkness, with confidence that their lens is set at infinity,” says Samyang.

Rokinon 24mm f/1.8 Prime lens
Samyang / Rokinon

The Rokinon 24mm f/1.8 Prime’s constructed out of 11 elements in 8 groups. Rokinon claims the lens features two aspherical elements. Three high refractive index elements, and two extra-low dispersion elements. Together, Rokinon claims these elements achieve edge-to-edge sharpness, even when the lens is at its max aperture.

Silent focusing

Though the Rokinon 24mm f/1.8 Prime is an astrophotography lens, it does feature silent autofocus, lending itself to both photo and video shooting. Its uses a stepping motor design and focuses internally, so the lens’s length won’t change when focusing. This allows you to use polarizers and filters on the lens.

Pricing and availability

The Rokinon 24mm f/1.8 Full Frame Prime lens releases this June for $549 on Sony E-mount.

Sean Berry
Sean Berry
Sean Berry is Videomaker's managing editor.

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