Samyang AF 35mm F1.4 Autofocus Lens for Sony FE

Product Information

Jayce - Originally I was a Nikon user, but then was attracted to the retro style and feel of Fujifilm cameras, especially with the great aperture rings on many of their lenses. I then discovered the various benefits of Sony with the Samyang lenses, settling on a simple duo of lenses, 35mm and 85mm, for most of my wedding photography. I used to shoot with a 70-200mm lens for portraits, so I will be looking at the Samyang 135mm soon to see how I get on with it. But for most of my shoots, the 35mm and 85mm are so light, handle so well and are so sharp that they are the main lenses. Focusing is usefully internal and manual focusing is possible when set on the camera body. Full-time manual focus override is also available, but there's no distance and/or depth of field scale.

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS USM does not have the same solid build as the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 or the impressively built all-metal Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 lenses. Its outer barrel is fully made of plastic and the only metal component seems to be the lens mount. While the outer shell is plastic, I am sure the lens has plenty of metal inside, since the lens is as heavy as its Nikon and Sigma counterparts. Keep in mind, that while metal construction is generally good for protection and wear, good plastic does not expand and shrink as much as metal does in extreme weather conditions. So there are certainly advantages and disadvantages to both. L’AF est excellent sur toutes les optiques sur les sujets statiques : très rapide, précis et efficace. Sur les sujets en mouvement les Sigma et Sony sont nettement supérieurs au Samyang. Le Sony est le plus rapide et le seul compatible avec les 30 images/sec du Sony A1. A noter j’ai eu sur une période de 8 heures des bugs 3-4 fois sur une période de 30 min avec un AF erratique. En enlevant la batterie a chaque fois le problème était résolu. Un bug qui sera certainement corrigé par un firmware The lens is supplied with a detachable petal shaped lens hood, lens caps and soft lens bag. The filter size is 77mm. Focusing is performed internally so the Samyang 35mm doesn't change length and the filter thread doesn't rotate, good news for filter users.Samyang has employed their linear motor autofocus system which has served them well in other applications. This focus motor is fast, quiet, and efficient. Video focus pulls are quiet and smooth, without any focus noise and also without any kind of nervousness (settling or pulsing). Focus pull speed is smooth rather than fast. It feels like the motor is nicely damped for this kind of work. We placed the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC on a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III body and shot our standard resolution test chart. The images are across the entire aperture range. Our verdict When used with full-frame image sensors, this lens' wide-angle perspective is well-suited to use in a broad array of conditions. When used with APS-C-sized sensors, this 56mm equivalent standard prime lens provides a similar field of view to normal vision. Furthermore, the Sony Zeiss 35 1.4 and the Sigma 35 1.4 have noticeably more blur than the Samyang when comparing same aperture, so it gets more complicated. Now, 2022 brings with it Samyang's 50th Anniversary and to coincide with that the introduction of three updated AF lenses, the AF 35mm f/1.4 FE II, the AF 50mm f/1.4 FE II and the AF 85mm f/1.4 FE II.

Focus performance is often a main talking point when it comes to comparing third party lenses to native branded lenses. In the times that I can recall taking a blurry or unfocused photo, I tend to put it down to user error. If the price goes down to 450-500 then it will be a good price for the performances. Also if you don’t need the f1.4 the Samyang 35mm F1.8 offers better performances (better sharpness) for 400 euros in a more compact and much lighter format Focus calibration is this lens' downfall. These Korean lenses have sloppy quality control for focus adjustment, but if you know how to work around this, you can score a bargain.It comes in versions to fit Nikon, Canon EOS and Sony/Maxxum. I'm testing the Nikon version here. You can make the usual extrapolations for other brands.

Chromatic aberrations are kept well under control, only exceeding 0.5 pixel widths in size towards the edges at f/11 and beyond. This low level of fringing should pose few issues, even in very large prints, or harsh crops from the edges of the frame. Sony has the FE 35mm f1.4 ZA from 2015 for 1500 EUR/USD and the FE 35mm f1.8 from 2013 for 700 EUR / 750 USD. See my Sony FE 35mm f1.4 ZA review which earned a Recommended and my Sony FE 35mm f1.8 review which came Highly Recommended. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. Imatest detected 1.53% barrel distortion, which is a very mild amount, even for a lens of this type. The distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, so should be relatively straightforward to correct in image editing software afterwards. With its straight 8-bladed diaphragm, this 35mm f/1.4 should make 8-pointed sunstars on bright points of light.The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens has a wide focus ring. There are no hard stops at the ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity. Polariser users should be pleased that the 67mm filter thread doesn't rotate on focus. Bokeh is the quality of the defocus, not the amount of defocus. Focal length has more to do with defocus than aperture; any 50mm f/1.8 lens like Nikon's superb 50mm f/.8 D will throw things far further out-of-focus. Optics: The Sigma has 11 elements in 9 groups (same as the Sony f1.8) including two aspherical and two special dispersion elements. The Sony f1.4 has 12 elements in 8 groups. The Sigma has the most complex design with 17 elements in 12 groups. [+] L’ergonomie est bonne avec un bouton de maintien de mise au point paramétrable sur le boitier et un commutateur de mode qui permet de basculer la bague de mise au point en une bague d’ouverture sans clics très pratique en vidéo. Malheureusement pas de bouton AF/MF 1.2 AF performance / Performances AF The studio is located on the third floor of Leigh Spinners Mill, a Grade II* listed double cotton spinning mill. Abandoned but intact for many years, the two joined mills are now a Heritage Building, being increasingly populated by small businesses and community assets.

Auto focus: Built-in AF drive. Manual-focus override is by simply turning the focus ring. The Samyang and the Sony f1.4 have non-linear gearing which depends on the speed you turn the focus ring. The Samyang does not have an AF/MF switch which all other lenses in this comparison offer. The Sony f1.8 and Sigma have linear gearing and a focus hold button which can be assigned other tasks in the camera menu. As is usual with autofocus lenses for mirrorless systems all lenses in this comparison have no distance or dof markings. [+] On a small-format DX camera, this lens sees an angle-of-view similar to what a 50mm lens would see on a full-frame camera. Both axial and lateral chromatic aberrations are very negligible, the latter being barely noticeable even towards the extreme corners of the frame. There’s a touch of barrel distortion but it’s minor and of a uniform nature, so easily corrected automatically in-camera or during editing, if you feel the need. A benefit of having f/1.4 at your disposal is being able to brighten a scene much further than most other lenses, which can help in those dark conditions.Samyang XP lenses: Samyang also offers a range of ‘Premium Manual Focus’ optics for DSLRs, all of which are full-frame compatible and available in Canon EF-mount. Bearing the ‘XP’ (XPert) name, they currently range from the XP 10mm f/3.5 to the XP 85mm f/1.2. The 14mm lens is also available in Nikon F-mount. Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. I bought this copy used from my own money and used it for several months before writing this review. Features