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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my first look at a lens that frankly
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I've been really excited to get my hands on for a number of reasons. First of all
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on a personal level, I have not had a great portrait lens at 85mm focal length for an actual
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Sony body. You know, I've got lenses that I can adapt and I've got lenses around there. I've got
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a great 50, you know, the Sony Planar 50mm f1.4. I've got the Voigtlander 65mm f2 lens macro
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which is a great lens, but something, you know, autofocusing lens at 85mm, of course
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is a great thing. Now, on Sony, you've got some really great f1.8 options, including the Sony FE
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85mm f1.8. You've also got the Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8. And then you jump from there to a lens like
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Sony's 85mm f1.4 G Master lens. You know, very expensive. And the only other option really in a
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native mount is now Sigma's 85mm f1.4 Art, you know, and it's Sony FE guys. That lens is huge
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particularly huge, you know, mounted on a Sony bodywork. It's even bigger and heavier
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in that to translation. And so this lens is really intriguing because it offers all the stuff that
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we're kind of looking for, but it's retailing for 699 US, which if the performance bears out to
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what is there on specs, which by the way, it does, it makes this a really compelling lens
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for Sony users, and I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a very, very popular lens for them
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I was fairly impressed with the 35mm f1.4. It had a few defects that I highlighted, but
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what we're looking at today is see if Samyang has made further improvements with the 85mm f1.4
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So let's jump in and let's take a closer look at this bad boy
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So we see that Samyang began this process. Actually, the first of their AF lenses that I
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reviewed was the 50mm f1.4. I saw a lot of improvement going to the 35mm f1.4, but noted
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that there still were some shortcomings when it came to that lens. With the 85mm f1.4
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it feels like Samyang is really starting to hit their stride and to refine their build and design
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that they have been working on with this particular lens. So, I mean, the first thing you're going to
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is that this is actually a considerably more physically robust lens, at least in terms of the diameter of the lens
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The lens is now almost three and a half inches in diameter
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or 88 millimeters. And so it is, you know, it's fairly chunky and squat here
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as you can see mounted on the camera The overall length is actually under a hundred millimeters and much like the Zeiss Batis series I feel like Samyang done a good job of combining a really nice build degree here
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It does have some lightweight metal alloy in the frame, probably an aluminum alloy, has some
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internal weather sealing, but as you can see, even though it's a fairly significant lens with a lot
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of glass in it, they've managed to keep the weight at only 1.2 pounds or 568 grams. And so in some
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ways, the weight kind of belies the size of the lens itself. And so I actually think that the 35
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millimeter is heavier of the two lenses, even though it doesn't look as maybe physically robust
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So let's take a closer look at a few other attributes of the lens here. As I've mentioned
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nice finish for, you know, kind of elegant looking lens with kind of dual accent rings. And so they
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have a nice red accent ring there that's a little bit reminiscent of Canon's L series
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And then at the other side of the focus ring, there's actually a little bit of a chrome
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accent ring that is there as well. So those two pieces kind of add up as a nice touch overall
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Towards the front of the lens, you have got a fairly, you know, clean front fascia. I do
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I kind of like some kind of lens designation on this, but Sam Games elected to go with a
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just kind of a clean fashion. We've got a 77 millimeter front filter thread here
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which of course is on the larger side, but very common. What you'll see looking into this lens is
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that there is a lot of glass inside of there, as you'd expect with this focal length and maximum
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aperture value. Now, looking a bit further towards the rear of the lens, as mentioned
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for the first time that I've seen in a, you know, a Sony FE AF lens from them, we've actually got a
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gasket here. It's not a really super thick one, but there's a gasket there. And we have also got
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a couple of internal seal points. And so they are now touting this lens as being a weather sealed
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obviously a metal bayonet mount here, and then a lightweight metal frame for it. It's actually
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quite a nice looking lens, you know, and has that kind of squat prime look that a lot of people
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actually really like looking at it. There's also been some improvements made on a couple of even
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on the basic fronts here. First of all, they've done a redesign of the actual lens cap. That is
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it's a little bit more purposely designed. And so our rear cap here has a little bit more refined
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look and a little bit better branding information. It actually says Sam Yang here now. The other
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thing too, is even looking at the front cap. This is what the older design looks. It's not all that
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dissimilar to what we've got here, but you can also see that they've gone to a little bit
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a newer look, a little bit more of a textured edge to it
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The logo looks a little bit cleaner, and the pinch action is a little bit more refined here And so overall you know good steps in the right direction The included lens hood is you know it a pretty basic it lightweight it got kind
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of a matte interior. But you know, it's simplistic, but it does the job and it's included
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They do also include this kind of quilted pouch that, you know, some people might find benefit
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in. It doesn't add a lot of protection value in terms of actual dings, but it might protect from
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some scratches if you're using it. Now, I do want to note that there is definite improvement when it
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comes to the feel of the focus ring. It's been kind of noted and regretted that on this focus
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ring here, that the action is not really consistent on the 35 millimeter. And I found the same to be
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true on the 50 millimeter. The weight is a little bit light, but then it's as if when you're trying
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to do really refined focus, that it's just not precise. I see a huge improvement here. For one
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thing, the weight is, it's upped here, not to where it's hard to turn it all, but there's more
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substance to it. And then as a result, I find it much easier to pick a refined focus point when it
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comes to that. Now, beyond that, there is a dual linear sonic motors inside. And so that helps the
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autofocus, helps it both in terms of speed and also helps the autofocus in terms of the sound
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which I'll shut up for a minute. You probably don't hear a big difference. There is this
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little tiny bit of a clicking noise sometimes, but it is very, very quiet. And so while I wouldn't
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call the focus silent, it is not far off from that. So very, very quiet. There are ultra multi
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coatings on the front element to help also with weather sealing. Inside we have got both an ED
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element, extra low dispersion element, and four high refraction elements. And so it's definitely
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some positives there. Now we'll look at a few more of the basic specs. The actual aperture iris
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is nine rounded aperture blades. I will note that all of the XF information reports correctly
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both for the steady shot inside the body reporting back. The lens has the proper designation
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it does come with their you know with some profile correction embedded there and so it it performs
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basically like a native lens and so that's good maximum aperture is f1.4 minimum aperture is f16
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now it focuses down to 90 centimeters or you know 0.9 of a meter that's right under three feet
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And so the maximum reproduction there is 0.11 times. And so that's on the low end of the spectrum for 85 millimeter lenses
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You basically go from about 0 to the top is the Tamron 85 millimeter F1 VC which is 0 times And so I mean there no 85 millimeter that giving you a great reproduction ratio but this certainly isn a standout when it comes to that
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There are 11 elements in eight groups, and we'll take a look at the optical performance in our
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next video. But overall, I'm actually quite pleased with the handling of the lens here
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The lens has, it's a very nice looking lens. It handles well. There are no switches on it. And so
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So, I mean, in terms of autofocus, manual focus, you're going to have to control that from within the camera
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And so, but, you know, and aperture also controlled from within the camera
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But overall, it's a really nice looking, clean look that just works
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So as you can see, a lot of good stuff going on here. Samyang seems to really be starting to refine their process
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And, you know, first just adding autofocus was a big deal. but now they're seeming to be able to start to address some of the maturation issues
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some of that weather sealing, a little bit more precise of a manual focus ring
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They found a really nice balance here between build grade and weight, I personally think
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And beyond that, I think that we're also going to see some ongoing improvements
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when it comes to the actual performance of the lens as they further refine their process
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Now, in our subsequent episode, we'll take a look at the image quality from this lens and see if it bears up to the promise of it
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And so I'll particularly look at it for some of the things that are for its intended purpose, which is for portrait work above all else
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So we'll take a look at that. In the meantime, however, you can take a look in the description down below and take a look at my image gallery
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I've already had opportunity to use it for a few quick portrait sessions
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and I really like what I'm seeing from the lens. It's not the most beautiful time of year around here right now
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so unfortunately there is not color and abundance everywhere. But already I can see a lot of really encouraging things
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about micro contrast and just the general look rendering from the lens
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So check out that in the description down below. There's also in the description
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there is linkage if you'd like to purchase one for yourself. I wouldn't be surprised to see this become quite a popular lens
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for Sony shooters because it hits that sweet spot of, you know, the desirable F1.4 maximum aperture
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and a really, really affordable price compared to the other F1.4 options on Sony. So I encourage you
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to, if you'd like to get one, get an order in because I wouldn't be surprised if that there is
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a pretty high demand for this lens. You can also find linkage there to follow me on social media
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including now on Instagram, maybe even catch a few photos uploaded from this. And beyond that
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of course, you can sign up for my newsletter. And if you haven't already, please click that
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subscribe button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day
