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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you a quick video overview of the Samyang
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Series 2 lenses and hopefully maybe just give a little bit of clarification as to the second
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generation of lenses, what has changed and why you should or should not consider them as a part of
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that. So a quick background on the Series 1 or the original lenses, and that was Sam Yang's
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basically first generation of autofocusing lenses. And so that included lenses like
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the 14mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4, and then 85mm f1.4, all of which I have reviewed in the
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past. So if you want information on those lenses, most of which can still be purchased at a reduced
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price, you can check out my reviews of those lenses. And I reviewed them on multiple systems
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And most of them I did review on Sony FE. But there's a couple of these that I've got demonstrated
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here that were actually for Canon RF. And that was, unfortunately, a narrow window in that they
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provided some autofocus alternatives to Canon lenses on the RF mount. But unfortunately, Canon
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pretty much quickly nixed that and, to this point, have continued to shut off third-party development
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So these lenses are great if you can get them, but unfortunately they are discontinued
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That's not true on the Sony FE platform, however, where they are still available
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So what was great about the original Samyang AF lenses is that, first of all, of course, Samyang prior to that had been a strictly manual focus
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Hello and goodbye, Nala. Before that point, Samyang had been a strictly manual focus lens company
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And so it did provide some autofocusing lenses, particularly on the Sony platform, really before there were any third-party alternatives to more expensive Sony lenses
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So at that point, there were still no Sigma or Tamron primes to accommodate at that point
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So it allowed you to have lens options at a much cheaper price, and typically they had good optics with subpar autofocus, either in the quality of the focus or in the consistency of the focus
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And that was steadily improved, however, as I watched via firmware, though that did require
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the Samyang lens station and software to update the firmware. But they did continue to improve autofocus performance and I could see that kind of carry over into what they call their tiny series which were much smaller lenses with smaller maximum apertures
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But you could see that continual refinement of autofocus that was taking place
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The Series 2 lenses leveraged in many cases some of the existing optical formulas
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with some tweaks or improvements. And in some cases, some actual steady improvements
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but they also added a lot of other features into the mix. Improved autofocus, improved build
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technology. Now the new versions of the lens tended to be a little bit more compact and lighter
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though not in every case. The 35 millimeter f1.4 for example in the Mark I version, it was ever so
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slightly larger, just a little bit wider in diameter, 75.9 millimeters versus 75 millimeters
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but both lenses were long, 115 millimeters in length. And in that case, the Series 1 lens
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weighed 645 grams, while the new lens was 659 grams. I don't actually have that lens here. I
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didn't have a chance to review it. I missed out on doing that. However, it had a lot of the similar
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improvements that I'm going to highlight here in the Series 2 lenses, but it carried on basically
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the same optical formula as previously, which was quite a good optical formula, but with a few tweaks
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to improve it a little bit more in the Series 2. But with these other lenses, for example, the 50mm
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f1.4, the Mark I lens weighed in at 585 grams, the new version weighed in at 420 grams, and it was
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about 9mm shorter. Likewise, with the 85mm lens, the Series 1 lens weighed in at 568 grams, while the
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a series two lens was only 509 grams. And so we saw kind of a steady shaving off and always making
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these to be kind of the lightest lens in the class outside of the 35 millimeter f1.4. Now
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included in this mix, because it's part of the kind of the same design philosophy and coming out
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at the same time is the 135 millimeter f1.8. Now there was no Mark one of that lens, but it's of
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the same design philosophy, so I've displayed it here. And it basically inherited all of the similar
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kind of feature upgrades that I'm going to talk about here, but obviously this was a new design
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as far as having an autofocus lens. I have thoroughly reviewed this lens. It is an exceptional
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lens, and that has been verified by many of you who have had a chance to try it out. So a very
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worthy consideration in comparison to the very expensive 135mm f1 G Master lens at about half the cost So in every one of these cases of the Series 2 we typically saw a few feature improvements One of those included improved minimum focus distance
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able to focus a little bit more closely and get a little bit higher magnification. Nothing extreme here
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but typically about one percentage of improvement, but obviously a welcome change at the same time
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Where we saw probably the most significant improvement is when it comes to autofocus performance
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They have moved to, Samyang moved to a linear STM focus motor here, and what I saw above all else was refinement in the autofocus process and very good autofocus consistency, be it in video or in photography applications
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Of these lenses, I've probably used the 50mm f1.4 Mark II, the most extensively, followed by the 135mm f1.8
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Very, very good focus consistency, very good focus accuracy. What I have found at the same time is that autofocus isn't as fast as, say, a first-party Sony lens
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or where Sigma has brought in primes in each one of these categories
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The Sigmas tend to be a little bit faster as well, and that's most notably true in their new 50mm f1.4D lens
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which has their newest autofocus motor, which is really, really fast, and so it's definitely the speed king when it comes to that
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However, autofocus is good in these lenses, and it is consistent. Very usable, particularly for portrait type work
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Another improvement that we have seen is either adding the addition of weather sealing or improved weather sealing
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So in some cases, the original lenses had no weather sealing. That's been added
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Or if there was weather sealing, it has been improved. And on average, I would say there's about double the seal points of a first generation lens on this second generation lens
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But as a feature set, it makes it much more competitive to have that weather sealing
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And in terms of basic features, the original lenses had essentially no features
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For example, the original 50mm f1.4, you just had a lens barrel with a focus ring
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We've had some serious improvements from that. We now have the focus hold button, which is very useful for a variety of applications
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You can program it in the camera. And then also, rather than just having an AF-MF switch, Samyang's approach has been to have this custom switch
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that allows you to choose between two different custom modes. And my preferred method is that in one mode, it allows the ring to function as an aperture ring
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And then in the other mode, it automatically shifts into manual focus and you use the ring for manually focusing
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However again control over that custom function If you want to actually change the way that it behaves there are some other tweaks you can make to the lens It does require having the lens station But obviously there is some definite improvement when it comes to the feature set And if weather sealing is
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important to you, the Series 2 lenses is a significant improvement there. So in conclusion
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the Series 2 lenses should be considered if you want what is typically the smallest, lightest
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and cheapest option at a certain focal length and aperture combination. I also find that they
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tend to have some of the very best rendering and bokeh quality of the competing lenses
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The Samyang lenses tend to be a little less over-corrected. I know that some of you don't
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like, for example, a Sigma lens because you find it to be somewhat over-corrected and a little bit
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clinical in the rendering. The Samyang lenses tend to feel a little bit more og in their
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performance, and thus they do have a very nice rendering quality. I find that they're often not
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as clinically sharp as some of the, you know, the best lenses either from Sigma or from Sony
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I will add an exception to that rule is the 135 millimeter f1.8. It manages to have beautiful
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rending and great bokeh and also have incredible sharpness. It is a really amazing optical
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instrument. And as noted, the one thing that they do, I think, lag a little bit behind first party
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lenses or if there's a Sigma alternative is when it comes to the autofocus in terms of the focus
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speed. Not so much focus consistency, but certainly focus speed. At the end of the day
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these are intriguing alternatives. If you're on a tighter budget and you're looking for a lens
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where your priority is more about the overall look of images and you want good autofocus
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consistency, but you're not going to be doing something like shooting sports or something that
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is fast moving. If that's what you're looking for, these lenses are great options at this point. And
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the Samyang Series 2 lenses are ones that I've personally enjoyed a lot. I really love their
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tiny series and I've really enjoyed their kind of big brother upscale lenses as well because they
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really do offer great bang for the buck and also now a much improved overall aesthetic, functionality
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and build quality, making them intriguing alternatives to other options that are on the
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market. If you want more information, you can look in the description down below where I do have
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links to my full text and video reviews of each one of these lenses, and so you can follow up on
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that. There's also buying links if you'd like to purchase for yourself, and beyond that, link is
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to follow myself or Craig on social media to become a patron, to get channel merchandise
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If you haven't already, please like and subscribe. Thanks for watching. Have a great day, and let the light in
