Schneider-KREUZNACH x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 Gallery
Dustin Abbott
June 9th, 2025
It has a been a long time since I’ve reviewed a Samyang lens (two years, to be exact). Samyang seems to have gone through a bit of a restructuring during that time, rebranding as LK Samyang. The LK Group is a South Korean conglomerate involved in various industries, including manufacturing, electronics, and engineering. It is known for its activities in producing a range of products such as electronic components, industrial equipment, and system solutions. In other words, they seem to be the financial backers for Samyang’s next chapter of optical development. Part of that next chapter includes a strategic partnership with fabled German optical company Schneider-Kreusnach, with the first lens from that partnership being the Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE that I am reviewing today. Now obviously “Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE” doesn’t exactly just roll off the tongue, so I will be referring to the lens more simply as the LK Samyang 14-24 in this review. It’s a very intriguing lens for a lot of reasons. You can find my full thoughts in the video review linked below or by reading the text review here. If you just want to see some photos, check out the galleries below.
*This product provided by LK Samyang under license from Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses. You can visit the product listing for the LK Samyang 14-24mm here.
Sigma released their first 14-24mm F2.8 zoom for DSLR mounts right as that chapter was closing in 2018. It was one of my favorite Sigma zooms of their “ART” era on DSLRs, so I was delighted when Sigma released a new version for Sony mirrorless in 2019. I had a blast with that lens, as Sigma did a good job shrinking it to be a better match for smaller mirrorless cameras. It had a few significant shortcomings, however, including the fact that a bulbous front element meant that you couldn’t use screw on filters. It was also still pretty big, a full 131mm long and weighing in at nearly 800g. It’s also expensive with an MSRP north of $1500 at the moment due to shifting market pressures.
LK Samyang has aggressively designed a lens that addresses all of those shortcomings. The LK Samyang 14-24 is compact and lightweight (445g), can use traditional filters (77mm), and is considerably less expensive at $1200 USD. That last point might still be a sticking point, however, as while Sigma has carved out a market position where they can demand a little higher price, Samyang has traditional occupied a more budget tier. This collaboration with Schneider is clearly a push upmarket, and it is too soon to see if consumers can mentally adjust.
I had a chance to check this lens out briefly at its public introduction at Japan’s CP+ convention back in late February, and I was immediately intrigued by this new direction for LK Samyang and the unique partnership with Schneider. I loved the compact size, the quick autofocus, and even the close focus capabilities of the lens, though it was hard to really evaluate the optics in a few shots at the LK Samyang booth.
But now I’ve had a chance to evaluate the lens more thoroughly, so enjoy some of the photos I took during my review period.
Keywords: Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE Review, Schneider-Kreuznach, LK Samyang, Scheider, Samyang 14-24mm, 14-24mm, F2.8, FE, Ultra Wide Angle, 77mm, Schneider 14-24, LK Samyang 14-24, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE Review
Dustin Abbott
June 9th, 2025
It has a been a long time since I’ve reviewed a Samyang lens (two years, to be exact). Samyang seems to have gone through a bit of a restructuring during that time, rebranding as LK Samyang. The LK Group is a South Korean conglomerate involved in various industries, including manufacturing, electronics, and engineering. It is known for its activities in producing a range of products such as electronic components, industrial equipment, and system solutions. In other words, they seem to be the financial backers for Samyang’s next chapter of optical development. Part of that next chapter includes a strategic partnership with fabled German optical company Schneider-Kreusnach, with the first lens from that partnership being the Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE that I am reviewing today. Now obviously “Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE” doesn’t exactly just roll off the tongue, so I will be referring to the lens more simply as the LK Samyang 14-24 in this review. It’s a very intriguing lens for a lot of reasons. You can find my full thoughts in the video review linked below or by reading on.
*This product provided by LK Samyang under license from Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses. You can visit the product listing for the LK Samyang 14-24mm here.
Sigma released their first 14-24mm F2.8 zoom for DSLR mounts right as that chapter was closing in 2018. It was one of my favorite Sigma zooms of their “ART” era on DSLRs, so I was delighted when Sigma released a new version for Sony mirrorless in 2019. I had a blast with that lens, as Sigma did a good job shrinking it to be a better match for smaller mirrorless cameras. It had a few significant shortcomings, however, including the fact that a bulbous front element meant that you couldn’t use screw on filters. It was also still pretty big, a full 131mm long and weighing in at nearly 800g. It’s also expensive with an MSRP north of $1500 at the moment due to shifting market pressures.
LK Samyang has aggressively designed a lens that addresses all of those shortcomings. The LK Samyang 14-24 is compact and lightweight (445g), can use traditional filters (77mm), and is considerably less expensive at $1200 USD. That last point might still be a sticking point, however, as while Sigma has carved out a market position where they can demand a little higher price, Samyang has traditional occupied a more budget tier. This collaboration with Schneider is clearly a push upmarket, and it is too soon to see if consumers can mentally adjust.
I had a chance to check this lens out briefly at its public introduction at Japan’s CP+ convention back in late February, and I was immediately intrigued by this new direction for LK Samyang and the unique partnership with Schneider. I loved the compact size, the quick autofocus, and even the close focus capabilities of the lens, though it was hard to really evaluate the optics in a few shots at the LK Samyang booth.
But now I’ve had a chance to evaluate the lens more thoroughly, so let’s dive in!
Build and Handling
In many ways I feel like I’ve come full circle, as my very first Samyang lens review was actually of their original 14mm F2.8 manual focus prime, which I reviewed all the way back in 2013. At that point the number of wide angle primes available for Canon EF mount were pretty limited, and I gave that lens a positive review (and even ended up buying one) because it did give pretty good image quality for the price…even though it did have some flaws. What’s extraordinary is that that single 14mm F2.8 prime, with only manual focus and no features, weighed 552g. How extraordinary that we have a 14-24mm F2.8 zoom with autofocus and features that weighs just 445g…more than 100g less!
That prime lens was very, very wide, covering 115.7°. None of the 14-24mm zooms have been quite that wide, and the LK Samyang 14-24 is the exact same as the Sigma 14-24 DN, spanning from 114.2° at 14mm:
to 84.1° at 24mm.
That’s still extremely wide, and gives you a lot of options for framing scenes, for this:
to this:
That’s pretty sweet, and I’ve found lenses like this a blast in cities as a walkaround lens.
It’s that later point that is perhaps the biggest vote in favor of what LK Samyang has done here. The Schneider-Samyang 14-24mm is lightweight and portable in a way other lenses in the class only dream of. The Sigma DN is the only other 14-24mm F2.8 zoom on FE, and it is 131mm in length compared to 98.6mm for the LK Samyang (+32%) and weighs 795g compared to the 445g of the LK Samyang (+78%)/
That is two very different size and weight propositions! The LK Samyang is 84mm (3.3″) in diameter and 98.6mm (3.9″) in length. It weighs 445g or 15.7oz.
If I hop over to the Nikon Z space, I find the Nikkon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S at 124.5mm in length and a weight of 650g. I’m not quite sure how they’ve done it, but LK Samyang has done a great job of giving us the smallest, lightest lens in this class, and it isn’t really close.
What’s more, the Nikkor has a MSRP well north of $2000, which makes the Sigma look like a value at right over $1500 and the Schneider-Samyang a true steal at $1200. Nice!
So how have they achieved this? It is just a plastic fantastic?
Not really. The build quality feels similar to other “Series II” lenses (like the 50mm F1.4 II or 85mm F1.4 II). It is based on a metal mount though does largely employ quality engineered plastics in the outer shell. Tapping these gives a feedback more like metal than plastic. There is a thorough weather sealing inside, with at least seven seal points by my count.
What’s more, they’ve made an important move that should help. Older Samyang lenses used a “Lens Station” whereby you could update firmware and make custom tweaks to the lens using their free “Lens Manager” software. Finding that Lens Station was initially difficult, and just the idea of having to purchase a separate accessory (usually around $50) meant that most users just didn’t bother. LK Samyang has incorporated a weather sealed USB-C port right in the barrel of the lens (like Tamron), allowing you to just connect the lens via USB-C and do the firmware updates or tweaks.
In the software I could not only do firmware updates, but also tweak the behavior of the lens, including changing the speed of the manual focus ring (I liked the slow setting better for more precision) and even the ability to set the AF position on the switch to allow the manual focus ring to function as clickless aperture ring. Aperture racks in video will still show minor steps, but if you move slowly the effect is minimalized.
Other features include an AF | MF switch and Fn (Custom) buttons.
There is no aperture ring, but neither is there an aperture ring on the Sigma 14-24mm or the Sony 12-24mm F2.8 GM. The Nikkor lens does have a customizable control ring that can be used for aperture control.
The AF | MF switch is mounted transversely and works with good precision. The custom button (which you assign the value to from within the camera’s menus) has nice action with a definitive click when pressed.
The zoom ring has a unique texture to its rubberized ring and moves smoothly with right under 30° of rotation between 14mm and 24mm. The damping is consistent between 14-20mm, but feels a little lighter from 21-24mm. I would have preferred the zoom feel to stay consistent, though it is a minor difference. The probable reason for this can be seen above. The inner barrel extends slightly (right under 10mm) over the course of the zoom range. It is at its longest (98.63mm or 3.9″) at 14mm and actually retracts around 21mm to a shorter length of 88.8mm (3.5″). I suspect the zoom feel changes a bit once the inner barrel has finished retracting.
What’s interesting is that LK Samyang seems to be listing the longer (zoomed) length of this lens, which is the opposite of what I typically encounter. Typically a lens maker would be touting the shortest possible length of the lens, though, to be fair, other lenses in this class are often internally zooming. The front element in the Sigma, for example, does move back and forth, but that is within the confines of the fixed lens hood, so it is technically an internally zooming lens.
The manual focus ring has a texture that reminds of me of DSLR era Canon lenses. There’s only a tiny bit of barrel separating the two lenses, so LK Samyang used very different textures to distinguish them. The rubberized texture of the manual focus ring is thicker, causing it to stand out an additional millimeter to help you distinguish between the rings by touch. I don’t love that they are so close together, but that’s part of the compromise involved with make a lens so compact. I also feel like the texture pattern of the manual focus ring has the potential of dating the lens, so I don’t love that design choice.
The weight of the manual focus ring is smooth but light. Focusing with precision involves very careful movements, as it isn’t difficult to focus beyond your desired spot. I was able to adjust fine, however, and I liked the action better once I slowed down the speed in the software.
A shallow lens hood is included. Unlike the competing lenses, this is not a fixed hood but a removable one. It bayonets on with precision and can be reversed for storage. This is yet another win for portability.
Other than the compact size, the other biggest design win here is the flat front element and the ability to use traditional filters. There are common 77mm filter threads here, and I found that so long as I used slim filters, I had no problem with additional vignette when shooting long exposures.
Being able to use simple, common, inexpensive filters is fantastic and certainly adds to the value of this lens.
Standard rear caps and front pinch caps are included. The front pinch cap feels like it is thicker than it needs to be, but that’s a minor quibble with competing lenses will have the big cap that has to fit over a fixed lens hood and that doesn’t really fit in a pocket.
No pouch or case is included, unfortunately, but the new packaging that the lens came in definitely feels upscale from previous Samyang products.
The minimum focus distance is 18cm, and while that does get you very close to your subject, it has the potential to give you a class leading level of magnification. Most lenses in this class offer just a 0.14x magnification, but the LK Samyang 14-24 jumps all the way up to 0.26x.
This is incredibly useful, as it allows you to add some unique perspectives to your work. And, as you can see from this F2.8 shot of a dandelion up close, the lens delivers surprisingly good detail as well.
Being able to get close to your subject also means that you can create a little more bokeh with this lens than is typical. The aperture iris has 9 blades, which is a little lower than the 11 blades found in the Sigma but matches those found in the Sony GM or Nikon S lenses. Stopped down to F4, I found the specular highlights to be “roundish”.
Stop it down to smaller apertures and that same aperture iris will produce decent but not exceptional 18 pointed sunstars.
The barrel material has a fine flocked finish to it, with a chrome accent ring in the middle of the lens and a “hidden” blue ring near the front. Previously they have used red, so perhaps this is the German touch? (Zeiss always seems to like blue!)
A lot of the fonts and the overall design feels like a Samyang, though the Schneider-Kreuznach badging adds a different flavor. I don’t love every design or ergonomic decision here, but I love the using the lens in general. That compact size and ability to easily filter the lens is a game changer in this class.
Not perfect…but pretty fantastic!
Autofocus for Stills
LK Samyang states that there is a Linear STM motor in this lens, and the focus motor actually feels great. It is utterly silent in operation, even if I put my ear next to it. In my focus test benchmarks focus speed proved pretty much instantaneous either indoors or out. No problems with speed or noise here.
Precision proved good, too, with good focus results in a wide variety of situations…including up close.
I was able to nail focus with extremely shallow depth of field, like here:
But I also had no problem with pulsing or misses when shooting landscapes, whether filtered or not.
Tracking is a little hard with a wide angle lens, as the subject doesn’t really get picked up until they get closer. There’s just so much in the frame that the subject occupies a very small portion of it otherwise.
The shutter speed on these was a little low, as I wasn’t anticipating this opportunity, but Nala had followed me out to shoot, and her trotting through these lily-of-the-valleys was interesting.
Bottom line is that this is as good of focus as I’ve even seen from a Samyang lens, so I’m happy.
Video AF
Great news on the video AF front, too. Focus pulls are smooth and confident, with no visible steps, no pulsing, and confident focus lock. Focus breathing is very low as well, so focus changes are nice and subtle.
The lens doesn’t seem to be parfocal, however, so it will have to readjust focus as you zoom in and out.
My hand test went fine, though sometimes with a wide angle lens like this it is hard to block the camera’s view of my face!
One final positive is that natural focus changes (like when you are moving along from one subject to another) are very nicely damped and cinematic. I can see this being an excellent gimbal or vlogging option. It’s small and light enough to work one a wide variety of gimbals and short enough that you can do “Inception mode”.
Color me impressed. This is a well executed autofocus package.
Image Quality Breakdown
So far there has been a lot to appreciate, but can this lens hold up optically? This is a hugely demanding zoom range, and the choice to shrink the size to such a compact package brings additional engineering challenges. Has Schneider and LK Samyang managed to pull it off?
This is the place where we would expect the partnership with Schneider-Kreuznach to bear dividends, as, while that that company has not previously developed optics for photography lenses, they have a sterling reputation for their work in cine and industrial lenses, and the B+W filter brand is one of the highest regarded in the industry. Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, CEO of Schneider-Kreuznach, had this to say about the collaboration, “We are pleased to extend our presence in the still photography market with our expertise in optics. This initiative is an important step for our company, and we are proud to collaborate with LK Samyang.” My LK Samyang contact told me that this was an “extensive collaboration”, but I’m still not completely where Schneider’s specific collaboration comes into play. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the optical glass comes from them, however, as this is something that they are renowned for.
The optical design is 15 elements in 11 groups, including 5 HR (High Refractive), 3 Aspherical Elements, and 3 ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements. That leaves only 4 non-exotic elements in the design. You can see from the diagram that some of those elements are extremely curved, which takes some serious expertise to grind.
Here’s a look at the MTF charts from the wide (14mm) and tele (24mm) ends.
The MTF chart at 14mm shows incredibly high center performance at F2.8, with a bit of dipping up and down on the Sagittal plane. A shocking amount of the frame is above 80%, however, with even the extreme corners averaging to about 70%. Impressive! This wide open (F2.8) shot at 14mm has plenty of pop!
The 24mm end is even sharper in the center of the frame and shows a more linear drop to the corners, which are weaker at roughly a 55% average. In both cases the “rule of thirds” zone from the center to the outer mid-frame is all extremely sharp.
I considered the Sigma 14-24mm to be an excellent optical performance when I tested it, and it is considerably larger, heavier, and compromised filter use by using the curved front element for optical performance. How does the MTF compare?
First at 14mm.
I’ve lined up the two MTF charts and put a line through 80%. Anything above the 80% threshold looks amazing even on a high resolution body. What I see is that the LK Samyang is sharper in the center, but the Sigma gives a more even performance across the frame. It should also have a bit better contrast because the Meridional axis is more closely aligned with the Sagittal. The differences in real world shooting will be minimal, as both of them are excellent at 14mm even at F2.8.
At 24mm the Samyang is noticeably sharper in the center of the frame but will be weaker after the midframe. The Sigma is more consistent across the frame.
Still, the MTF suggests that the LK Samyang is very close in performance despite being so much more compact. That sounds like a win in terms of sharpness…but were there other compromises made?
Well, there’s definitely some issues with distortion and vignette on the wide end.
There is both a lot of distortion (a +29 to correct) and it also fairly complex with a mustache type pattern that doesn’t allow for a simple, linear correction. Vignette is also heavy, requiring a +91 to correct.
Unfortunately, the Sigma review came before I had modernized my test process to make it more scientific. It also has heavy distortion, but I can’t evaluate how these compare with precision. In the fortunate column is the reality that the very close focus distance at 14mm tends to exaggerate distortion somewhat, so real world distortion isn’t as bad. Also fortunate is that LK Samyang seems to have negotiated good camera profile correction support, as in camera corrections seem to be doing a great job of correcting vignette and distortion for JPEGs and video files. There is a lens profile available to download for Lightroom/ACR as well.
Real world images come out well corrected, like here:
By the middle of the zoom range most of the distortion is gone, and at 24mm I used only a -1 to correct a tiny amount of pincushion distortion, and vignette only needed a +43 to correct.
No problems there.
While you can focus closely enough to create a shallow depth of field at 24mm, F2.8, I didn’t see any issue with longitudinal style chromatic aberrations (LoCA). Everything looked nice and clean.
A far more common problem for wide angle lenses is lateral style chromatic aberrations (LaCA) which show up along the edges of the frame in the transitions from black to white. Fortunately the LK Samyang 14-24 is very well corrected for LaCA.
So, other than the heavy vignette and distortion at 14mm, the Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang lens passed the tests with flying colors.
How about sharpness?
I’m using the 61MP Sony a7RV for these tests, which represents the highest resolution currently available on any full frame platform. I show the results at 200% magnification to really highlight any flaws.
At 14mm, there aren’t many to see.
The center is pin-sharp even at F2.8, while the mid-frame is very sharp (though with slightly lower contrast), and the corners actually look very good for a wide angle lens.
How about some perspective. I wish that I could show you apples to apples with the Sigma, but I can’t for the reasons mentioned before. But how about the $2300 Sony 16-35mm F2.8 GM II?
Here’s the center:
Wow! The LK Samyang definitely looks sharper and higher contrast. How about the corners?
The Sony looks a little brighter, but the sharpness and contrast at best is a wash. That’s pretty amazing, as it means that the LK Samyang is competitive with a first party lens that costs twice as much…and at a more difficult focal length. And, what’s more, this autofocusing zoom is sharper (according to MTFs) than LK Samyang’s own 14mm F2.8 II PRIME lens.
Stopping down to F4 makes little difference in the center, though there’s a bit more contrast in the mid-frame and the corners are noticeably brighter and exhibit a bit more contrast.
By F5.6 the corners are looking bright and fairly crisp.
At landscape apertures you’ll see good details all across the frame in real world images even when using high resolution cameras.
F8 looks largely similar to F5.6, but you’ll start to see softening from diffraction by F11. F22 is minimum aperture, and it looks fairly soft.
Moving on to the 17/18mm range shows even more consistent performance. Vignette isn’t as strong, and it feels like the sharpness and contrast is more even across the range.
Stopping down shows minor improvements, but not big enough to note at lower levels of magnification.
Real world shots in this range look fantastic, with consistently good details across the frame.
20mm looks very similar. I see a pattern emerging where peak center sharpness actually arrives wide open, and when you stop down, the center gets a bit less sharp while the midframe and corners improve. By F4, the corners are as sharp as I’ve seen.
Real world shots are full of detail.
At 24mm sharpness remains impeccable in the center of the frame, though with a touch less contrast. Stopping down to F4 kicks the contrast back up, however.
Real world images (even up close) are surprisingly good even at 24mm, F2.8:
Real world landscapes at 24mm and at landscape apertures look great.
Typically it wouldn’t be worth talking about the bokeh with a wide angle lens like this, but the close focus abilities of the LK Samyang 14-24mm allow it to defocus backgrounds reasonably well, as we can see from the lock photo above.
The background looks fairly soft in this image, as well.
This is certainly an area of strength relative to many other similar zooms, many of which just don’t have the close focus abilities that allow you to blur out the background like this.
Color also look good, with nice saturation levels. We had some hazy days during my review period because of the smoke from wildfires being blown our way, but even without peak conditions I was able to get great looking images.
I look forward to shooting with the lens in more optimal conditions.
Samyang has long been one of the better companies when it comes to controlling coma, and that remains a strength for the lens. Even without optimal conditions I found star points were crisp across the frame and there was minimal coma smear. This will be a great astro lens.
Flare resistance is mostly good, though there is potentially one issue to watch out for. If you compose in just the right way at 14mm, you can get a bit of a rainbow light leak.
Zooming in a bit in the identical conditions eliminates that altogether.
Generally I found that any flare artifacts were more noticeable if the lens was deeply stopped down. More moderate apertures like F5.6 were generally better.
I would say this latter category isn’t quite in Sony GM territory. Sony’s coatings are pretty fantastic, and I don’t feel that the LK Samyang 14-24 is quite there.
But my ultimate takeaway is one of being generally impressed. It’s rare that a company can shrink a zoom lens this much and simultaneously get such a good optical performance out it. I’m not sure if LK Samyang or Schneider-Kreuznach gets the credit, but this lens is good enough that I would be excited to see future collaborations (and it looks like at least one more zoom lens is coming!).
Samyang is definitely back, even if name has changed. I was very intrigued when I first saw this lens the day that it debuted at CP+, and now that I’ve spent more time with it, I remain impressed by what emerged from unexpected partnership between South Korean and German optical companies. The Schneider-Kreuznach x Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE is a genuine improvement on this challenging zoom range for anyone who values portability.
This is a dramatically smaller lens than anything we’ve seen with this focal length, and I can attest to the fact that it fits mounted on a camera in all of my smallest bags, making it an easy choice to bring along when traveling. The ability to use traditional filters is another huge addition, making getting long exposures like the one above a piece of cake.
That fact that we also get great autofocus and close focus capabilities makes this lens a winner in my books. I could see it being great for travel, great on gimbals, and a fantastic companion for shooting landscapes, city, and astro. Yes, at $1200 it is expensive “for a Samyang”, but it is considerably cheaper than any competing lens in this space, and remember that this is also a Schneider lens. No one is getting German optics for cheap, so I think that as long as LK Samyang can overcome the perception challenge (and improve their distribution), they’ve got a potential hit on their hands.
Pros:
Love the compact package!
The partnership with Schneider was completely unexpected
Smaller and lighter than any other lens in this class
Amazing close focus abilities
Can use screw on filters
Nice build quality with thorough weather sealing
Some customizable capabilities
Fast, silent autofocus
Good focus precision
Low focus breathing
Cinematic focus changes
Very consistent sharpness across the zoom range
Contends even with GM lenses for sharpness
No issues with fringing
Bokeh looks pretty nice
Cheaper than competitors in this class
Cons:
Heavy vignette and distortion at 14mm
More expensive than people are accustomed to paying for Samyang
Keywords: Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE Review, Schneider-Kreuznach, LK Samyang, Scheider, Samyang 14-24mm, 14-24mm, F2.8, FE, Ultra Wide Angle, 77mm, Schneider 14-24, LK Samyang 14-24, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
When I did my review of the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 G Master (an exceptional lens!), I concluded that Sony had gone the F1.2 route to help incentivize owners of the already good Sony Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 (my review here) to upgrade. I theorized that an F1.4 lens might not have gotten people’s attention in the way that a F1.2 lens would. I still think that’s correct, but clearly Sony also felt that there was room for a smaller, lighter, cheaper GM lens at the 50mm focal length, as their newest lens is just that: the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 G Master (we’ll call the 50GM F1.4 for short in this review).
Early reactions from my audience have been mixed, with plenty of people wondering why yet another 50mm lens was needed. I personally welcome this lens, however, as while I really, really love the 50mm F1.2 GM, it is more lens (and a more expensive lens) than many people need. I love the form factor of the 35mm F1.4 G Master (my review here), and the new 50GMF1.4 is a closer match for that lens (along with the 24mm F1.4 G Master) in size, and all three lenses share a common 67mm front filter thread. Obviously the price of every lens varies from region to region around the world, but in the largest market (the United States), there is a $700 price difference between the new 50mm F1.4 lens (at $1300 USD) and the 50mm F1.2 GM ($2000 USD).
Further muddying the waters is the recently released Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART (my review here), a very competent lens with very sharp optics along with very fast autofocus. It retails for $850 USD, which makes it a relative bargain. I know in some European market the price difference between the Sigma and the new Sony is nearly double, so that will obviously be a factor for many photographers.
The Sony 50GM F1.4 does have some advantages, however, and we’ll detail those as a part of this review along with demonstrating why this lens certainly has a legitimate place in the market. But should it be your new 50mm choice? Hopefully this review will help you make that decision, so read on…or watch the review below.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a loaner copy of the 50mm F1.4 GM. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
own.
Sony 50GM F1.4 Build, Handling, and Features
The new Sony 50mm F1.4 GM has a size and weight advantage over almost every other 50mm F1.4 option on the market. I say “almost” because Samyang’s 50mm F1.4 Series II lens is slightly more compact and lightweight, though the Sony’s build quality and feature set is more robust by comparison. Here’s a look at how these lenses compare:
As noted earlier, the new 50GM F1.4 shares a 67mm filter thread size with the 24mm and 35mm F1.4 G Master lenses, which is always very convenient. Tamron has built the majority of its Sony FE lenses around this same filter size, so you could definitely put together a quality kit of lenses that could easily share filters. These lenses are similar in size and design, though the new 50mm lens is wider in girth. Here’s a look at the 35mm (which I own) and the new 50mm side by side.
The 50GM F1.4 is 80.6mm in diameter (3.2″) and is 96mm (3.8″) in length. The weight is 516g (18.2 oz). That makes it about 15.5mm shorter and 150g lighter than the new Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART lens, and about 12mm and 260g lighter than the Sony Zeiss Planar F1.4, which, ironically, is about the same difference as between the 50mm F1.2 GM and the new F1.4 lens, though the F1.2 is also about 6mm wider in diameter. The ultimate winner if you want to travel light, however, is the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II, which is 7mm shorter and weighs nearly 100g less. You can see that difference with them side by side, but it isn’t huge:
Still, the GM lens is impressively compact when you consider the superior optics, more advanced features, and faster (multiple) focus motors that are housed in it. That smaller size and lighter weight will make a real world difference, particularly if you don’t shoot in a studio and are actually packing the lens.
Sony listed the Planar lens as being weather sealed, but they are also a little coy about the amount of seals and their location. I’ve reviewed the lens multiple times and owned one for a while, but I’ve never been able to locate a diagram showing the seal points. Sony is more forthcoming with the new GM lens, however, and the diagram shows eleven seal points by my count throughout the lens along with a fluorine coating on the front element. This is a thoroughly sealed lens that is designed for professional grade use in a variety of weather positions.
There is a lot of features packed into this compact lens. That starts with the aperture, where you have multiple options for controlling aperture. You can change it from within the camera, manually change it via one third stop detents, or have a declicked aperture by selecting the switch on the right side of the barrel. Sony has started including an “Iris Lock” switch as well, and this allows you to lock the aperture ring either into the manual control section or to lock the ring out of manual if you want to control it from within the camera. This ensures that there are no inadvertent bumps into an area you don’t want.
The lens also sports a focus hold button in two different positions (for easy access in both vertical and horizontal shooting modes) along with an AF/MF switch.
The manual focus ring is narrower than the one on the 50mm F1.2 (the F1.4 is a smaller lens!), and I measure it at right under 2 centimeters in width. It has a ribbed, rubberized texture, and moves smoothly. The damping is a little on the light side, however, and so the focus action isn’t as excellent as I’ve seen in some lenses. The focus ring is nicely linear, however, which makes for highly repeatable results.
The 50GM F1.4 has a mild advantage over the recent Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN in minimum focus distances, as it can autofocus as closely as 41cm as opposed to the 45cm of the Sigma. Both the 50mm F1.2 GM and the Samyang can focus slightly closer, at 40cm. The 0.16x magnification on the 50mm F1.4 GM is mid-pack here, as the Sigma (and older Planar lens) are 0.15x, while the Samyang is also 0.16x and the 50mm F1.2 is 0.17x. Here’s what MFD looks like for the 50GM F1.4:
The 50GM F1.4 does have one other trick here, though, as you can actually manually focus as closely as 38cm, which ups the magnification level to 0.18x. Wide open MFD performance is excellent, with high contrast, good texture rendering, and a flat plane of focus. The closer manual focus result has very slightly less contrast, but is still very good, and it does definitely make a visible difference in magnification if you put them side by side.
This opens up some additional creative options for what you can do with the lens, and using wide aperture lenses at closer distances is one of my favorite types of photography because of the dramatic results.
The 50GM F1.4 sports a high aperture blade count of 11, which is useful in maintaining a circular shape as the aperture is stopped down. You can see that the aperture is fairly circular even here at about F8 or so:
We can see from this series (F1.4, F2, and F2.8) that even at F2.8 the aperture is basically perfectly circular, and while there is some geometric deformation at F1.4 near the edges (lemon shape), the the F2 example shows near-perfect circular shape even at the edges of the frame. The specular highlights are also free of concentric circles or general busyness, which points to a nice out of focus rendering.
This attention to detail helps photographers have options in more situations. I’ve seen some 50mm lenses whose bokeh turned pretty ugly if you had things like Christmas lights in the frame, but that is far from being the case here.
The included lens hood is a fairly slim. It has a locking mechanism and a rubberized front edge to help absorb shocks. There’s also a zippered, padded case for transport included.
In short, the 50GM F1.4 basically ticks all the boxes. It is smaller and lighter than most competing lenses, has a wide variety of features, and is functionally pretty much perfect other than lacking a bit of feel during manual focus. It looks great mounted on the camera, has quality weather sealing, and functionally works very well. It is pricier than some competing options like the Samyang and Sigma, but is also a little more premium in its execution.
Sony 50mm F1.4 GM Autofocus and Video Performance
As a lens reviewer for over a decade now, I’ve learned that there is a direct correlation between the amount of power in a focus system and the accuracy it is able to achieve. It’s not just the amount of power needed to start the focus group moving, but also the power and control needed to quickly stop that movement at the perfect spot to achieve accurate focus without pulsing or settling. Sony has developed a winning autofocus formula in recent GM lenses by utilizing XD (Extreme Dynamic) Linear Motors. They evaluate the amount of power needed to drive the focusing element(s) and then employ the necessary numbers of XD motors to drive focus quickly and accurately. In this case, the necessary number is two, which is similar to the 35mm F1.4 GM. The 50mm F1.2 GM required quad XD motors due to having such large and heavy optical elements. Two is the magic number here, as that was all that was needed. Autofocus is fast, quiet, and accurate.
I had no problem pinpointing narrow depth of field subjects and getting consistently well focused results.
I bumped the ISO up to 6400 to get reasonable shutter speeds and set my Alpha 1 to full high speed burst mode, and then got Nala to walk towards me. I find that many lenses really struggle with this: a small target in unexceptional lighting that keeps moving towards the camera. At F1.4 the depth of field continues to shrink and the margin for error grows. The 50GM F1.4 nailed it, though. From 8:48:22 to 8:48:24 (a bit of overlap in the seconds) I shot 32 shots, all of which were perfectly focused. Here’s three frames from the beginning, middle, and end, and even the closest image where she was almost out of the frame is perfectly focused:
That’s a fantastic result, and while I also found that the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART focused very quickly, Sony limits the burst rate with third party lenses to 15FPS, meaning that I would only have gotten a maximum of about 16 shots during that same period – half what I could get the GM lens. The Samyang just isn’t fast enough for that kind of scenario, and the older Planar lens would disappoint me at times with its random inaccuracy. The 50mm F1.2 GM also has fantastic autofocus if you want to move a little more upscale.
I set up a tea themed still life, and found that I could get pinpoint focus even on the fine trail of tea leaves I set up:
I also had my assistant use the 50GM F1.4 during a baptism service at our church, and in all of the various images the focus is completely nailed at a wide variety of focus distances.
Lenses like the 50GM F1.4 makes shooting portraits a breeze. Compose how you want and let Eye AF take care of the focusing. Gone are the “focus and recompose days” or the times when I was concerned with wide aperture lenses about using outer AF points that were less sensitive and produced inconsistent results. A modern Sony body and this lens can make pretty much anyone seem like a pro in terms of focus results.
I did my standard battery of video tests along with a few extras. The 50GM F1.4 breezed through the test where I block the lens from my face with my hand and than allow focus to snap back to the eye. There was no pulsing or settling, though I will note that focus transition speed was more smooth than fast. I went back and checked the same test from the Sigma and thought they were about equal. Focus consistency while I approached the camera was pretty good as well, though I’m not sure it is quite as “magical” as the focus speed for stills.
Likewise my focus transition test proved accurate, smooth, and quiet. There is no stepping here in focus transitions, just smooth and confident focus. There is some focus breathing (much like the Sigma), though Sony has once again baked in an advantage for their own lenses. Some of their newer cameras has a focus breathing compensation setting, and at the cost of a slight crop, the focus breathing is largely eliminated.
I also found that I could easily execute both manual focus pulls and aperture racks. The linear focus ring makes focus pulls repeatable, though, as noted, I wouldn’t mind a little more damping to the focus ring.
It wasn’t unusual in times past for large aperture lenses with heavier elements like this to have slower and noisier autofocus due to the reality of moving such heavy glass, but we have moved into a whole new reality for autofocus. The 50GM F1.4 is exceptional for autofocus.
Sony 50GM F1.4 Optical Performance
Sony has employed a relatively complex optical performance here with 14 elements in 11 groups. There are two of Sony’s XA (extreme aspherical) lenses and one ED (extra-low dispersion) lens in the design. The former, in particular, is the breakthrough in lens design that has allowed a lot of Sony’s recent success. The resulting MTF chart is pretty exceptional for a wide aperture 50mm lens. It shows a truly exceptional center performance (about 8 percentage points sharper in the center than the Sigma) but with a slightly weaker performance than the Sigma in the corner. It also looks good compared to the 50mm F1.2 GM, with a slightly lower center performance but stronger elsewhere in the frame. I’ve put a red line through the 80% mark here to give you a standard for comparing them all.
Another shot from my “tea series” at F1.4 shows how much “pop” is available right from F1.4 along with some pretty nice looking bokeh.
Some lenses are “paper tigers” and chart test well but are shown up in real world situations and lighting conditions. That’s simply not the case here. This is an optical powerhouse in terms of sharpness, but how does it hold up in other areas?
First of all, let’s a take a look at the vignette and distortion.
We find some of both, though not quite at the level of what I recently saw with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN. There is some pincushion distortion that isn’t entirely linear in nature. I used a -5 to correct the distortion, though you can see a mild wave after the manual correction. I used a +58 to correct the vignette, or just a bit over 2 stops in the corners. The Sigma showed a bit more distortion (-8 to correct) and almost a stop more vignette (+84 to correct). The distortion quality and amount is about similar to what I saw with the F1.2 GM lens, and the amount of vignette is lower (I used a +71 to correct vignette there). It’s worth noting that pincushion distortion is preferable to barrel distortion in a portrait lens because it is slimming, so in some cases you might be better off not correcting the distortion. JPEGs and Video will have correction in camera from both distortion and vignette, and automatic profiles for RAW images will be shortly available in editing software. The JPEG profile did a cleaner job of correcting the distortion than what I could do manually:
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) are fairly well controlled. I pumped light through my glass camera and put a window in the background, but I saw little fringing either on the glass of the camera or on the window frames.
This vase was sitting in a bright shaft of sunlight, so I got close and shot a wide open shot. I found minor amounts of fringing in some of the highlight areas, but nothing that you would see without looking at a pixel level as we do here in the crop:
Nothing really to be concerned about here, and contrast remains very high in all of my shots, so spherical aberrations are diminishing image quality, either.
LaCA (Lateral CA) was extremely well controlled, with no evidence of fringing along the edges on either side of black and white transitions.
The well controlled aberrations point to very strong contrast even at wide apertures, and that was certainly the case. Here’s a look at my test chart shot with the 50MP Sony Alpha 1.
And here are the crops from the center, mid-frame, and corner at F1.4:
You can see excellent resolution and contrast that is very consistent across the frame.
The new GM lens is easily stronger than the Sigma in the middle of the frame and the midframe:
The Sigma has a tiny edge in the corner, however:
If you are interested in a more in-depth comparison between these two lenses, I have a video that might interest you.
If I compare with the F1.2 GM lens I find about the same performance. The new F1.4 GM lens is the winner in resolution across the frame with the exception of the far corners.
This is an incredibly sharp lens. Very impressive. If I focus in the corner and then compare the center focus and corner focus I find that the corner is good, but the center and midframe are exceptional.
There’s not a lot more to be gained in the center of the frame or midframe, as these are essentially flawless. Stopping down to F2 shows just a tiny bit more contrast and detail in the corners.
There’s more of a contrast gain at F2.8, and by F4 the image quality is truly flawless across the frame. Landscape apertures are exceptionally sharp. Here’s a shot taken at F2.8, and you can see how crisp the detail is all across the frame.
Minimum aperture is F16, which isn’t as small as some lenses. The lens is so exceptionally sharp that it survives diffraction reasonably well, though you can see that F1.4 is much sharper than F16 when you compare them:
This will make for a great portrait lens, as skin tones are still nice despite the very high sharpness and contrast.
Where Sony has really excelled here is by designing a lens that can deliver both high levels of sharpness and contrast on the subject while also delivering very soft, pleasing bokeh. I think this image is a great case in point:
My experience is that few lenses manage to do both these things, and Sony has been doing a great job of delivering lenses that can. I love the rendering of the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II, but the Sony manages to extreme sharpness plus a similarly nice rendering.
I saw many reasons to be happy about the bokeh rendering from the lens. Here’s a few of them:
Sony has some of the best coatings in the business right now, and I’ve found a lot of their recent lenses to be class leaders in flare resistance. The 50GM F1.4 isn’t exempt from flaring, particularly at wide apertures, though contrast stays quite good. The flare resistance at smaller apertures is even stronger.
I also tested the coma as I got a reasonably clear night. Star points are very crisp in the center of the frame. There is some mild deformation of star points towards the edge of the frame, but the results are largely very good.
This is one of those rare lenses that is pretty much good at everything. I’m not sure the rendering is quite as magical as the F1.2 GM, but for an F1.4 lens, this is pretty special. Do yourself a favor and check out more images by visiting the image gallery here.
Conclusion
This was a lens that few people were anticipating. Sony released the 50mm F1.2 GM less than two years ago, and thus few people anticipated a second 50mm GM lens. The Sony Zeiss Planar continues to be sold (though I fully expect it so see a price cut as it currently stickers for $200 more than the new GM lens). But while few of expected the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM, I’m certainly happy that it is here. It’s not as exotic as the 50mm F1.2 GM, but it’s definitely more attainable for many photographers. The price point of $1299 USD isn’t cheap, but it seems to be a relative value compared to the top flight F1.2 options on mirrorless platforms.
This lens has it all: a lot of features, blazing fast autofocus, and insanely good optics that at least in some ways equal and ever surpass the magical F1.2 G Master lens. That lens’ extremely shallow depth of field and creamy backgrounds are a little more exotic than what the F1.4 lens can achieve, but in general the overall rendering and look of the images is plenty good.
The big debate for many people will be whether or not the new 50GM F1.4 is worth the premium over the new Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN. There isn’t a huge difference in features, optics, or autofocus (unless you want the fast burst rates reserved for Sony lenses), though I give a slight edge to the Sony in each category. The more compact size of the new Sony is possibly the deal-MAKER for me. I love my 35mm F1.4 G Master, and having a 50mm lens that is similar in size and performance is very welcome to me. The fact that I do own one of Sony’s sports bodies means that having the potential of fast burst rates is worth a bit more to me. The Sigma is a great lens, but I do slightly prefer the rendering of the Sony. As per usual, however, there really isn’t a bad choice here. The Sony options are great, the Sigma is great, and even the Samyang is very worthy in most situations. The winner? It’s us – the consumers, who have never been so spoiled for quality choice as we are right now.
Pros:
Slightly smaller and lighter than most competitors
High grade of build
Quality weather sealing
Good features and general handling
Fast, quiet, and accurate autofocus
Excellent wide open sharpness across the frame
Beautifully soft bokeh
Low chromatic aberrations
Good flare resistance
Better than average magnification and excellent up close performance
Cons:
Distortion is a little complex
The F1.2 lens produces slightly more “exotic” images
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sony 50mm, 50mm, 50GM, F1.4, G Master, Sony 50mm F1.4 GM, FE, Sony 50mm F1.4 GM Review, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7RV, Sony a7R 5, sony a7IV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #letthelightin
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
When I did my review of the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 G Master (an exceptional lens!), I concluded that Sony had gone the F1.2 route to help incentivize owners of the already good Sony Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 (my review here) to upgrade. I theorized that an F1.4 lens might not have gotten people’s attention in the way that a F1.2 lens would. I still think that’s correct, but clearly Sony also felt that there was room for a smaller, lighter, cheaper GM lens at the 50mm focal length, as their newest lens is just that: the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 G Master.
Early reactions from my audience have been mixed, with plenty of people wondering why yet another 50mm lens was needed. I personally welcome this lens, however, as while I really, really love the 50mm F1.2 GM, it is more lens (and a more expensive lens) than many people need. I love the form factor of the 35mm F1.4 G Master (my review here), and the new 50GMF1.4 is a closer match for that lens (along with the 24mm F1.4 G Master) in size, and all three lenses share a common 67mm front filter thread. Obviously the price of every lens varies from region to region around the world, but in the largest market (the United States), there is a $700 price difference between the new 50mm F1.4 lens (at $1300 USD) and the 50mm F1.2 GM ($2000 USD).
Further muddying the waters is the recently released Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART (my review here), a very competent lens with very sharp optics along with very fast autofocus. It retails for $850 USD, which makes it a relative bargain. I know in some European market the price difference between the Sigma and the new Sony is nearly double, so that will obviously be a factor for many photographers.
The Sony 50mm F1.4 G Master does have some advantages, however, and we’ll detail those as a part of this review along with demonstrating why this lens certainly has a legitimate place in the market. But should it be your new 50mm choice? You can see my findings by watching the definitive video review or reading my text review…or just enjoy the photos!
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a loaner copy of the 50mm F1.4 GM. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sony 50mm, 50mm, 50GM, F1.4, G Master, Sony 50mm F1.4 GM, FE, Sony 50mm F1.4 GM Review, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7RV, Sony a7R 5, sony a7IV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #letthelightin
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I’ve noted that I’ve really enjoyed testing recent Samyang lenses because of their great mix of performance and price, but I don’t think that I’ve anticipated any Samyang lens as much as the new Samyang AF 135mm F1.8. I was shocked when I reviewed their budget manual focus 135mm F2 nearly 8 years ago, as it not only handily beat my Canon 135mm F2L that I used and loved at the time, but it also came very near to the performance of the amazing Zeiss 135mm F2 APO Sonnar lens. I’ve been advocating for them to produce an autofocusing 135mm lens ever since they started making AF lenses because I knew they already had an exceptional optical formula to start with at this focal length. This isn’t that same optical design. It is more complex (13 elements in 11 groups vs 11 elements in 7 groups) and has many more exotic elements (6 vs 1). What hasn’t changed, however, is that this is a lens that can produce both beautiful sharpness and incredible bokeh, and it is the latter area where it might even best the mighty Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (my review here).
I view a 135mm lens as somewhat of a flagship lens, as it is typically the longest conventional portrait focal length for a designer and tends to optically special. The 135mm focal length is not as flexible as a 50mm or 85mm lens, but it also has the ability to create utterly special images with gorgeous subject isolation. I love using them wide open for full length environmental portraits, as they produce incredible subject isolation with lovely bokeh.
That’s certainly true here, and in entering the 135mm F1.8 space on Sony, Samyang is taking on a lens that I consider one of Sony’s best ever. There are certainly areas where the Sony still has a clear advantage, in my opinion, but there are also a few areas where Samyang has some wins. For now, the AF 135mm is only available on Sony FE, though here’s hoping that Canon and Nikon will wake up and allow their customers access to these excellent new lenses. It comes to market at a price point of right under $1000 USD, which makes it less than half the price of the GM lens, $400 cheaper than the “ported” Sigma ART series lens, and even more than $500 cheaper than the Zeiss Batis 135mm…and it only has a maximum aperture of F2.8. Clearly Samyang is a winner on price, but this review will attempt to define whether or not it can also compete on merit. So you can either keep reading or change over to watching in my definitive video review.
I want to thank Samyang for sending me a test retail copy of the lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here) and the Sony a7IV
Samyang AF 135mm Build, Design and Handling
The Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 is a beautiful lens. I was quite pleased with how their new design language (that debuted on the tiny APS-C 12mm F2 AF) scaled up to much larger 135mm lens. This isn’t a small lens, as you can see, easily outstripping the 50mm F1.4 II and 85mm F1.4 II in size:
Samyang has a “tiny series”, but let’s just say that the AF 135mm is not a member! It is actually slighter bigger even than the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM, though the Sony is quite a bit heavier.
The lens is 93.4mm (3.7”) in diameter, leaving a large but common 82mm filter thread size that is shared with the Sony and Sigma 135mm lenses. The length of the lens is 129.6mm (5.1”), which makes it longer than the GM lens (by slightly less than 3mm) but not as big as the Sigma lens in its Sony FE version. The Samyang weighs in at 772g (27.2g), which is about 180g lighter than the GM and some 400+ grams lighter than the Sigma. It’s actually lighter than the older manual focus lens, which was fairly heavy at 840g. The AF 135mm is a reflection of Samyang’s growing design evolution. It very strongly resembles the other Series II lenses with what has become Samyang’s new design language. This includes a new diamond pattern texture of the focus ring and a transition of Samyang’s red ring (which previously really imitated Canon’s L-series lenses) to the new “hidden ring” design where the red is only visible from the front of the lens as it is somewhat hidden in the front fascia of the lens barrel. The resulting lens design is clean and modern.
The Samyang comes with both a lens hood and a quilted design pouch. The lens hood is a little more upscale than what I’ve seen on the other Samyang lenses. It is more heavy duty in the plastics and also has a rubberized transition ring at the front that helps absorb bumps and also serves a good place to set the lens down on.
I’ve watched Samyang grow in their lens design over the past 3-4 years as they steadily debuted new features. One of those was weather sealing, and the AF 135mm is no different. I count at least seven seal points in this diagram, including the various transition points in the lens (front and rear element, either side of the focus ring, and at the switches).
I consider weather sealing to be a must if you want to market your lens as a premium or professional lens, and Samyang has smartly recognized that many photographers feel the same. They’ve definitely embraced weather sealing as a part of lens design, which does help inspire confidence when the weather turns during a photo shoot.
The Series II lenses features some newer features for Samyang which have debuted over the past two years. One is a custom switch that gives you some options for how the focus ring will be used. You can tweak the options via the Samyang Lens Station (a $60 purchase I definitely recommend as it also allows you to quickly update the firmware. This might help with some improvement to performance and also will keep your investment “future-proofed”). I would like to see Samyang move to a lens-based USB-C port like Tamron and Viltrox have moved to, as that eliminates the need for an additional accessory for this functionality.
My preferred setup is that the M1 position has the ring focus as an aperture ring and the M2 position automatically enables manual focus. This gives you the functionality of an aperture ring and an AF/MF switch in one.
There’s also now a focus hold button which can be programmed to a variety of functions from within the camera just like on a Sony lens. The 135mm lens adds a three position focus limiter that allows you to cut out either close focus or distant subjects to help speed up focus or eliminate unwanted subjects. It’s a valuable feature here, as autofocus speed is the primary area where the Samyang feels limited compared to the G Master.
The AF 135mm also has an additional feature that is shared with the compact AF 24mm F1.8 in the form of a preset astrophotography mode. The focus hold button can be held down before powering on the camera to engage this mode. Here’s a bit more specifics from Samyang:
■ How to enter the astrophotographic shooting function (Custom mode)
Automatic infinity focus setting function (Custom mode) specializing in astrophotographic shooting and LED index are added to the Samyang 135mm F1.8 FE.
There are two methods to enter the custom mode, as follows:
When the camera is turned on: With the focus hold button pressed, mount the lens.
When the camera is turned off: With the lens mounted, press the focus hold button and turn on the camera.
※ When the camera body is turned off, or the camera is operating in the sleep mode, astrophotographic shooting mode will be canceled.
■ How to use the astrophotographic shooting function (custom mode)
When the camera enters the custom mode, the camera focusing mode will change to MF.
When the camera enters the custom mode normally, the LED index will blink red once, will move to the infinity position (factory default value) automatically and the LED will light in green.
If the focusing position is changed due to the adjustment of the focus adjustment ring while using the lens, the LED will light in red.
When you press the focus hold button briefly once, focus will return to the infinity position automatically and the color of the LED will change to green.
■ Calibration method in case the focus cannot be set to infinity accurately due to a deviation in the camera body
Find and focus on a subject in infinity by turning the focusing ring.
When you press and hold down the focus hold button for approximately 3 seconds, the LCD screen on the camera will become dark and then brighten and the infinity value will be calibrated according to the current focal point.
The calibrated value will be saved in ROM within the lens.
I did need to calibrate this functionality on my review copy, but it is a valuable feature that really helps when setting up for those astro shoots in the dark!
The manual focus ring is nice and wide and has that new textured surface (with a rubberized finish). I like the tactile feel of the “micro pattern” (as Samyang calls it) and feel like it offers good grip. The damping of the focus ring is nice and smooth and shows very good functionality for finetuning. The focus action appears to be speed sensitive, but you can control the speed of the focus ring via the Lens Manager software if you have the Lens Station. Automatic magnification of the active focus area is engaged with the lens, which helps make the manual focus process more intuitive and accurate.
The body materials here are fairly good quality engineered plastics, and it feels like a quality lens even if not quite at the build level of the superlative GM lens.
If you look inside, you’ll find an aperture iris with 11 rounded blades (like the GM), and this higher blade count does help keeps things circular.
Here’s a look at the shape of the bokeh circles at F1.8, F2.8, and even F4.
The geometric shape is quite excellent, and the bokeh circles are nice and soft. Fringing around the bokeh highlights is not at all pronounced, so you won’t have to fear shooting portraits or other shots with bright lights in the background.
Samyang has managed to slightly best the GM in minimum focus distance (only 69 cm or 27.2”), though the 0.24x magnification figure is very slightly lower than the GM (0.25x). I suspect there is some mild focus breathing at play for the Samyang, though this is a very useful lens for up close work.
The large maximum aperture and longer focal length allow the AF 135mm to beautifully isolate subjects and leave backgrounds completely defocused. The fact that the lens is also very sharp produces great looking images with sharp detail on the subject and beautifully blurred backgrounds.
The Samyang AF 135mm strikes a very nice balance between a quality build while also keeping the weight down. I like the general profile and look of the lens and appreciate the growing functionality that Samyang is building into these new lenses. They don’t have quite the level of robustness that either a Sony GM or the recent Sigma DN prime lenses do, but this is compensated by a lower price point and lower weight (and frequently smaller size, though that’s not entirely the case here). I’m happy with the general trend of Samyang design.
Autofocus Performance
The Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 employs a Linear STM focus motor. This is the clearest area of separation from the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM, which employs dual high torque linear motors to drive focus. The 135mm GM is a superlative focusing lens, well suited for action photography where it just doesn’t seem to miss on a better camera like the a9 or Alpha 1. So right off the bat, let me clear: if you want a 135mm to use for sports or action photography, you need to spend the money for the GM. It has no true competitors in terms of focus. If your needs are just about anything else, then you’ll be perfectly happy with the Samyang.
Autofocus is fast, silent, and accurate with the Samyang AF 135mm in most all situations, delivering well focused results. If I had to go from minimum focus to infinity, I found a bit of a lag, but when I was shooting portraits side by side with the GM and not making major focus changes I didn’t see much difference.
I shot a lot of portraits with the lens (that is the main event for a lens like this!), and I found that Eye AF worked extremely well in my portrait series even when I placed foreground objects in between the camera and subject.
I have the Focus Hold button programmed to allow me to switch eyes during Eye AF for portraits, and that can be very handy when you consider how shallow the depth of field can be with a long lens like this that happens to have a very large maximum aperture.
I expected focus pulls to be slower than what they were for video work, but I found the focus transitions to be snappy and smooth, with good focus confidence. I also saw good results with the “hand test” where I put my hand out in front of the lens to block my face before allowing focus to return to tracking my eye. Samyang touts low focus breathing with the lens, and it does seems to do fairly well.
The focus motor is not completely silent; you will hear some faint whirring and clicking, though I essentially only heard it if I put my ear close. No sound was picked up during my video pull test.
That larger maximum aperture (F1.8) assists in low light focus, making this a decent lens to use in very dim situations. I was able to keep shooting after the sun was down and things were getting pretty dark.
Focus accuracy was generally excellent. I shoot a lot of very shallow depth of field shots with a lens like this, and I’ve got all kinds of great photos with pinpoint focus, like this shot of the “Q” button on the Fujifilm GFX100S I happened to be reviewing at the same time.
I would definitely take the autofocus performance here over the current Sigma 135mm F1.8 ART FE, but the GM is definitely next level.
Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 Image Quality
All you’ve got to do is take one look at the MTF charts from this lens to realize that this is a very special optical instrument. Even at maximum aperture the weakest point in the frame (the extreme corners) are sharper than what most lens can achieve in the center of the frame. At F8 the MTF results are essentially flawless. If we compare to the 135 GM results (last chart), we see that the Samyang is, on paper, easily able to compete.
I recognize that many of you don’t “speak MTF”, so we’ll break down this performance in real world terms for this review. If you don’t understand how to read MTF charts, you can check out my video on the subject here. The AF 135mm has an optical design of 13 elements in 11 groups, with six of those being “special” elements, including 3 ED (extra low dispersion), 2 HR (high refractive), and one U-ASP (ultra-precision aspherical) lens. Put simply, that adds up to very sharp images:
We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette. While I keep monitoring the status of in-camera corrections for Samyang lenses, it still doesn’t seem that lenses aren’t receiving correction in camera for JPEGs or video. My JPEGs of my chart test are no more corrected that my RAW images. I mostly shoot RAW images, so I don’t think about it much, but those of you who typically rely on in-camera corrections and shoot JPEG are going to be disappointed here. My hope that is Sony will afford Samyang the courtesy that third party lens makers like Tamron and Sigma get lenses get in terms of these corrections, but that day has not yet arrived. Fortunately Samyang has been making lenses in the past couple of years that don’t seem to need a great deal of correcting, so that certainly helps.
There was no distortion to correct (I left it at zero) and vignette was a paltry +28 to correct (about a stop in the corners). That’s literally just enough to be slightly flattering, and I suspect that you’ll probably be adding more vignette than you have to remove! Look at the lower right corner of this wide open shot and note how bright it is. That’s with zero correction.
The 135 GM is also exceptional here, but I did correct just a tiny bit of distortion (-1) and had to add a very slight bit more vignette correction (+35). In the real world you wouldn’t notice a difference, but it’s a positive for Samyang that they are holding their own here.
So how about chromatic aberrations? There really weren’t a whole lot to find of the LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberrations). I found shiny surfaces resisted color fringing and there was little only a tiny bit of fringing around very bright bokeh highlights.
This time of year one of the most interesting things visually to shoot is the dried weeds and grasses as the early winter light shines through them. They make for pretty pictures…unless your lens suffers from LoCA, and then all you can see is the colored fringing. That was zero issue here, and I shot many of those interesting scenes with nothing but beautiful results.
I also looked for and couldn’t really find any evidence of Lateral CA (LaCA) in my chart tests or real world images. You can see how clean the transitions from black to white are in this deep crop from my test chart.
So far, so very, very good!
So how about resolution and contrast? Here’s a look at my test chart: *All chart tests done with a Sony Alpha 1 (50MP) using a tripod and a two second timer.
And here are the crops (at roughly 170% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F1.8:
Wow! That’s exceptional. The performance across the frame is just fantastic, with the absolute corners being very close to as sharp as the center of the frame. So how does this stack up against the mighty G Master (which is one of the sharpest lenses I’ve ever tested, period!)
The two lenses are very, very close. I’d give the slight edge in contrast in the center of the frame to the Sony, while the Samyang looks better at the edges of the frame. Bottom line is that you probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish one from the other in terms of sharpness and contrast.
How sharp is this? Well, here’s a look at at a higher ISO shot of Ferrari (ISO 1600, so not peak performance) wide open, F1.8.
Look at the amazing detail in that crop!
Stopping down to F2.8 ratchets sharpness and contrast up to epic levels, with detail pretty much popping off the screen.
Moving on to landscape apertures like F5,6 results in perfect details across the frame even on high megapixel bodies. You can see the amazing detail in these crops:
Minimum aperture is F22, and despite the brilliant sharpness of the lens, diffraction causes softening (particularly on high resolution bodies). I typically recommend using F11 as a natural limit for peak performance.
So how about the bokeh? This is an area where I feel like the Samyang exceeds the GM lens, as it sports amazing contrast and detail but doesn’t have quite as creamy of bokeh as the Samyang. You can see that, first of all, the Samyang has better wide open geometry, with more rounded circles in the specular highlights.
If we look closer, we find that the Sony has more of an inner line on the bokeh circles, and you can see that the shape on the left side has a little more edging while the Samyang renders a little softer.
Here’s a real world example (this actually slightly favors the Sony as I bumped the aperture ring on the Samyang and it is at F2 rather than F1.8). I deliberately set up the shot with a busy background, but that hardly mattered as both lenses erased all of that into a flattering blur (something that 135mm F1.8 lenses excel at!!)
If we look closely at the transition area on the camera itself, however, we see very slight advantages for the Samyang with less edges and a slightly softer blur.
Likewise in this portrait comparison, I find the background from the Samyang ever so slightly softer.
If you say, “I don’t really see it”, I don’t blame you. Bokeh is subjective, and while it is my generalized impression from having shot a number of images with both lenses, it can be difficult to illustrate the point.
Leaving the comparison behind, at closer focus distances the longer focal length and large maximum aperture simply obliterates backgrounds, leaving them soft and creamy:
But where this lens is exceptional is that it also thrives in medium and further range. There’s no ugly transition zone, which allows to shoot at further distances and still have a beautiful melting away of the background, which is part of what makes a 135mm lens so special to me for full length environmental portraiture.
We’ve already noted how nice the bokeh with bright specular highlights is, and that all adds up to a lens that will really delight with its rendering of defocused areas in general.
I don’t often test telephoto lenses for their astrophotography potential, but since Samyang has marketed this lens with some astro-specific features, I wanted to test the potential of the lens for more deep space astro work. The results were impressive. We’ve already seen that the AF 135mm has very low amounts of vignette, which will certainly help for night sky work. What it also has is extremely low levels of coma, which means that star points stay nicely defined even towards the edges of the frame.
I find wide angle lenses more interesting for astro work if you want to include something of the environment, but a longer focal length is more interesting if you want to bring heavenly bodies a little closer. Mars shines brightly in this shot, for example.
I can see why Samyang has promoted this aspect of the AF 135mm’s performance, as it certainly shines at night!
Flare resistance can be a difficult challenge for larger aperture telephoto lenses, and the Samyang is about average here. I didn’t find any major problems, but there will be a few situations where you will see a few ghosting artifacts, including a little haloing around certain bright lights. The other shots in the series represent bright sun in the corner of the frame first wide open and then stopped down to F11, where the ghosting artifacts are the most pronounced.
Bottom line is that optically the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 is a special lens. This is probably the highest performance you are going to find for under $1000 on the Sony platform. You can see more images by checking out the lens image gallery here.
Conclusion
The original Samyang 135mm F2 manual focus lens that I tested 8 years ago was a flawed instrument. It had a so-so build, was a little hard to nail focus with due to being a manual focus design for DSLRs and having such a narrow depth of field. It had no electronics and no features to speak of. And yet it sparkled optically, blowing away my premium Canon L series 135mm lens. Fast forward to 2022 and Sony shooters are now incredibly spoiled by a lens that shines even brighter optically, but has essentially none of the baggage that the old lens had. The Samyang (or Rokinon) AF 135mm F1.8 has a quality build, useful features, accurate autofocus, and delivers gorgeous images.
It is highly competitive with the utterly amazing Sony 135mm F1.8 G Master on many levels, though the G Master is still in another category when it comes to autofocus speed. But that really is the primary reason to consider spending double for the first party lens, and if you don’t shoot fast action with a 135mm lens, you are probably going to be just fine with the Samyang.
The biggest challenge for this exceptional lens is the reality of the 135mm focal length. I think that 135mm produces some of the most special looking images this side of the rare and expensive 200mm F2 lenses, but it’s also a less flexible focal length than the more common 50mm or 85mm portrait options. You need a little room to shoot with it (particularly if you want those amazing full body length environmental shots), and that means that although I own and love the 135mm GM, I don’t reach for it as often as what I would like. It is important to know your own shooting needs, but if you think the 135mm focal length suits those needs, then the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 is an easy lens to recommend.
Pros:
Nice construction complete with weather sealing
Well executed, smooth manual focus ring
Custom switch and focus hold button adds functionality
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Samyang 135mm F1.8, Rokinon 135mm F1.8, Samyang AF 135mm F1.8, Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 Review, AF, Samyang, Rokinon, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II, F1.8, Samyang AF, Review, Dustin Abbott, FE, Sony 135mm F1.8 GM, Portrait, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I’ve noted that I’ve really enjoyed testing recent Samyang lenses because of their great mix of performance and price, but I don’t think that I’ve anticipated any Samyang lens as much as the new Samyang AF 135mm F1.8. I was shocked when I reviewed their budget manual focus 135mm F2 nearly 8 years ago, as it not only handily beat my Canon 135mm F2L that I used and loved at the time, but it also came very near to the performance of the amazing Zeiss 135mm F2 APO Sonnar lens. I’ve been advocating for them to produce an autofocusing 135mm lens ever since they started making AF lenses because I knew they already had an exceptional optical formula to start with at this focal length. This isn’t that same optical design. It is more complex (13 elements in 11 groups vs 11 elements in 7 groups) and has many more exotic elements (6 vs 1). What hasn’t changed, however, is that this is a lens that can produce both beautiful sharpness and incredible bokeh, and it is the latter area where it might even best the mighty Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM (my review here).
I view a 135mm lens as somewhat of a flagship lens, as it is typically the longest conventional portrait focal length for a designer and tends to optically special. The 135mm focal length is not as flexible as a 50mm or 85mm lens, but it also has the ability to create utterly special images with gorgeous subject isolation. I love using them wide open for full length environmental portraits, as they produce incredible subject isolation with lovely bokeh.
That’s certainly true here, and in entering the 135mm F1.8 space on Sony, Samyang is taking on a lens that I consider one of Sony’s best ever. There are certainly areas where the Sony still has a clear advantage, in my opinion, but there are also a few areas where Samyang has some wins. For now, the AF 135mmI is only available on Sony FE, though here’s hoping that Canon and Nikon will wake up and allow their customers access to these excellent new lenses. It comes to market at a price point of right under $1000 USD, which makes it less than half the price of the GM lens, $400 cheaper than the “ported” Sigma ART series lens, and even more than $500 cheaper than the Zeiss Batis 135mm…and it only has a maximum aperture of F2.8. Clearly Samyang is a winner on price, but you can watch my video review or read my text review to determine if the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 is the lens for you…or just enjoy the beautiful photos from the lens below.
I want to thank Samyang for sending me a test retail copy of the lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here) and the Sony a7IV
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Samyang 135mm F1.8, Rokinon 135mm F1.8, Samyang AF 135mm F1.8, Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 Review, AF, Samyang, Rokinon, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II, F1.8, Samyang AF, Review, Dustin Abbott, FE, Sony 135mm F1.8 GM, Portrait, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
My excitement over reviewing a new Samyang lens has grown by leaps and bounds over the past three years. In my DSLR days I had treated Samyang much like some of the budget manual focus lens players on the market today (7Artisans, TTArtisan, Brightin Star, etc…). They produced lenses that were sometimes optically interesting but not really at the same level as the big players in terms of build, features, and autofocus. They even sold their lenses under multiple brand names, of which only Samyang and Rokinon remain (yes, Rokinon lenses are the exact same save slightly different badging). But then Samyang started to experiment with autofocus, and, while early results were a little primitive, I saw rapid progress. About 3 ½ years ago I reviewed the first Samyang lens that I thought was truly competitive with the main brands, and it was the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 FE. I subsequently reviewed the Canon RF mount version of the lens and found it even better (they added an AF/MF switch to the design). I added that lens to my own personal Canon kit and still regularly use it today. Today, however, I’m looking at the second generation of Samyang’s “big” prime lenses. I first looked at the Series II version of the AF 50mm F1.4, and found it a major improvement over the first generation lens. Today I’ll be examining the new Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series II, hereby referred to as the AF 85II. I will subsequently be looking at the new 35mm F1.4 Series II along with the impressive Samyang AF 135mm F1.8.
I’m excited about this Samyang lens as I’ve always appreciated the performance and value of the previous versions of the lens, and now we’ve gotten a more compact size along with new features as a part of the formula. The new version is slimmer and lighter along with some other significant improvements:
Smaller size:
MK 1 88 x 99.5 (D x L) | 568g weight | 77mm filter thread
MK 2 83.4 x 99.5 (D x L) | 509g weight | 72mm filter thread
Slightly improved MFD (0.85 vs 0.90 = 0.12 vs 0.11x)
AF Motor improved to Linear STM (Samyang claims improved performance for video. “Quieter, faster, and more accurate AF performance”
Improved weather sealing – from 3 seal points to 7 seal points
Added Focus Hold Button and Custom Switch
We’ll detail those features further, but clearly Samyang is upping its game in terms of providing lenses that are competitive with third party brands and even with first party options. For now, the AF 85II is only available on Sony FE, though here’s hoping that Canon and Nikon will wake up and allow their customers access to these excellent new lenses. The AF 85II comes at a price point of right under $800 USD, which places it only $200 more than the Sony F1.8 version (my review here) and about $400 cheaper than the lens I consider to be the chief competitor to this lens – the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN ART (my review here).
So is the new Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series II worthy of your consideration if you’re in the market for a new lens? Is it worth the upgrade if you own the previous generation lens? I’ll do my best to answer those questions either in my video review or in the text review that follows.
I want to thank Samyang for sending me a test retail copy of the lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here) and the Sony a7IV
Samyang AF 85II Build, Design and Handling
The AF 85II is a reflection of Samyang’s growing design evolution. It very strongly resembles the AF 50mm F1.4 Series II lens with what has become Samyang’s new design language. This includes a new diamond pattern texture of the focus ring and a transition of Samyang’s red ring (which previously really imitated Canon’s L-series lenses) to the new “hidden ring” design where the red is only visible from the front of the lens as it is somewhat hidden in the front fascia of the lens barrel. The resulting lens design is clean and modern.
I liked the look of the previous Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 and its sleek design, but the new design language is, I think, more distinctly Samyang’s rather than a simile of someone else’s lens. A byproduct of this process has been the ability to also slightly reduce the physical size of the Series II lenses, which is in keeping with the trend that Sony has been following with its MK II G Master designs. Of the competing options, the new AF 85II is the overall smallest and lightest, though not in every dimension.
It has shed about 60g (2oz) relative to the Series I lens, and weighs in at about 115g lighter than the Sigma DN lens and a whopping 310g lighter than the Sony G Master. It is only 140g heavier than the Sony 85mm F1.8 lens, which makes it competitive in the F1.8 market in both size and price. Here’s a look at the two Series II lenses I have on hand and then the RF version of the first generation AF 85mm F1.4, which definitely looks bigger all around.
The Sigma DN lens isn’t really larger in pure physical size, but I do prefer the profile of the Samyang once the lens hoods are attached. The Sigma hood is relatively huge in diameter, which takes up much more room in a bag.
I’ve watched Samyang grow in their lens design over the past 3-4 years as they steadily debuted new features. One of those was weather sealing, which the first generation lens had, though with fewer seal points (only three on that lens). I count seven seal points from this diagram on the Series II lens, including at various transition points in the lens (front and rear element, either side of the focus ring, and at the switches).
I consider weather sealing to be a must if you want to market your lens as a premium or professional lens, and Samyang has smartly recognized that many photographers feel the same. They’ve definitely embraced weather sealing as a part of lens design, which does help inspire confidence when the weather turns during a photo shoot…like it did during this one, with a burst of cold rain.
The Series II lenses features some newer features for Samyang which have debuted over the past two years. One is a custom switch that gives you some options for how the focus ring will be used. You can tweak the options via the Samyang Lens Station (a $60 purchase I definitely recommend as it also allows you to quickly update the firmware. This might help with some improvement to performance and also will keep your investment “future-proofed”). I would like to see Samyang move to a lens-based USB-C port like Tamron and Viltrox have moved to, as that eliminates the need for an additional accessory for this functionality.
My preferred setup is that the M1 position has the ring focus as an aperture ring and the M2 position automatically enables manual focus. This gives you the functionality of an aperture ring and an AF/MF switch in one.
There’s also now a focus hold button which can be programmed to a variety of functions from within the camera just like on a Sony lens.
The manual focus ring is nice and wide and has that new textured surface (with a rubberized finish). I like the tactile feel of the “micro pattern” (as Samyang calls it) and feel like it offers good grip. The damping of the focus ring is nice and smooth, though I felt like I could use just a little more precision in the ring when making very fine adjustments. The focus action appears to be linear (non-speed dependent), which is good for repeatability, though the focus throw is too long for major video focus throws. You need about 5 normal focus rotations to travel the extremes of the focus range, and I estimate the whole focus throw at somewhere near 380°. Fortunately you can control the speed of the focus ring via the Lens Manager software if you have the Lens Station. On a positive note, the automatic magnification of the active focus area is engaged with the lens, which helps make the manual focus process more intuitive and accurate.
The lens hood is included. It’s plastic and pretty basic. It bayonets into place smoothly and locks tightly but lacks a dedicated locking mechanism (if that matters to you).
The body materials here are engineered plastics, but good feeling plastics, and the build feels solid if not exceptional. The lens feels quality but not necessarily top tier in build…which frankly is where the price point is.
Up front we have a clean front fascia and a 72mm filter thread size that is shared with the new 50mm F1.4 II.
If you look inside, you’ll find an aperture iris with 9 rounded blades, though the shape of the aperture blades will start to show up by F2.8 in a mild way. Here’s a look at the shape of the bokeh circles at F1.4, F2, and F2.8.
The geometric shape is pretty nice, and the bokeh circles are nice and soft. Fringing around the bokeh highlights is not at all pronounced, so you won’t have to fear shooting portraits or other shots with bright lights in the background.
As noted in the intro, Samyang has managed to very slightly improve the minimum focus distance over the first-generation lens from 90cm (2.95’) to 85cm (2.8’), which increases the magnification from 0.11x to 0.12x. That’s about average for an 85mm lens. Here’s what the magnification looks like:
The large maximum aperture and longer focal length allow the AF 85II to nicely isolate subjects and leave backgrounds completely defocused. The fact that the lens is also very sharp produces great looking images with sharp detail on the subject and beautifully blurred backgrounds.
There’s something very pleasing about this Series II lens. It strikes a very nice balance between a quality build while also being compact and lightweight. I like the general profile and look of the lens and appreciate the growing functionality that Samyang is building into these new lenses. They don’t have quite the level of robustness that either a Sony GM or the recent Sigma DN prime lenses do, but this is compensated for by reduced size and weight. I’m happy with the general trend of Samyang design.
Autofocus Performance
The Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II employs a Linear STM focus motor. On paper this is a step down from the first-generation lens, as it employed a DLSM (Dual Linear Sonic Motor) focus system. One motor certainly wouldn’t seem to match two motors, yet Samyang claims “Quieter, faster and more accurate AF performance with linear STM motor”. I didn’t have the original first generation lens in Sony FE (I have one in Canon RF mount) on hand to compare the new lens with, but I did refer back to my review notes and images taken with that lens for some comparisons. I noted in my review of that lens that this was the area I felt still needed the most improvement. AF-C focus speed was somewhat slowed relative to AF-S, and I felt the focus system could use a little more torque. I also found that (at least initially), the older lens wasn’t always completely confident in focus and would have some minor focus adjustments taking place often.
What I can safely say is that I no longer have any of those concerns. I own the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN that I’ve alluded to in this review, and I used both lenses side by side during some comparisons and found essentially no difference between the two. They were equally fast, equally confident in focus, which means that autofocus is actually better than on the existing Sony 85mm F1.4 G Master (I fully anticipate a second generation replacement that will be more like the exceptional 50mm F1.2 GM in performance). Autofocus is fast, silent, and accurate with the Samyang Series II lens, delivering one well focused result after another.
Eye AF worked extremely well in my portrait series even when I placed foreground objects in between the camera and subject.
I have the Focus Hold button programmed to allow me to switch eyes during Eye AF for portraits, and I found that this function worked perfectly with the AF 85II, giving me accurate focus on the eye of my choice.
I had good Eye AF tracking an animal subject even while Ferrari was moving.
Focus pulls are still on the slower side for video, though they feel well damped and smooth. There is some very noticeable focus breathing, so this is not a top choice for video work if that bothers you. I saw good results with the “hand test” where I put my hand out in front of the lens to block my face before allowing focus to return to tracking my eye.
The focus motor is not completely silent; you will hear some faint whirring and clicking, though I essentially only heard it if I put my ear close. No sound was picked up during my video pull test. Typical focus changes are near instantaneous, though if you shift between a close and distant subject you will experience a brief lag.
Focus speed was fast enough that I didn’t really think about it when shooting stills and only noticed the slower transition speed when shooting video. Focus results were generally confident, however, and there was no settling before focus lock was achieved.
That larger maximum aperture (F1.4) assists in low light focus, making this a decent lens to use in very dim situations. This shot of Nala is at 1/20th second, F1.4, ISO 3200 – which equals very dim lighting conditions. I don’t remember any lag in focus, and I shot multiple shots during this sequence that were all accurately focused.
Focus accuracy was just generally excellent. I shoot a lot of very shallow depth of field shots with a lens like this, and I’ve got all kinds of great photos with pinpoint focus.
I shot with both the high end Sony Alpha 1 and the more moderately priced a7IV with good results on both. I even shot some pickup basketball action and got well focused results.
I’m not sure I would characterize this as a sports lens (I’m not sure it is fast enough for really fast action), but it will work fine for moderate action work and should be effortless for things like weddings. It’s not as fast as the best recent G Master lenses, but few lenses are. All in all, I would call autofocus solid here and an improvement at the margins over the first generation lens.
Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II Image Quality
It’s fortunate that Samyang had a great optical formula in their first generation of this lens, as both the optical design and the MTF charts suggest that we have an identical optical formula in the Series II lens. Both lenses employ an optical formula of 11 elements in 8 groups, with 4 HR elements and 1 ED element making up the “special” elements. In this series of MTF charts you can see the Series 1 lens, the Series 2 lens, and then the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN.
If you don’t understand how to read MTF charts, you can check out my video on the subject here. You can see the identical MTF curves of the Samyang, which show a very strong center performance, some dip to the mid-frame, and then a gradual tailing off to about 54% at the corner. The Sigma MTF suggests a percentage point or two better performance in the center, an actual improvement to mid-frame (giving a clear win there), and a steeper drop-off to the corners where it matches the Samyang performance. The Samyang MTF chart also includes an F8 MTF, where the performance is very near to flawlessly sharp. We’ll see if my real world tests back this up, but I can tell you this – the AF 85II is definitely real-world sharp!
We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette. As of yet there isn’t a correction profile available in Lightroom, but you can use the first generation profile without issue since the two lenses are essentially optically identical (with one caveat that I’ll discuss in a moment!)
While I keep monitoring the status of in-camera corrections for Samyang lenses, it still doesn’t seem that lenses aren’t receiving correction in camera for JPEGs or video. My JPEGs of my chart test are no more corrected that my RAW images. I mostly shoot RAW images, so I don’t think about it much, but those of you who typically rely on in-camera corrections and shoot JPEG are going to be disappointed here. My hope that is Sony will afford Samyang the courtesy that third party lens makers like Tamron and Sigma get lenses get in terms of these corrections, but that day has not yet arrived. Fortunately Samyang has been making lenses in the past couple of years that don’t seem to need a great deal of correcting, so that certainly helps.
There’s only a negligible amount of pincushion distortion (a -1 to correct) along with a moderate amount of vignette that required a +53 to correct for, so around 2 stops in the corners. The vignette is fairly linear, which means that it will often be flattering to your images and you may want to leave it uncorrected.
This is also one area of serious advantage over the Sigma DN lens, which has both a LOT of pincushion distortion and much heavier vignette.
So how about chromatic aberrations? I found some lateral chromatic aberrations along the edge of the frame, and some very mild longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) which can be seen as purple and green fringing before and after the plane of focus at wide apertures.
I didn’t find either version of CA to be an issue in my real world images.
So how about resolution and contrast? Here’s a look at my test chart: *All chart tests done with a Sony Alpha 1 (50MP) using a tripod and a two second timer.
And here are the crops (at roughly 170% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F1.4:
That’s a pretty awesome result. Everywhere looks nice and crisp even into the extreme corner even at high magnification of a 50MP image. If we drop back to just 100% magnification the image looks flawless.
So what if we compare it to the Sigma? Here are three comparisons (you can find more in my VS video that will release soon). The first shows center performance at F1.4, then corner performance at F1.4, and finally a real-world mid-frame comparison:
What stands out is that the Sigma has an exceptional amount of contrast which gives it an advantage in the center and the real-world result. The Samyang is slightly better in the corners in my comparison.
I consistently saw more skin textures from the Sigma in my direct comparisons between the two lenses, though whether that’s a pro or a con depends on your preference in a portrait lens. Also interesting is that I didn’t really see a color difference between the two lenses. Historically Samyang lenses have trended towards warmer tones, but it seems like recent lenses have a more neutral color profile.
I didn’t notice the Sigma advantage as much in non-portrait comparisons. In this 100% crop from a shot of the chess board I can see a slightest increase of textures for the Sigma.
If you take the comparisons off the table, however, the reality is that the AF 85II is an extremely sharp lens. It was perfectly easy to get compelling landscape images even at F1.4.
I also loved the subject isolation at F1.4.
This is why 85mm F1.4 lenses are so compelling.
By F2 the Samyang is extremely sharp across the frame. Look at how crisp the textures are in the deep mid-frame even at 200% magnification.
Here’s some portrait detail at F2.5:
At F2.8 and beyond the performance is flawless. You’ll be able to get amazingly detailed images even on Sony’s high resolution sensors.
The quality of the bokeh is very nice as well. You can get amazing subject isolation and blurred out backgrounds, like this simple images of dried grasses:
How about this old lock?
Or step back a little with these frost-covered ferns?
This image was about the busiest that I could get from the bokeh, and it’s still quite nice.
This is a great lens for capturing bokeh.
I tested flare during a “sun-shower”, which produced very interesting results. There’s some veiling in the first wide open shot, though it is very artistic in its rendering. The second image is stopped down to F11, and it shows the strongest ghosting artifacts. The final image is wide open but with the sun more directly in the frame, and contrast held up more in that scenario.
There’s nothing that really turns me off about this performance.
I also found the colors I was able to capture with the lens very pleasing.
Bottom line is that this is a very strong optical performance with few flaws. It isn’t quite at the exceptional level of the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN (which is actually better than the current GM lens), but the Samyang also has less vignette and distortion. You’ll be hard pressed to find more better image quality for $800! You can see more images by checking out the lens image gallery here.
Conclusion
Samyang’s Series II lenses are evidence of the growing maturation of the brand and their ability to compete on merit rather than just price. Samyang’s first generation of autofocus lenses featured great optical performances that were often held back by the company’s inexperience with autofocus design. Samyang has wisely capitalized on the strength of those optical designs by releasing this lineup of Series II lenses that often take those optical formulas (with perhaps some minor tweaks) and release them in new lenses that showcase their progress in autofocus and feature design. The Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II is a perfect example of that philosophy. It is a much more complete lens than its predecessor despite being optically similar.
That’s not really a bad thing. This is a very strong lens optically, with great sharpness, good control of various aberrations, and lovely bokeh. It’s a very nice portrait lens that is aided by the improved autofocus accuracy and consistency.
At right under $800 USD this is an unquestionable value, and I see no reason why this lens should not become a favorite among portrait photographers who don’t want to spend well over a thousand dollars to get their portrait lens. This price point allows it to compete with the cheaper F1.8 options as well, as the AF 85II offers that F1.4 “look”, more features, and better weather sealing. Samyang is really hitting their stride as a lens maker, and their Series II lenses are “Exhibit A” as evidence.
Pros:
Nice construction complete with weather sealing
Well executed, smooth manual focus ring
Custom switch and focus hold button adds functionality
Smaller and lighter than competing lenses
Quiet, effective autofocus
Good center sharpness wide open
Excellent sharpness across the frame when stopped down
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Samyang 85 II, Samyang 85 1.4, Samyang 85mm, II, Series II, MK II, AF, Samyang, Rokinon, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II, F1.4II, Samyang AF, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II Review, Review, Dustin Abbott, FE, Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN, FE, Sony 85mm F1.4 GM, Sony 85mm F1.8, Portrait, Sony a7IV, Sony a7III, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7C, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
My excitement over reviewing a new Samyang lens has grown by leaps and bounds over the past three years. In my DSLR days I had treated Samyang much like some of the budget manual focus lens players on the market today (7Artisans, TTArtisan, Brightin Star, etc…). They produced lenses that were sometimes optically interesting but not really at the same level as the big players in terms of build, features, and autofocus. They even sold their lenses under multiple brand names, of which only Samyang and Rokinon remain (yes, Rokinon lenses are the exact same save slightly different badging). But then Samyang started to experiment with autofocus, and, while early results were a little primitive, I saw rapid progress. About 3 ½ years ago I reviewed the first Samyang lens that I thought was truly competitive with the main brands, and it was the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 FE. I subsequently reviewed the Canon RF mount version of the lens and found it even better (they added an AF/MF switch to the design). I added that lens to my own personal Canon kit and still regularly use it today. Today, however, I’m looking at the second generation of Samyang’s “big” prime lenses. I first looked at the Series II version of the AF 50mm F1.4, and found it a major improvement over the first generation lens. Today I’ll be examining the new Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series II. I will subsequently be looking at the new 35mm F1.4 Series II along with the impressive Samyang AF 135mm F1.8.
I’m excited about this Samyang lens as I’ve always appreciated the performance and value of the previous versions of the lens, and now we’ve gotten a more compact size along with new features as a part of the formula. The new version is slimmer and lighter along with some other significant improvements:
Smaller size:
MK 1 88 x 99.5 (D x L) | 568g weight | 77mm filter thread
MK 2 83.4 x 99.5 (D x L) | 509g weight | 72mm filter thread
Slightly improved MFD (0.85 vs 0.90 = 0.12 vs 0.11x)
AF Motor improved to Linear STM (Samyang claims improved performance for video. “Quieter, faster, and more accurate AF performance”
Improved weather sealing – from 3 seal points to 7 seal points
Added Focus Hold Button and Custom Switch
We’ll detail those features further, but clearly Samyang is upping its game in terms of providing lenses that are competitive with third party brands and even with first party options. For now, the AF 85II is only available on Sony FE, though here’s hoping that Canon and Nikon will wake up and allow their customers access to these excellent new lenses. The AF 85mm F1.4 Series II comes at a price point of right under $800 USD, which places it only $200 more than the Sony F1.8 version (my review here) and about $400 cheaper than the lens I consider to be the chief competitor to this lens – the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN ART (my review here).
So is the new Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series II worthy of your consideration if you’re in the market for a new lens? Is it worth the upgrade if you own the previous generation lens? I do my best to answer those questions in my video review or in my text review…or you can just enjoy the photos below.
I want to thank Samyang for sending me a test retail copy of the lens for review. As always, this is a completely independent review. The opinions here are completely my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the new Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here) and the Sony a7IV
Photos of the Samyang 85mm F1.4 Series II
Photos Taken with the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series II
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Samyang 85 II, Samyang 85 1.4, Samyang 85mm, II, Series II, MK II, AF, Samyang, Rokinon, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II, F1.4II, Samyang AF, Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II Review, Review, Dustin Abbott, FE, Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN, FE, Sony 85mm F1.4 GM, Sony 85mm F1.8, Portrait, Sony a7IV, Sony a7III, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7C, Bokeh, Sharpness, Resolution, Video Test, Sample Images, Real World, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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