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| Samyang 85mm f1.2 XP |
I must be doing something right... Samyang have once again sent me another
lens to test out. This time their brand new
85mm f1.2 XP lens. Originally marketed
as their Premium line of lenses Samyang recently officially launched the
branding of the new XP (eXcellence in Performance) lenses which offer
unprecedented resolving power. These lenses keep up with 50MP sensor or 8K
video resolution. The new line-up of lenses consists of this 85mm lens and the
14mm f2.4 (which I recently tested and reviewed - review found
HERE). The pricing for each lens has
recently been announced and in the UK will be £899.00 including VAT. A very
decent price for the 85mm f1.2 considering the only current named brand
competitor is from Canon and is priced at £1649 for the
85mm f1.2L II USM. The other cheaper
option is the
Mitakon Speedmaster 85mm f1.2 from
ZhongYi Optics which has mixed reviews from what I've seen and is priced around
£600.
Until testing this lens the widest aperture I'd ever shot with was f1.4 on
Samyang's stellar
AF 50mm lens. F1.2 is wider still but
at a longer focal length so the depth of field wide open would be very thin
indeed depending on distance from subject of course. 85mm is considered to be
an excellent focal length for portraiture as it isn't wide enough to distort
facial features but long enough to
compress the subject and
background.
Specs
Build quality for this lens is as you can imagine very similar to the 14mm
f2.4 XP that I recently tested. It's made of aluminium alloy so is very solid.
It has a similar long throw rubber focus ring like the 14mm f2.4 XP that I
recently tested. Great for focussing on your subject precisely. However the
rubber does attract dust a little but not much of an issue as it can be cleaned
fairly easily. Weighing in at 1050g this lens is quite a heavy piece of glass
compared to the 791g of the 14mm f2.4. The 85mm has less glass than the 14mm
and is made up of 10 elements in 7 groups - including one aspherical lens and
two high refractive lenses. It has a minimum focus distance of 0.8m and a
filter thread diameter of 86mm so a very wide front element but what do you
expect for a lens with a maximum aperture of f1.2? The design of the lens
is in line with the 14mm f2.4 which shares a similarity with the Zeiss Milvus
range of lenses. The 85mm differs from the 14mm where it has a detachable lens
hood which is made of high quality plastic. Initially this lens will be
available in Canon EF mount only but hopefully Samyang will add Nikon and Sony
mounts to their line-up in the not too distant future to satisfy the majority
of the market. However, I have read somewhere that it would not be possible to
make this lens for Sony E-mount due to the bayonet not being wide enough to be
able to do f1.2. I hope that this isn't the case.
Conclusion
When I first started using the lens I found it a little difficult to nail
focus at f1.2 but due to the excellent
focus
peaking built in to the Sony A7 series cameras this was made a lot easier. I
was quickly amazed at how much light this lens allowed into the camera when
wide open. It allowed me to use faster shutters speeds or lower ISOs in certain
situations whereas before it wouldn’t have been possible for me to shoot the
image at the same quality. Of course at a wider aperture you get a shallower
depth of field but this adds to create an overall dreamy look to any image in
my opinion.
Bokeh (out of
focus area) is silky smooth at higher apertures (from f2.8 – f1.2) but
sharpness of image is crisp on the in-focus subject. As is the case with pretty
much all lenses apertures around f8 yield the sharpest results (See below test
images comparing the aperture range). There is some slight vignetting or light
fall-off when using higher apertures from f4 – f1.2. The high quality metal
construction of the lens feels solid and is excellent giving you peace of mind that you are
buying something that is built to last. Along with the 14mm f2.4 XP this 85mm
XP lens has very low
chromatic aberration but as I’ve said in previous reviews I
don’t deem it to be an issue as it can be quickly corrected in Lightroom.
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| Size in hand (I don't have the biggest of hands) |
One thing that I found a little frustrating while using this test model lens
is that the 'handshake' between the lens and
Commlite
adapter or Commlite adapter and camera body would frequently become
un-validated so that the camera wouldn't fire. This is most probably down to
using it with an adapter which possibly isn't recommended due to the weight of
the lens and the strain it must put on the contacts of the adapter on both the
camera body connection and adapter to lens connection. However, this problem
never stopped me from getting the shots I needed and I highly doubt whether
this would be an issue on a native Canon body. I seemed to have better luck
when using it with the Commlite adapter mounted to a tripod.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you enjoyed my review. More sample images
are below. Please check out my
Facebook page and
website
for more of my work or follow me on
Flickr.
Both XP lenses are currently available in the UK via
Intro 2020. Check your country’s
stockists for further information on availability and try them out.
Build quality for this lens is as you can imagine very similar to the 14mm
f2.4 XP that I recently tested. It's made of aluminium alloy so is very solid.
It has a similar long throw rubber focus ring like the 14mm f2.4 XP that I
recently tested. Great for focussing on your subject precisely. However the
rubber does attract dust a little but not much of an issue as it can be cleaned
fairly easily. Weighing in at 1050g this lens is quite a heavy piece of glass
compared to the 791g of the 14mm f2.4. The 85mm has less glass than the 14mm
and is made up of 10 elements in 7 groups - including one aspherical lens and
two high refractive lenses. It has a minimum focus distance of 0.8m and a
filter thread diameter of 86mm so a very wide front element but what do you
expect for a lens with a maximum aperture of f1.2? The design of the lens
is in line with the 14mm f2.4 which shares a similarity with the Zeiss Milvus
range of lenses. The 85mm differs from the 14mm where it has a detachable lens
hood which is made of high quality plastic. Initially this lens will be
available in Canon EF mount only but hopefully Samyang will add Nikon and Sony
mounts to their line-up in the not too distant future to satisfy the majority
of the market. However, I have read somewhere that it would not be possible to
make this lens for Sony E-mount due to the bayonet not being wide enough to be
able to do f1.2. I hope that this isn't the case.
Excellent review, thanks! Do you plan to release any full res pictures for the pixel peepers out there? Cheers!
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