Samyang are really taking the camera lens world by storm at
the moment – their Xeen cine lenses are revitalising the filmmaking
world, the high
quality XP lenses have been very well received and that line has just
expanded to support Nikon. The AF line-up has also gone from strength to
strength. First in the autofocus
roster came the excellent
AF 50mm f1.4 FE (review
HERE), shortly followed by the
AF 14mm f2.8 FE (review
HERE) and then earlier this year they released the ‘Tiny but Mighty’
AF 35mm f2.8 FE
(review
HERE) which travels with me everywhere. I’ve been fortunate enough to test all
of the AF lenses and provide sample images for Samyang so far. When I was told
that there was another lens coming and I would be testing it I was naturally
very excited to see what focal length it was, the specs and the design of it.
Samyang's brand new AF 35mm f1.4 FE will be going head to head with the
Sony Zeiss Distagon 35mm f1.4
which retails on Amazon for £1299. Samyang is following suit with their
other AF lenses by offering great quality optics at a much more
affordable price point. This lens will retail at just £599, less than
half the price of the Zeiss. Unfortunately I was unable to get hold of
the Zeiss to do a comparison.
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| Lens Specs |
This brand new Samyang weighs in at 705g (including lens hood and cap). It
comes with a plastic lens hood and has a 67mm filter thread. For the interior
construction of the lens there are 11 elements in 9 groups, 2 aspherical lenses, 2 high-refractive lenses, plus Ultra Multi Coating and it features a rounded 9 blade diaphragm which creates silky,
smooth ‘Bokeh’ (out of focus areas of the image). It has a minimum focusing
distance of 0.30m (1.47 feet), a maximum magnification of 0.17x. The lens features an aperture range of f1.4 through to f16. This lens is designed with full frame users in mind but as with all of Samyang's AF lenses this lens is still compatible with cropped sensor bodies. On a full frame camera you get a 65.5
° angle of view and a a 45.2
° angle on a cropped sensor. It's worth noting that this lens is not weather sealed.
The brand new AF 35mm f1.4 FE from Samyang
comes with the tag line "Absolute Resolution" and will have many
photographers excited due to it's wide f1.4 maximum aperture which will
allow faster shutter speeds or lower ISO values in low light conditions.
This lens
produces stunning bokeh which allows the
photographer to separate their subject nicely from the
background/foreground with shallow depth of field.
From my time beta-testing
the pre-production model I found that the lens resolves really well even
at wide open apertures. It delivers crisp, sharp images
throughout the
aperture range as you can see from my selection of images below. There
was some slight vignetting in the corners when shot wide open. Chromatic
aberration (CA) is kept to a minimum due to the number of elements in
the lens' construction and as such I didn't notice any during my time
with it. However, as mentioned in my previous reviews CA is quite an
easy fix in Lightroom with a click of a mouse. I've used this lens on a
couple of food shoots so far and love the bokeh it produces. A good
example can be seen in the burger shot towards the bottom of the review which I shot for
Wildwood Restaurants. This lens is more than capable of capturing beautifully detailed images at a versatile focal length. The affordability makes this a great alternative to the otherwise expensive Zeiss 35mm f1.4. I wonder what will be next for Samyang.
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| 1/100th sec, f1.4, ISO 400 |
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| 1/160th sec, f8, ISO 100 |
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| 1/320th sec, f5.6, ISO 100 |
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| 1/800th sec, f2.8, ISO 100 |
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| 1/2000th sec, f1.4, ISO 100 |
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| 1/5000th sec, f1.4, ISO 100 |
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| 1/160th sec, f3.5, ISO 100 |
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| 1/640th sec, f5, ISO 100 |
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| 1/2500th sec, f2, ISO 100 |
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| 1/400th sec, f5.6, ISO 100 |
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| 1/6400th sec, f1.4, ISO 100 |
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| 1/5000th sec, f1.4, ISO 100 |
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| 1/2500th sec, f1.7, ISO 100 |
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| 1/800th sec, f2.5, ISO 100 |
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| 1/320th sec, f1.4, ISO 100 |
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| 1/125th sec, f1.4, ISO 100 |
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| 1/60th sec, f4, ISO 50 |
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| 1/5th sec, f2, ISO 50 |
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| 1/320th sec, f1.7, ISO 200 |
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for part 2 of the review where I look at AF performance of the lens.
I'd like to once again thank Karin and all involved at Samyang Korea for sending
the lens out to me for testing.
For more information on Samyang products please take a look at their website -
samyanglensglobal.com and subscribe to their newsletter to keep up to date with product news.
Follow me on my social media channels:
Samyang’s UK distributor has loaned me this lens station to update my
lenses. The dock currently retails at £49.99 and is available from Amazon or check for other retailers here. I will also take you through the process and detail my thoughts
on the improvements made by the firmware updates in each lens. Unfortunately I only have three out of the four AF lenses that Samyang have released so far - AF 50mm f1.4 FE, AF 35mm f1.4 FE and the AF 35mm f2.8 FE. Although I've tested the AF 14mm f2.8 FE, I didn't get to keep it so I can't comment on the firmware update for this lens.
