Samyang 85mm F1.8 ED UMC CS Lens Review

Samyang 85mm f1.8 ED UMC CS on my Sony A7R

Samyang have kind of surprised me a little with this one. Their recent roster of released lenses reads with an impressive array of AF lenses and high performance, manual focus XP lenses all for full frame cameras but on this occasion it’s a manual focus lens for APS-C (cropped sensor) cameras. I would have bet good money that following on from the recent release of the Canon mount AF 85mm f1.4 EF that Samyang would then bring out a similar lens for Sony E-mount with the additional extension to make up the flange distance lost due to the lack of a mirror in mirrorless cameras. I was wrong!

Size in hand (I don't have the biggest of hands)

Recently announced with the tagline "Create New Possibilites - Everything from portrait to street photography" this brand new Samyang 85mm f1.8 will find a gap in the market as there isn’t any competition for fast aperture (cropped sensor only) 85mm lenses. There are plenty of full frame options (which still work on APS-C camera bodies) out there such as Sony’s 85mm f1.4 Gmaster lens (£1649), Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 (£935) or Sony’s 85mm f1.8 (£599). However, the first two of these lenses (Gmaster and the Batis) are very pricey. This Samyang lens will be released at a SRP of £319.99 which will appeal to Sony APS-C shooters as this is relatively inexpensive compared to it's competition. Samyang achieves this by leaving out features like autofocus, weather sealing and full frame capability but as a result the lens remains quite compact for a lens of this focal length and aperture. 

The fairly compact lens is made up of 9 elements in 7 groups including one High Refractive Index element and one Extra Low Dispersion element. All elements have Samyang's UMC (Ultra Multi Coating) which helps reduce chromatic aberration and flare. It features a 9-bladed manual diaphragm so the aperture is not recorded in the EXIF of each image, something which made remembering the settings for each test shot that I took pretty difficult. It has a minimum focus distance of 0.65m, a magnification ratio of x0.17 and weighs in at 344g for the Sony e-mount version. It has a 62mm thread for the use of filters and comes with a plastic lens hood. An 85mm lens on a Sony cropped sensor gives a real world/35mm equivalent focal length of 127.5mm or 19.1° so is ideally suited to portrait photography. This lens is also available for the following mounts: Fujifilm X, Canon M and MFT.

Build quality of the lens is very good and it features a metal lens mount. The focus ring is smooth with a lot of travel so you can really nail the focus. The manual aperture ring moves with pleasing half a stop clicks. I was very surprised by the sharpness and detail that this lens is capable of capturing even though I had to use my camera in crop mode so as a result lost quite a lot of megapixels. I'd imagine that this lens would work great on a dedicated APS-C camera like the A6500 which has 24.2 megapixels so you'd see even more detail and have the ability to crop in more if needed. The bokeh produced by this lens is beautiful and due to the relatively wide aperture and long focal distance you can really isolate your subject from the foreground/background.


This lens can be a little tricky to use due to it's reasonably long focal distance and lack of autofocus so it makes shooting some subjects very difficult especially things in motion. In my case with some of the sample images that I've shot I've had to judge where some points of focus were going to be before capturing the image with perfect timing (see punchbag image where you can even see drops of sweat coming off the fighter as he throws the punch).

As usual I've kept the waffle to a minimum so as to let the images speak for the lens's capabilities. The only e-mount camera that I own is the Sony A7R so as a result all images have been shot in the camera's Crop/APS-C mode. This brings the resolution of the images down quite a bit but is still a very respectable 15.3 megapixels. Check out the images below.

1/500th sec, f1.8, ISO 250

1/3200th sec, f1.8, ISO 100

1/160th sec, f1.8, ISO 50

1/160th sec, f4, ISO 100

1/160th sec, f3.5, ISO 64

1/160th sec, f4, ISO 100

1/160th sec, f4.5, ISO 64

1/160th sec, f4.5, ISO 64

1/160th sec, f5.6, ISO 64

1/250th sec, f4, ISO 100

1/1250th sec, f1.8, ISO 100

1/320th sec, f1.8, ISO 100

1/640th sec, f1.8, ISO 100

1/8000th sec, f1.8, ISO 250 (should have dropped the ISO)

Thanks for reading!

Check out my reviews for some of the other Samyang lenses for Sony E-mount below:

Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 FE review
Samyang AF 14mm f2.8 FE review
Samyang AF 35mm f2.8 FE review
Samyang AF 35mm f1.4 FE review (Part 1)
Samyang AF 35mm f1.4 FE review (Part 2)


I'd like to thank Alice 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.

Special thanks to Gary at Forge Fitness & Boxing for giving me access to shoot at the gym and also to Cage Warriors Middleweight fighter Lee Chadwick for starring in the action shots.

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Samyang AF 24mm f2.8 FE Review

Samyang have done it again! They've followed up their widely successful 'Tiny but mighty' AF 35mm f2.8 FE lens with another pocket sized, lightweight yet well-built lens.

Samyang AF 24mm f2.8 FE mounted on my Sony A7R

Back last year Samyang added to their line-up of autofocus lenses by bringing out the AF 35mm f2.8 FE lens (again for Sony E-mount). This lens is tiny but it certainly is more than capable of producing great images. It's no surprise that the AF 35mm f2.8 went on to win a TIPA World Award 2018 as best CSC Prime Lens. Read my review of this lens here.

Samyang's first new Sony E-mount lens for 2018 is this AF 24mm f2.8 FE which comes with the tagline "Tiny But Wide". Weighing in at a very lean 93g (without lens cap and hood) and with very similar dimensions as the AF 35mm f2.8 it's safe to say that Samyang are trying to follow the same successful "formula" and continue making small but great lenses.

Sony A7R along with all Samyang AF lenses (AF 24mm f2.8 bottom-right)

I must admit that 24mm is a focal length that I don't use very often. I have a 24-70mm f2.8 Zeiss lens that I use but not too frequently at the wide end. However, as this lens is so small, lightweight and won't take up much room alongside some of my other kit, I can't see a reason why I wouldn't take it everywhere with me as I have done with my AF 35mm f2.8 FE since I initially tested it last year.

AF 24mm f2.8 FE with lens pouch

Samyang's second "Pancake" lens has a similar size and design as the AF 35mm f2.8 but has a slightly larger focus ring. It also comes with a detachable lens hood, has a 49mm filter thread and an 82.1° field of view on full frame cameras and 60° or 36mm on APS-C (cropped sensor) cameras. The lens is made up of 7 elements in 7 groups, including 3 aspherical lenses, 2 high-refractive lenses, plus Ultra Multi Coating which improves clarity and sharpness of images whilst reducing ghosting and lens flare. It has 7 aperture blades and a minimum focus distance of 0.24m. It also ships with the same compact lens pouch as the AF 35mm f2.8 which comes in handy if you want to just take this lens with you in your pocket.

Size comparison - AF 24mm f2.8 FE & AF 35mm f2.8 FE

This Samyang lens will enter the market up against very little in terms of direct competition for Sony E-mount full frame prime lenses. Aside from Samyang's manual focus 24mm f1.4 and their 24mm f3.5 Tilt-shift lens the only other full frame 24mm prime lens available in E-mount is Sigma's ART 24mm f1.4 which costs around £800.00. The Sony Zeiss 24mm f1.8 which costs around £800.00 on Amazon but is only compatible with APS-C sensor cameras so not really a direct competitor. There's also the Zeiss Batis 25mm f2 which offers a similar focal length with a slightly wider maximum aperture. However the Zeiss Batis is another big, heavy lens and is somewhat expensive in comparison to the Samyang as it costs around £1,000.00. This new lens from Samyang is a lot smaller than both the Sigma and the Batis and because of that has a narrower maximum aperture. The difference in price is also hugely appealing with the Samyang SRP at £279.99 which is a fraction of the cost of the Sigma.

The Samyang AF 24mm f2.8 FE mounted on a Sony A7 series camera makes for a very lightweight and powerful combo.

As you can see from the five images below taken at different apertures the lens performs very well throughout the aperture range. However there is noticeable vignetting at f2.8 and f22. F5.6 has less vignetting with the "sweet spot" of the lens coming in unsurprisingly at f8.

Conclusion

AF 24mm f2.8 & AF 35mm f2.8 - perfect for travel photography

During my time with this lens so far I have been very impressed with how fast and accurate the autofocus performs, even in low light. The fastest of all of the AF lenses by Samyang so far. I think it says a lot that this lens performs so well even on my Sony A7R given the unreasonably bad AF performance of that particular camera when it comes to moving subjects due to it only having the vastly inferior contrast detection AF system. Undoubtedly this lens will perform even better and far more accurately on a later model Sony A7 series camera like the A7iii, the A9 or even an A6XXX series APS-C camera with a phase detection autofocus system. A possible downside to the lens for some photographers may be that due to it's size it doesn't feature a distance or depth of field scale. This lens also lacks weather sealing. Samyang's AF lenses (AF 14mm f2.8 EF & AF 85mm f1.4 EF) for Canon have both featured a rubber weather sealing gasket at the rear of the lens. Maybe this could be something that Samyang introduce on future Sony E-mount lenses. However, this lens is very enjoyable to shoot with partly down to it being so compact and light weight but also the stunning, detailed images that it can produce. It does show some signs of chromatic aberration but this can be easily combatted with a simple click in Lightroom or other editing software. Despite being a lens with a relatively wide focal length it produces pleasing bokeh (out of focus areas) but you need to position the lens pretty close to your subject to get a shallow depth of field with the background. The lens is focus by wire and seems pretty responsive when in manual focus. This lens will no doubt appeal to travel and street photographers looking to carry a compact, lightweight yet well-performing lens and at a very competitive price point. I have a feeling that this lens will do very well for Samyang.

Check out the images below. All test images were taken with my Sony A7R.

1/500th sec, f5, ISO 100

1/800th sec, f3.5, ISO 100

1/125th sec, f4, ISO 100

1/2500th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/250th sec, f4, ISO 200

1/40th sec, f8, ISO 160

1/3200th sec, f4, ISO 100

1/1000th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/250th sec, f4.5, ISO 100

1/200th sec, f4, ISO 100

1/2000th sec, f4, ISO 160

1/1600th sec, f4, ISO 160

1/2000th sec, f3.2, ISO 160

1/1000th sec, f6.3, ISO 250

1/500th sec, f3.5, ISO 250

1/1600th sec, f3.5, ISO 250

1/2500th sec, f3.5, ISO 320

1/640th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/500th sec, f10, ISO 100

1/2500th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/1000th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/400th sec, f9, ISO 100

1/3200th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/1600th sec, f2.8, ISO 100

1/1000th sec, f3.2, ISO 100

1/250th sec, f8, ISO 100

1/125th sec, f5.6, ISO 100

A week after the AF 24mm f2.8 FE was announced Samyang also announced their second AF lens for Canon mount - the AF 85mm f1.4 EF. I hope that Samyang also bring this lens to Sony E-mount as I know how successful this lens could prove for them. Time will tell I guess.

Thanks for reading!

Check out my reviews for the rest of Samyang's AF lens line-up for Sony E-mount below:

Samyang AF 50mm f1.4 FE review
Samyang AF 14mm f2.8 FE review
Samyang AF 35mm f2.8 FE review
Samyang AF 35mm f1.4 FE review (Part 1)
Samyang AF 35mm f1.4 FE review (Part 2)

I'd like to thank Alice 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:

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FACEBOOK
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Take a look at some other reviews of the AF 24mm f2.8 FE lens via these links:

Hanna Saba - Samyang 24mm f2.8 AF review
Christopher Frost - Samyang AF 24mm f/2.8 FE lens review with samples (Full-frame & APS-C)