Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Autofocus Lens for Sony FE

Product Information

It's also the latest Samyang lens to feature auto-focusing, incorporating an Ultrasonic Dual Linear stepping motor for smooth and accurate autofocusing. Samyang AF lenses: More recently, Samyang has brought autofocus prime lenses to the market. Most of these are designed for Sony mirrorless cameras, in full-frame FE-mount. There are currently nine in total, ranging from the AF 14mm f/2.8 FE to the AF 85mm f/1.4 FE, both of which are also available in Canon RF-mount editions. Samyang has additionally created 14mm and 85mm autofocus lenses in Canon EF and Nikon F mount options, but with a different design to the mirrorless lenses.

The Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 FE is comprised of 11 optical elements in 8 groups, including 4 HR (high-resolution) glass elements and 1 ED (extra-low dispersion) glass element. It features a rounded 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to out of focus areas of the image. The Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 FE has a very wide focus ring given the overall size of the lens. There are no hard stops at the ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity. Polariser users should be pleased that the 77mm filter thread doesn't rotate on focus.

Conclusion

We don't list every single Samyang lens in this guide, just those we've tested that are especially interesting to photographers 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!)

The new Samyang has a fast , quiet and precise AF in most cases but it still has occasional issues with eye AF and in burst mode for difficult subjects (see dedicated chapter). The Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art has the best autofocus of the 85 F1.4 , very similar to the Sony FE85mm F1.8

Log in

Sharpness is good rather than insanely great at f/1.4, while defocused areas look beautifully soft and dreamy (Image credit: Matthew Richards) 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 Chromatic aberrations can be quite prevalent towards the edges of the frame at f/1.4, although if you're shooting portraits you may never see this, unless you place high contrast edges towards the periphery. Stopping down reduces any fringing, with fringing falling to more acceptable levels already by f/2. Regardless of the brand name and barrel style, the optics are the same. And Samyang sells the 85mm for every major camera system. You can get it for Canon, Four Thirds, Nikon, Pentax, or Sony SLRs, as well as for Canon, Fuji, Micro Four Thirds, Samsung, and Sony mirrorless cameras. The Nikon version of the lens, which we received for review, supports electronic aperture control, but other mounts only support mechanical aperture control. The lens is not optically stabilized, but it's not a feature that's usually found in 85mm prime lenses.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For still images, keeping a distance equal to the diagonal length of the full image surface is recommended. The full frame sensor of a digital camera is 36 x 24mm and the diagonal length is 43.26mm so any distance close to this number is nearer to the ideal than the currently accepted industry standard of 50mm.

Pros:

The Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art is the worst in term of distortion and vignetting , Samyang are in the middle and the best is the Sony GM We test lenses using both real world sample images and lab tests. Our lab tests are carried out scientifically in controlled conditions using the Imatest testing suite, which consists of custom charts and analysis software that measures resolution in line widths/picture height, a measurement widely used in lens and camera testing. We find the combination of lab and real-word testing works best, as each reveals different qualities and characteristics.

Surprisingly the new Samyang 85 F1.4 II that I have tested is a bit less good than V1, Surely due to sample variation from one lens to another one. The Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art stays the king sharpness and has no issues at all with the A7RIV . The Sony FE85mm F1.4 GM is quite behind and less good than the Samyang on the A7RIV and should be limited to 42Mpix max The Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art is the smallest and 2nd in term of weight after the Samyang, 10% smaller than the Sony FE85mm F1.4 GM and 25% lighter Quand on ferme , dès F2 on voit les 9 lames du diaphragme et dans certaines occasions des franges sur les bordsThe blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. E Mount AF Auto Focus Weather Sealing Ultra Multi Coating Linear Super sonic Motor Beautiful Bokeh 9 Aperture Blades HR Lens ED F1.4 A little pincushion distortion is revealed by our lab tests but it’s generally quite hard to spot in real-world shots. Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4: Verdict Optical construction is 11 elements in 8 groups, including 1 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) and 4 HR (High Refractive Index). The diaphragm comprises 9 blades and produces a circular aperture, to improve the bokeh. Samyang also claims that the absence of aspheric elements in the design means that there is no distortion to the bokeh, resulting in perfectly rounded, out-of-focus highlights.