Samyang 85mm f/1.4

sammyd56

sammyd56

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EDIT: My review, including sample images and 100% crops: http://www.samdobsonphotography.com/samyang-85mm-f1-4-review-nikon/

Saw a post on nikonrumours this morning about this cheap Korean lens, and after reading some very glowing reviews I pulled the trigger on it. Here are some of the articles I read before making the decision:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1030&thread=31403989
http://www.jsvfoto.com/Home/faqs/nikkor85mmf14aisvspolar85mmf14/nikkorpolarreview
http://translate.google.com/transla...ml&hl=pl&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=ISO-8859-2
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/...9-review-samyang-85mm-f1-4-aspherical-if.html

Shrewd customer with an eye for a bargain, or idiot who just blew £200 on a MF lens which doesn't even meter on his camera?

Discuss.

:LOL:
 
Personally if you're spending that kind of money, want 85mm f/1.4 and don't mind MF, I would have gone for a Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AI-S. That's just me though.
 
Finally got my hands on it today, and wow! What a beauty!

Here's the first real shot I took with it, more to follow :)

f1.4, 1/100, ISO 800, no NR
Edit: Probably best to look at CT's sharpened version below
 
Well that looks as soft as Hell, but it's hardly surprising - any image reduced in size will need resharpening regardless of what lens you use, so this example isn't going to sell many lenses. ;)

This is with one shot of the sharpen filter in PSP.

3599437390_6f98c2701f_o.jpg


Pretty impressive I have to say having looked at some of the other examples in those links too. (y)
 
I looked at these before I bought my Nikon 85mm F1.8 - only noticed at the last second that they are manual focus... nearly pulled the trigger on it, but the no AF put me right off it... seems to get very good reviews though.
 
DekHog said:
I looked at these before I bought my Nikon 85mm F1.8 - only noticed at the last second that they are manual focus... nearly pulled the trigger on it, but the no AF put me right off it... seems to get very good reviews though.
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I figured auto-focus wasn't all that important at such a large aperture. Plus, another bonus over the Nikon versions:

As there's no metering you have full manual control of video :D

Will post some examples of ISO 200 shortly and they should be even more impressive
 
sammyd56 said:
Shrewd customer with an eye for a bargain, or idiot who just blew £200 on a MF lens which doesn't even meter on his camera?
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Well, as a Canon user and with Kerso selling the fully functional EF 85 1.8 for £285, I would say the latter. Since you ask ;)
 
DekHog said:
I looked at these before I bought my Nikon 85mm F1.8 - only noticed at the last second that they are manual focus... nearly pulled the trigger on it, but the no AF put me right off it... seems to get very good reviews though.
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Why would MF put you off?

There are some excellent Nikon AI-S lenses you could be missing out on...
 
sdb123 said:
Why would MF put you off?
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...because I've normally got a hundred other things to think about when I'm shooting and don't need to be worrying about 'is it properly focused or not' as well... it doesn't really matter that it's F1.4; manual focusing on a crop sensor DSLR is still an awkward experience unless you're at or near minimum focus distance with good light...depends what and how you shoot I suppose.
 
DekHog said:
...because I've normally got a hundred other things to think about when I'm shooting and don't need to be worrying about 'is it properly focused or not' as well... it doesn't really matter that it's F1.4; manual focusing on a crop sensor DSLR is still an awkward experience unless you're at or near minimum focus distance with good light...depends what and how you shoot I suppose.
Click to expand...

Good point from DekHog. Manual focusing with a crop sensor viewfinder is very hard indeed. They are much smaller and dimmer than full frame. Completely different.

Thankfully modern AF is really very good. I've been using Live View for some tripod stuff, and when you put that up to max magnification it is possible to manually focus with extreme accuracy. But the AF on my 40D nails it absolutely spot on every time, no messing :)

Seriously, anybody that thinks they can manually focus, through a crop camera viewfinder, with the same accuracy as AF, every time, is kidding themselves. And as for speed, well that's tortoise and hare.
 
Yes, well MF can be fun, is generally cheaper, easier on the batteries and if folks with better viewfinders want to slow down and go retro, good luck to `em.

One of the links I posted contained advice about why this particular lens may not be a sensible choice for Canon users.
 
I personally really enjoy manual focus.

However for the price of this, it strikes me that generally a Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 or a Canon 85mm f/1.8 would probably be better choices for most people.

Optically I've seen some very nice shots from the Samyang.
 
Mike.P said:
I also do a lot of manual focus, its not at all hard with a crop sensor but must admit for the extra £80 I would have gone for a AF lens if available just for the choice of focus.
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But you're a macro man! Macro is different, you have to MF with macro ;)
 
DekHog said:
...because I've normally got a hundred other things to think about when I'm shooting and don't need to be worrying about 'is it properly focused or not' as well... it doesn't really matter that it's F1.4; manual focusing on a crop sensor DSLR is still an awkward experience unless you're at or near minimum focus distance with good light...depends what and how you shoot I suppose.
Click to expand...

Glad you put that last point, MF never bothered me on cropped-sensor camera's. :)
 
HoppyUK said:
But you're a macro man! Macro is different, you have to MF with macro ;)
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Macro has probably helped me a lot with manual focus but these were mostly taken in Spain a few months ago with a Adaptall 2 70-210mm f3.5 manual focus lens.

For what you would use a 85mm f1.4 for (portrait etc) manual wouldn't be much of an issue ... something like motorsport with a 300mm would be another thing though (although my 300mm f2.8 is MF and weighs over 3kg).
 
don't see the point of this lens over the AF 1.8 from nikon or canon. the canon/nikon mount is totally defunct as you have to use stop down metering and there is no automatic iris control. if it had contacts to control the iris like the Zeiss version then it would be an attractive buy for those you don't mind MF.

I considered buying this lens for a long time but choose not to bother because of the lack of iris control. having used old Zeiss lenses in the past I was never happy with the operation.

the samyang also seems to be designed for wide open activities as it does not excel when stopped down. I don't always want stupidly thin DOF
 
POAH said:
don't see the point of this lens over the AF 1.8 from nikon or canon. the canon/nikon mount is totally defunct as you have to use stop down metering and there is no automatic iris control.
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Totally forgot about that, not something I have to worry about but why save £80 buying a manual lens if you cant use stop down metering or auto aperture.
 
Why are we comparing this to the Nikon 1.8? :thinking:

The Nikon 1.4 is £867 on CPB, that's a £667 saving for a lens with arguably better performance. :eek:

As for the lack of AF, I'm quite new to photography so I may be wrong, but don't you have to use MF for portraits at this kind of aperture anyway to avoid focusing on the nose? The MF ring by the way has a great action and feel.

I agree that it isn't easy to nail the focus with a DX viewfinder, however the D90's LV is fantastic!

don't see the point of this lens over the AF 1.8
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Me no think you did much research ;) Check out the links already posted.

Enough chat, more pictures :D

All at f1.4. Focus isn't perfect on these, bear in mind this is my first full day with an MF lens:

3601981290_f1dafb4512_o.jpg


3601981374_d5593d5ae5_o.jpg


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3601167703_e25a37a5a8_o.jpg


3601167791_293a97b143_o.jpg


3601981552_9ed73fdcfb_o.jpg
 
It's nice looking at web sized pictures, but some 100% crops would go a long way to show what this lens is capable of.
 
comparing it to the 1.8 because it's not that significantly cheaper for not much of an increase in aperture. The 1.8 ha AF, it comunicates with the camera and is sharper once stopped down.

if you shoot snap shots of garden taps and need the slight amount of DOF difference then the samyang f1.4 seems a good deal but not everyone that buys a prime uses it wide open. I'd not shoot a model at f1.4, the DOF is too thin.



sammyd56 said:
Why are we comparing this to the Nikon 1.8? :thinking:

The Nikon 1.4 is £867 on CPB, that's a £667 saving for a lens with arguably better performance. :eek:

As for the lack of AF, I'm quite new to photography so I may be wrong, but don't you have to use MF for portraits at this kind of aperture anyway to avoid focusing on the nose? The MF ring by the way has a great action and feel.

I agree that it isn't easy to nail the focus with a DX viewfinder, however the D90's LV is fantastic!



Me no think you did much research ;) Check out the links already posted.

Enough chat, more pictures :D

All at f1.4. Focus isn't perfect on these, bear in mind this is my first full day with an MF lens:

3601981290_f1dafb4512_o.jpg


3601981374_d5593d5ae5_o.jpg


3601167923_23f267b71f_o.jpg


3601167703_e25a37a5a8_o.jpg


3601167791_293a97b143_o.jpg


3601981552_9ed73fdcfb_o.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I'm intrigued by the lens threads on DPR and here, and if I were feeling more inclined I'd try it. I'm usually the first to advocate the meaninglessness of a single stop difference between lenses - especially as the sensors can do all the low light work for you nowadays - but with this lens, it's fairer to compare it with the similar 1.4's.

All the 1.4's command hefty price premiums over the 1.8's, regardless of manufacturer. If Samyang produced a £75 85mm f/1.8, then it'd be a fairer comparison. Although it's not a full stop, 1.4 is a significantly larger aperture than 1.8 given the logarithmic nature of the f/stop scale.
 
i think you'd need very good eyes to focus close portraits manually at these kinds of appertures.
 
Web images or not, I have to agree that it looks like a very good performer if you can hack the MF, no doubt about it - as long as you're happy with it, and no reason why you shouldn't be looking at the images, that's all that counts... :D
 
I confess I'm also amazed by the quality of this lens. Checking the links you posted in here and this samples, I think the results look as sharp (or even sharper) as those produced by a Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm f/1.4 wide open. The "bokeh" isn't as good, neither the colours, but still excellent.
This seems to be a very nice deal.
 
1.4 to 2 is one whole stop. It's a common error to think that 1.8 is the next step up.
Here's the math behind f/stops:


The square root of two is 1.41

1.41 to the power zero = 1
1.41 to the power 1 = 1.41 [so we start to round to one decimal place] = 1.4
1.41 to the power 2 = 2 [or 1.41, the square root of 2, squared]
1.41 to the power 3 = 2.8
1.41 to the power 4 = 4
1.41 to the power 5 = 5.6
1.41 to the power 6 = 8


...and so on. f/1.4 is twice as big a hole as f/2, hence the need to halve the shutter speed.
 
Ok cool I thought f1.8 to f1.4 was half a stop thereby f2 to f1.4 was 1 and a half but f1.8 to f2 must be half a stop as well, makes sense really.

i still want a f1.4 35mm lens :(
 
fontmoss said:
i still want a f1.4 35mm lens :(
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This last week I bought a Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 (C/Y), made in Germany.
I can't wait to receive it! :love:

I used to have the Leica Summicron 35mm f/2.0 (E55), which was also amazing.

Since you use Nikon system, you can't wrong with the Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 Ai-S. ;)
 
POAH said:
comparing it to the 1.8 because it's not that significantly cheaper for not much of an increase in aperture. The 1.8 ha AF, it comunicates with the camera and is sharper once stopped down.
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It's cheaper, and sharper at large apertures. But please yourself ;) As for the stopped-down sharpness (which I've yet to test) who buys a f1.4 lens to stop it down? :thinking:

Must say I'm somewhat surprised by the negative reaction :shrug:
 
sammyd56 said:
It's cheaper, and sharper at large apertures. But please yourself ;) As for the stopped-down sharpness (which I've yet to test) who buys a f1.4 lens to stop it down? :thinking:

Must say I'm somewhat surprised by the negative reaction :shrug:
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Why surprised? Especially when you pitched the OP in the way that you did ;)

If this lens was £100, it would be different, but it's actually not that far off the cost of a 'proper' lens, as I posted earlier (Canon 85 1.8 £285 from Kerso). And more than twice the price of a nifty 50 :shrug: All that faffing around for half a stop :eek:
 
HoppyUK said:
it's actually not that far off the cost of a 'proper' lens
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I was going to forego the brand snobbery thing but I can't let that comment go unchallenged, do you mean to say that because Samyang isn't an establish name this isn't a 'proper' lens? :bonk:

Why surprised? Especially when you pitched the OP in the way that you did
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Because all the evidence presented suggest that it is both optically superior and cheaper than... ahem... the equivalent 'proper' lenses.
 
sammyd56 said:
I was going to forego the brand snobbery thing but I can't let that comment go unchallenged, do you mean to say that because Samyang isn't an establish name this isn't a 'proper' lens? :bonk:

Because all the evidence presented suggest that it is both optically superior and cheaper than... ahem... the equivalent 'proper' lenses.
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It isn't a 'proper' lens because it doesn't function properly.

Better than the very highly regarded Canon 85 1.8 in what way? Half a stop faster? I'll give you that ;)

And I can see why you like this lens, but it's never, ever, going on my shortlist. I can be a brand snob with the best of 'em, but in this case that's not it at all. It's a bit of a novelty/joke lens IMO. Sorry :D
 
Don't be sorry mate, I feel sorry for you thinking that because a lens doesn't meter or focus automatically it's a 'joke' lens! :LOL:

Also, in case you haven't noticed I am a Nikon shooter so I'm not really bothered about canon lenses! :thinking:
 
sammyd56 said:
Don't be sorry mate, I feel sorry for you thinking that because a lens doesn't meter or focus automatically it's a 'joke' lens! :LOL:

Also, in case you haven't noticed I am a Nikon shooter so I'm not really bothered about canon lenses! :thinking:
Click to expand...

Don't be sorry for me! I'm happy that I haven't got one.

If you're cool with it, and you obviously are, then I'm happy twice over. Enjoy bud :)
 
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