Samyang has announced the AF 85mm F1.4 FE, an autofocus prime lens designed for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras.
The 85mm F1.4 FE is Samyang's sixth autofocus lens for Sony full-frame cameras since first unveiling a pair back in 2016. Powering the autofocus is Samyang's Dual Linear Sonic Motor (DLSM) that uses ultrasonic vibrations to drive the focusing mechanism.
The lens is constructed of 11 elements in 8 groups, including one Extra Low Dispersion (ED) and four High Refractive (HR) elements, and features a nine-blade aperture diaphragm. Its aluminum body is weather sealed to protect against rain and dust and features a Samyang's Ultra Multi Coating (UMC) on its optical elements.
The minimum focusing distance is 0.9m / 1.95ft and uses a 77mm filter thread. It measures in at 99.5mm / 3.9in long and weighs 568g / 1.25lbs. Below is a sample gallery of images provided by Samyang:
Samyang claims the AF 85mm F1.4 FE will be available Spring 2019. Pricing information is not yet available.
0.9m minimum focusing distance is a negative if shooting kids, Batis and Sony 85mm are 0.8m which doesn't seem much of a difference but noticable in real world shooting
I'm not joking! I noticed it on my Batis 85mm when shooting indoors. You notice is way more when shooting toddlers as you naturally get closer to make their smaller heads fill the frame. a 10-15cm reduction in MFD is noticeable in that usage
I agree this can be an issue if you want to shoot just a babies head. Cropping is a fine option but getting to close and having to back away when you realise you're inside the minimum focusing distance can really slow you down.
Still it's a very minor downside to an otherwise stellar lens. Also it's so small a light and reducing the minimum focusing distance would have meant making the lens a bit longer in length.
I have a Samyang 35mm f1.2 for Sony-e APSC and is a superb lens with ridiculous low price, but is all manual, Samyang AF lens... I have not read too good things about the accuracy of AF. But they have not been in this for a short time. I think Samyang is on the right track, they know how to make good lens, without distortion, without aberrations ... if my 35mm f1.2 is so good (the best equivalent 50mm for Sony E APSC ahead of the Sigma 30mm f1.4) I would like to see what their XP series is capable of, which reminds me of Zeiss Loxia and if they manage to transmit this optical quality to their AF line and get a fast and accurate AF, they will be very high.
I've got the Samyang 35/1.4 and Sony's 85/1.8. Both are exceptional lenses for the money. But, rather than replace the Sony with this lens, I'd prefer to replace the Samyang with a smaller & lighter Sony 35/1.8. C'mon, Sony, you can do it!
We have been waiting for that elusive 35mm 1.8 (or f2) for years. Seems Sony, Tamron, Sigma, Tokina and Rokinon got together and decided no one is going to make one for FE.
I have zero interest in the 35 1.8 but waiting for the 35 F1.2, I do have a few 35 2.8 and 1.4. but faster the better. I want two extreme a very small very light lens that's F2.8, and a very very shallow DOF lens, that's the F1.2 and larger.
@CosminMunteanu Yes, that is a great manual focus lens but costs more than $1000USD, the Sony enthusiast crowd deserve an affordable 35mm 1.8 or f2 prime lens. In the meantime, I use the Zeiss ZM 35mm F2 (Borrowed from my Leica) but the corners are pretty bad.
I would consider getting a Sony again if somebody made a budget 35/1.8 FE the size of the Canon 35/1.8 RF (infact a little bit smaller, if the take out the IS). Please no overpriced G/Zeiss/GM badge on it, itll be made in Thailand anyway and have the same QC issues.
The one thing that stops me from buying Samyang AF lenses is the firmware update process which requires their dock. And those are in short supply. Why can't they follow Tamron and update through camera? The Samyang FE 35mm f/1.4 has had multiple updates to improve AF, but first you have to buy the hard-to-come-by dock. Pain in the a**.
another thing that stops me from buying Samyang is their awful quality check. The samyangs I had differed a LOT in quality... So it is always like gambling if you buy a samyang lens. A low price is worth nothing if your lens is not centered right...
Z you say??? Bad af you say??? No sharing of af info to third parties so $$$ gets wasted on reverse engineering making it a non-starter for third parties so gtfo you say???
Sorry Bub. I'm sure just like Tamron, Tokina & Sigma; they're working on it. But, honestly, why should they when Sony wants partners while everyone else has a sandbox?
There is just a single black sheep and that is the Zony 35mm F1.4. But if you search lensrentals long enough you will find a black sheep for every manufacturer
panther fan in the article you posted it says - "The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 G Master lens compares very well with these other top lenses. There’s none of the severe copy-to-copy variation we saw with the Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 lens."
85GM seems as good or as bad as any other top lens in this area.
Thematic - how is that ad hominem relevant? Sony's GM and Zeiss lenses are known for having alot of QC issues. Look at the Sony 85mm 1.4 GM or the Zony 35mm f/1.4. Optically great lenses but let down with poor QC and made in Thailand. For the price one pays it is unacceptable.
This is entirely untrue. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61325392 Other than the 35/1.4 and the 90/2.8 (two of the first FE lenses) no Sony FE lens, including the GM lenses, has exhibited any more sample variation than their Canon and Nikon equivalents. The 35/1.4 was rightly criticized for poor QC, but trolls bring it up as if it is the norm whereas it is actually the exception. It is still an excellent lens, but you just have be careful to check your copy. The other FE lenses are just as reliable as any other brand.
It will take them time to reverse engineer the Nikon and Canon AF. Development takes time. I’m sure you’ll see RF and Z Af lenses from Samyang... but expect to wait a year or 2.
why? First you have to reverse engineering plus secondly the market is much smaler against Sony E so it does not make sense to invest in such a small market. in 2-3 years it will make more sense as the sales would be bigger.
Will be, but need some time, when Sony release the first FF, how many vendor run out of door and release lens for them right away?? how long did it take Sigma to release their first native mount Art lens? and even with that E mount Sigma, it was a SLR lens with built in MC11 not design from ground up Sony mount lens.
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It has (31) just before .jpg in its title. The pic shows a woman in a tan jacket over a blue shirt, handbag over her shoulder. She is turned to her left (face to right of your screen) toward a tall black fence or gate. Some car headlights are out of focus near the left of the frame.
both of the sony fe85 lenses are 20fps af-c capable on the a9, and it would be a real surprise if this Samyang lens can match 20fps af-c... without that, it'll never be apples to apples.
what any user wants and uses is irrelevant to a gear discussion.
and you can't ignore functionality just because people who own weak gear don't get the opportunity to use it... that has nothing to do with a gear discussion.
A new design compared to their DSLR AF 85mm F1.4, new AF-motors and new weathersealing. Seems like an awesome new lens
Competing on the Sony E-mount for 85mm is hard, since there are already four great options: -Sony 85mm 1.8 -Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8 OS -Sony GM 85mm F1.4 -Sigma Art 85mm F1.4 But I think we all welcome new competition and the Samyang looks promising with the linear AF and much smaller size compared to the Sigma
I think they've found a good niche to compete, assuming the focusing and build are good. The Sony and Zeiss are half a stop slower. The Sony GM is much heavier and probably 2x the price. The Sigma is also more than 2x heavier.
They have started about two years ago for the Sony E-mount. They already have a 50mm 1.4 / 35mm 1.4 / 35mm 2.8 / 24mm 2.8 and 14mm 2.8 all with AF for the E-mount
They've had non-AF Sony E lenses for at least 3-5 years now. Their APS-C 12mm f2.0 is very well regarded for astrophotography and general very wide angle.
Well... Go to adorama. Look at used lenses. Check out mirrorless. Check boxes for defective. What do we see??? Surprise! Samyang AF lenses in linlke New condition with broken AF or no communication with the camera. Last week they had over 10 of those 50mm 1.4 AF lrnses listed. It means they stop working shortly after arriving to the buyers. That is why they are cosmetically in new condition. Think about it before you buy it.
Max Iso - Just did that: Adorama > Used Lenses > Mirrorless.
under "Parts" there are currently 4 defective Samyang lenses, 3 Sony lenses, 1 Olympus, and 2 Hasselblads.
Makes me wonder what happens to all the faulty lenses from other brands.
I personally had 3 Sigma lenses break (2 of them jammed at infinity due to broken gearing, the other one with the stabilisation rattling louder than a tin can full of ball bearings). Two of my friends have also had Sigma lenses break. The 105mm macro seems particularly prone to problems.
Tamron have had a few problems too, e.g. I know 2 people who had the Tamron 180mm macro, both of which suffered from jammed/broken aperture blade linkages.
Roger Cicala's LensRentals stripdowns and repairs are very revealing - Canon lenses seem to be extremely well built, Nikons and *recent* Sony glass also get very good write ups.
It would be interesting to see some stripdowns of Samyang, Sigma and Tamron lenses to see how well they are constructed.
Samyang 35mm F1.4 AF lens. "Not communicating with camera, may have other issues".
Samyang 35mm F1.4 AF lens. "Not communicating with camera, may have other issues" (presumably another lens or possibly a duplicate entry, although they have different SKU's.
Samyang 35mm F1.4 AF lens. "Cameras do not recognise lens. Lens cannot manual or AF, may have other issues", different SKU again.
Samyang 35mm F2.8 AF lens. "lens does not function, may have other issues"
So all of the faulty lenses are AF, and most of them are 35mm F1.4 model.
I just looked up the Samyang 35 1.4 on Amazon, check the reviews. One guy says the AF actually got worse over a period of months, eventually having eye AF not work. Another guy said 2 weeks into owning it, it made some clicks and stopped working altogether. Won't even focus manually.
Another yet said the AF is hit or miss or not at all, which is odd for ML, they should be accurate consistently.
On B&H the Rokinon 14 2.8 for EF has 3 reviews yet 1 of them just happens to mention AF, saying it was not reliable. The same lens in Sony FE mount has 2 reviews, one says 3 months after buying the AF and aperture blades stopped working.
These were the only sites i checked and the first lenses i looked at, there may be a lot more out there. I'd be prepared to be exchanging some mail if i were going to buy this brand with AF any time soon.
Max Iso - I freely admit to being heavily biased towards OEM glass. I own Canon cameras and after past experiences with non-OEM glass there's no way I'd put anything other than genuine Canon L glass on them.
Likewise if I owned Nikon or Sony, I'd use OEM glass for reasons of maximum compatibility, reliability and performance.
There are good lenses from non-OEMs such as Zeiss, but I wouldn't trust anything else. Others may have different experiences and make different decisions, which is fine, I'm not putting down other people's choices.
To All. My point with Adorama was indicative for the following reasons. 1. Quantity of same model defective lenses. 2. Cosmetic condition of those defective lenses. ALL defective Samyang lenses were in like nee cosmetic condition (means defective out of box with no usage) WHILE defective lenses of other manufacturers are actually quite bit used lenses in heavy used condition.
It looks like there are no real way back for defective Chinese lenses. Years ago I bought 50 yongnuo 50mm 1.8 AF lenses in Canon mount. Yongnuo rep told me that in case of failed lenses those could be sent to HK (on my dime) for repair. 3 lenses out of 50 were defective right on spot. 2 more got returned by the camera store buyers (I was supplying couple camera stores). None of them went back to Yongnuo. They went to trash. As Adoramam is MUCH bigger they might have different arrangement. But from my experience of buying from different Chinese brands it is your problem if some of those items are defective. I thing Adorama has no real way to send them back so they sell those "for parts" at reduced pricing. O thing out of box defective Canikon lenses would go back to Canikonn. But 10% defect rate for my own purchases of AF Chinese lenses were indicative!
Sorry, but you’re creating a false equivancy. Samyang doesn’t do repairs (which admittly is its own problem). Most manufactured so, so a new lens with a defect gets repaired and sold as refurbished. Seems to me Canon does a lot of refurbished sales... Samyang just gets sold as is...
Mathieu, as I wrote my own experience is 10% critical defect rate with lenses directly purchase from Yongnuo. Every brick and mortar store I spoke to said that failure rate for Canon Nikon Sony is 1-2%. This is not a surprise as those brands have decades long history and manufacturing culture. . My main point is that no one should buy a lens from these newly minted manufacturers just because they are 10-20% cheaper then original camera brand. It does not worth it. Whhile you pay say 1/4 less you get only 1/2 worth of your money. . Thus is my opinion though based on decade long camera and lens conversion business.
LOL! I was thinking about the same, then had a bit menace thought: That sample image was likely to showcase the AF performance of the lens + camera combo...
And I do own two Samyang manual lenses for EF and EF-M mounts. Good value and IQ is easily acceptable too.
Sadly, skimps on O.I.S. -- there's no downside to including optical image stabilization in lenses, even when the camera body MIGHT have internal sensor stabilization: they're meant to work together, not one by itself. And the higher the focal length, the more you need it. 85mm is way up there. And that's not to mention the numerous Sony bodies that lack internal sensor stabilization -- this lens is a bad choice for those.
All future mirrorless cameras will have IBIS... Only Canon is lacking IBIS for the moment... I mention others brands than Sony because I assume Samyang will produce the same lens for other mirrorless mounts... (Nikon Z, Canon RF, L mount, etc...)
IdM - Not so sure, there will probably be more budget models or ultra-compact models that won't have IBIS. Unless the mechanism can be made smaller, and cheaper.
Which recent Sony FF E-mount camera lacks IBIS? IMHO, 85mm is far, far from "way up there" insofar as IBIS is concerned. I find it lets me shoot as slow as 1/5s at 210mm, and of course more common shutter speeds at 85mm eliminates any sign of handshake except under extreme shakiness of the hand (e.g. arm extended around a corner with a heavy lens).
I don't get this. Lenses with OIS are heavier, more complex and more expensive. I'm glad I have IBIS. I get that IBIS probably doesn't work as well in longer FL, so maybe there should be some exceptions. But, the high-end Sonys all have IBIS, so including it in new lenses by default does not make sense to me.
Anyways- how it compares to the FE 85 / 1,8 price-wise and elsewise will be the majority of the pudding. I shan't say they play in different dimensions because of two-thirds of a stop.
Edit. Ah, well it actually says "(C) Christopher Frost". Oh well.
Looks sharp and the bokeh looks nice..reviews will be interesting!
Edit two: vs the FE 85 1,8: SEK 7k vs SEK 5,8k Slightly heavier Slightly longer mfd Slightly less repro ratio
@dansclic Yes for most lenses, but probably not for the Batis line.
What do we know? -Zeiss says they don't make the lenses in germany and they are instead produced by a partner in Japan -Cosina the usually very transparent partner says they make the Milvus, Otus line etc... but say no word about the Batis line -TAMRON OWNS THE PATENTS FOR THE LENSES OF THE BATIS LINE -Cosina has zero experience in AF motors or Vibration compensation. Both things Tamron is very good at
So while it still could be another third party producing the lenses it is much more likely that Tamron makes them.
And this isn't all that unusual either. It is an open secret that Sigma designs many lenses for Olympus and Panasonic for example, like the Olympus 75mm F1.8 and 45mm F1.2 Pro or the Panasonic 12mm F1.4. There is even pretty strong evidence that Sigma manufacturs the Olympus 45mm F1.2 Pro
@entoman Lol, Yeah why would the worlds richest man (who also owns Amazon) want a website that updates its "latest news" page 24/7. It's not like we can buy petrol/fuel, pharmaceuticals/drugs, groceries, fast food, or anything else 24/7 😏 Den
Some evidence of ellipses in the out-of-focus highlights, but the bokeh looks pretty nice.
Suggestion to dpr:
All of the images in the gallery appear to have been taken at maximum aperture. It would be nice to see a few shots taken at smaller apertures too, so we could see if there is any sign of onion-ring bokeh, unpleasant aperture polygons or other artefacts in the defocused highlights.
Looking forward to the dpr staff gallery then, which hopefully will illustrate bokeh at a variety of apertures and focus distances under different light sources.
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