DPR - come for the reviews. Get a psych diagnosis instead. :D

The only Samyang lenses that reaches GM level are the 85 and 135mm, all the other certainly doesn’t, but they are fine lenses especially on none high resolution bodies.

I find the Sony G 40 mm f:2.5 excellent for almost everything day and night, for stills and video. I use this lens way more than expected when I got it, due to small size and well balanced sharpness and contrast.

Magnar, agreed. I bought the 40/2.5G expecting it to be good, but only by using it did I realise just how good - and I'm not just thinking of image quality. Outstanding design.

The 40/2.5 is *much* sharper than the 35/2.8 I had, especially at wider apertures, but perhaps sample variation plays a part. The build quality is also much better as are the controls and ergonomics. Altogether a better lens IMO.

You can rent gear from lensrentals.com and support a pillar of the photography community.

If you return too many items to Amazon, they will suspend your account.

The second time was posting my beloved 4k Samsung telly to my wife from Scotland down to England using same company, the Hermes. I packed it into original box, added extra padding, banners on all side that it is fragile and please handle with care, knowing that I am posting it at my own risk as they don't do insurance for this type of things. Still arrived smashed. Lesson learned. That is why they changed they name from Hermes to Ervi - to try to erase their reputation for being absolutely worst and careless company in UK when in comes to private posting, even Yodel got better. But you can blame the delivery guys themselves much, underpaid, overworked, they just toss and smash the things all the time I guess.

Yeah, I didn't buy my 35GM because it's that much sharper than the 35s and 45s I bought before it... I bought it for it's handling of CA & flare and it's overall rendering, and those are pretty obvious traits if you're picky, even at 24MP w/o cropping etc.

To use a personal example, I recently switched from the 55mm Zony lens to the Sigma 65mm.

The 55mm is a renowned lens that is capable of crafting gorgeous art, as evidenced by photographers much more capable than I. But I still see the 65mm as an upgrade with its aperture ring, metal construction, and reduced LoCA, especially after a bright photo shoot really demonstrated the 55mm's green fringing.

Will I ever seriously run into a situation where the 65mm's better resolution is the difference between a good photo and a great photo? Almost certainly not. Do the other properties make for a more enjoyable lens? Yes. Similarly, if I had funds for a 50mm GM I would unlock additional resilience to abberations.

I'll be 70, next year, and my eyes are a mess. Focus peaking is the best focusing aid I've used -but it takes a bit of practice to use it well.

The sunstars in all Sony lenses not in my taste, overwhelming busy 22-point ray and you need to stop down lots that caused side effects. Therefore I much prefer Loxia and Voigtlander prime in landscape/cityscape. MF is no issue in landscape with 12.5x enlargement + focus peaking.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66216795

PWPhotography
Everything's a compromise -those fancy straight-blade Voigtlander sunstars cause bokeh issues in many of my shots. Not my preference.

Agreed everything has a compromise. Therefore I see there are two sets of prime lenses, one for landscape and another for portrait. I prefer Loxia and Voigtlander lenses in landscape where bokeh basically is no issue :-) While I have some Sigma and Samyang fast prime lenses for portrait. Since I am not a pro portrait photog, I really like Samyang line of fast prime lenses for portrait that are less than half price of Sony counterparts but close to.

The Samyang 135mm AF seems a steal for anything else than sport. But for sport, it is not only the 20 or 30fps compatibility that make the GM a better option (frankly, 10fps is plenty most of the time), but the AF tracking reliability.
It is unfortunately nowhere near as good on the Samyang as on the Sony, although that's something I guess Samyang could try addressing in further firmware revisions.

Actual cost of goods in 1985 vs 2022 based on inflation:

$1000 in 1985 is worth $2700 today. So, in economic terms, everything costs the same.

Inflation based forecast of what everything should an or would cost today can be severely flawed. I recall when usb flash drives first came out, one could pay easily a Hundred dollars for just One Gig. Now you can get almost get an 1TB drive for that.

1 TB is equal to 1,000 gigabytes (GBs).

Also, Look at what has happen to price of TVs. Look at the rate of return on savings accounts but rate charges on Credit Cards an or bank Fees. So no, everything doesn't cost the same.

@Backtonature1 Well, I think in general terms, we can say things cost the same. A top of the line Nikon lens in 1985 vs 2022, is about the same when calculating inflation. Yes, the technology used in the lenses is different, but their positioning in the market is not, they would each be the best of their line at the time.

Same for hard drives, same for televisions, etc.

Now, what's not the same is salaries. In real terms, adjusted for inflation, anyone in a salaried job is making less than they would have been in 1985. Meaning, you have less buying power now, than you would have then. I could go and find all the relevant links from published economic studies, but, I'm lazy.

For the hobbyist, Sony had Tamron, Sigma, and Samyang. No need to pay $2.5K for GM lenses.

The GM fast AF is not only to do 30fps. More important is that it nails focus regardless of fps and regardless of subject movement and action. Its very reliable to get high photo quality and sharpness in real life no the matter context. So in addition to generating beatiful and sharp rendering its also a very useful and reliable lens.

Other aspects are level of weather sealing, direct apperture control etc.

Having said all that the Samyang is an excellent lens for what it is.

If you have seen Samyang 135/1.8 AF, its AF is good enough basically for all types of photos even in regular action and sport. The only area 135 GM has edge is in professional sport that demands ultimate AF-C tracking and capable of shooting at 30fps. But how many of us are sport PJs? And this video focused in portrait where Samyang is as good as if not actually better in some areas such as flare-resistance in backlit portrait for example. Go watch some reviews that you will know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTpctoBiI5c

https://sonyalpha.blog/2022/02/25/samyang-135mm-f1-8-af/#21_Sharpness_Pique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HibHyL1r-TQ&t=514s

Christopher Frost review of the Samyang even went that far,

"If you own a Sony E mount camera and you're in the market for something even remotely like this then pause the video right now, get online, and order one. Just do it".

"The only excuse not to get one is if you're dead or in jail" :-)

BTW, Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 FE is also weather sealed! It's much lighter than 135 GM, optical quality on par if not slightly edges out in some area including sharpness, less than half price!

The Samyang AF is less reliable already for walking subjects. The Samyang does have some weather sealing. But its good optically.

Canon and Nikon's kit lenses are usually very good. Sony should really resign theirs. A useful kit lens lowers the investment to get started with a system.

Panasonic 20-60mm seems to be considered pretty good for a kit lens too.

Samyang has a new 135/1.8 that’s the one people referring too it’s not 1/3 but half the price and optically better then the old.

I gladly pay 1200 for AF alone, normally I would never consider a none AF lens for other then special purposes, there need to be strong reasons like sunstars for night photography, low light landscape etc. I certainly would never consider it for portrait or other moving subject.

It's the combined availability of both that makes E mount so appealing IMO, tho I'm probably biased since I've got five 3rd party primes from three different brands, a 3rd party zoom from yet another brand, and then three G/GM primes. I do see people jumping on E mount with just a couple Tamron/Sigma zooms or Sigma/Samyang primes and it probably would've been a pricier entry to do the same on most other systems.

It’s just as much about the G and GM glass that make it appealing as those lenses are absolutely amazing for what these are. But yes third part give options and offer for something for people on a more modest budgets.

I agree with Impulses, it's the combination of Sony & third party that makes it exceptional. I'm already considering the adapter to use some of those lenses on Z mount.

E Mount has both ends covered: best-in-class GM lenses and affordable third party options. That's one reason why it's so popular.

I assume you comment was cynical…

But just in case, are you speaking about the TC built-in versions of the 400mm f2.8 and 600mm f4, themselves were adapted versions of the EF lenses?

Those monsters costing 2.5x times and weighting 500gr more than the Nikon 800mm f6.3 while offering a clearly worse level of performance?

Already have an incredibly sharp 400 prime on an A7RIV
Can't afford that Nikon 800mm F6.3
I believe that if Tammy or Sigma made an 800mm F8 they would sell like hotcakes. The Canon 800mm F11 was an interesting toe in the water

No 800 will ever sell like hot cakes it’s a very small niche and have usually incredibly long shelf life.

The turning point was indeed the 24GM released in 2018, before that, lenses were decent and sometimes very good, but since that GM lens, all Sony GM lenses have been exceptional.

Well bad might be stretching it, but there certainly is a noticeable amount of mediocre “older” lenses with poor copy variance.

But the lenses from 2017 an onwards has mostly been from very good to outstanding.

I have a very substantial collection of glass.

The 35/1.4 ZA, 35/2.8 ZA, and FE 55 remain favorite lenses.

If you can't produce great with those lenses I can assure you it's not the lens.

There are poor value lenses - some of the original co-branded Zeiss for example. Also lenses with poor QC.

But there is a great option in every category - often multiple.

Yeah the Sigma 150-600 choice is definitely puzzling.

200-600 with internal zoom, got to love it. Just a personal thing in that I would never buy a zoom that wasn't internal zoom.

@nzmacro Yes, agree.
And apart from the obvious, that the zooming is not sucking in the damp air or dust, it's also great the lens doesn't extend when using "raincoats" and similar.

Wellll, I'd say Nikon seems to be tolerating it, Viltrox has been making AF lenses for mount as well and Nikon hasn't gone out of their way to mess with them... Whereas Canon did seem to go out of their way to make Samyang pull it's early RF offerings off the shelves. I wouldn't know if anyone has tried to make a Canon RF adapter w/AF, but it seems likely they've been dissuaded from trying, or maybe Canon just made it harder.

The mount's flange distances pretty much prevent Sony lenses fitting onto a Canon mount, Nikon mount is 2mm shorter than the Sony which allows a 2mm thick adapter, but Canons mount is 2mm longer. and would require extra optics to focus at infinity

A good point and yet from what I have seen in reviews the Sigma Art 105mm f2.8 Art Macro is even better optically.

Sony 20mm f1.8 G

Probably one of their better high end values tbh. I end up using my 17-28 more often, but I enjoy using the 20G more, if that makes sense.

No arguments with anything on SNJops's list, I'm very happy with the 35GM and I've been tempted by the 65/2 but already have a SY 75/1.8, their 135/1.8 looks great.

There are tons of good native E mount options. I think that’s the summary of the comments here. They can’t “pick” them all.

The good news is we can pick whichever ones suit our needs the best.

Sorry, I wasn't sepcific enough. It should in the main list because this lens alone is the main cornetstone of the entire ecosystem. Both for for switchers and newcomers.

If I am the one putting this list myself, the Sony 24-105 F4 would not be appeared on my list either. this list is not the "top 5 most popular" base on the fact how many copies were sold in the world, but a list of best lens based on DP Review staffs' opinion, so everyone is entitled to his/her rating.

Absolutely agree with you. Their picks are personal, not “best for everyone”, which may be part of the appeal of the duo’s videos.

Just as my choice of the 50 GM is a personal one - I like it for shooting full length images in a studio, among other things - but I know full well that it will have zero appeal to many others. A dedicated bird in flight shooter is unlikely to have any use for a 50mm.

I actually see the 150-500 as a competitor to the 100-400 GM as much as an alternative to the xx-600s... It's as fast as the GM thru 389mm or something like that, and faster than a combo with the TC at 500mm, and it's got better AF than the Sigma of course while being lighter and smaller.

Another thing they seemed to have forgotten about with the Sigma choice is the drop in max fps burst shooting when not using native Sony lenses with some camera bodies such as the A9ii and A1. These are wildlife lenses and so this is another key feature.

Actually Sony G master is pretty cheap compare to Nikon and Canon's equivalent.

@Dan_168
Is it or is it just that the price dropped and the others are newer and higher priced due to inflation? In fact sony started the $1k price increase with the 70-200, followed by Nikon and lastly by Canon.
If you ask me it depends more on what you look and what you leave out.

Sour grapes?

@Floodblue
The 14GM and 20 F1.8 is my dedicated Milky Way landscape lens, I think the 24GM is even better than the 20 optically but the 20MM just work better for me in this specific application and in general 24 for me is either not wide enough most of time so I hardly use that even I like its optic evnebetter,

For my " normal" landscape, my all time favorite is the Voigtlander 21 F1.4 and Voigtlander 35 F2 APOi like them more than the Sony 20 and 35GM which Also own.

@Floodblu

I use the Magadad ( revision 1) on my Z9, and I also pre-ordered the version 2 but still waiting for the delivery. besides those lenses mentioned, I regularly use 6 other E-mount Voiugtlander and Zeiss with this adapter and all works great. even with the AF lens like 24GM, 35GM, 85GM, Sigma 35 F1.2.....AF works fine, and I tried to use my Sigma 24-70 DNDG on the Z9 to cover a street event it work out perfectly fine also, so I will be buying few more adapter so I can use those lens on my other Z bodies if I need to. Nikon really lacking all the fast primes that I normally use every day at the moment so I will be using Sony and other fast prime in E-mount for a while.

@Floodblue
I heard you, for the 70-200 F4, the Sony version is pretty horrible anyway so you probably should not care for it, the best one is still the Canon 70-200 F4 IS, and I use that Techart with that for my A7R IV and use the Finger adapter for my Z, works great on both, I actually own the Nikon DSLR version F4 as well, but not that hot either so I have not touch it for long time, probably have hard time to sell now.

BTN1. Seriously…..

Seems the people who compare the fast big white primes with lenses more than one stop slower have never used the fast big white primes.

@Mujana did you forget?
Nikon NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC (560 f/4) VR S Lens
$13,999.95
Weight 6.5 lb / 2950 g

Not sure what you’re trying to show me? What I posted was pulled directly from nikon’s website. Anyways is nice to have option between the 400 f/2.8 which is similar weight to the Sony even with built in TC added, or the f/4.5.