About this deal
The lens is supplied with a detachable petal shaped lens hood, lens caps and soft lens bag. The filter size is 77mm. Focusing is performed internally so the Samyang 35mm doesn't change length and the filter thread doesn't rotate, good news for filter users. While Canon's RF system is where some of the most exciting photographic developments are happening right now, it does all come at a wee bit of a wallet-lightening premium. So it makes sense that third-party manufacturers would start offering cheaper alternatives, one of the finest of which is Samyang's AF 85mm f/1.4 RF, a short-telephoto portrait lens with autofocus and high enough quality to make the most of the EOS R sensors. Is it as good as the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 flagship lens? Nope! But it's also a quarter of the price, so, there's that to consider. Jayce - Lots of reasons, but mainly being part of a wider community that serves the area and also the easy access, being so close to the East Lancashire Road and the motorway network. It started with wedding and event photography, teaching from around 2012, and with sponsorship from various companies, but came to a stop with the pandemic and Covid19. For a couple of years photography was on hold but now is underway again. Focus is a big, fat ring that's half the lens. It's not as nice as the focus of the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AI-s, but nice enough.
As this is a relatively wide lens, out-of-focus areas are not as extreme as on a more telephoto optic, so having a widest setting of f/1.4 is very useful. However, the character of out-of-focus areas (bokeh) is still an important consideration for those using this lens for its wider apertures, and here the quality is very good. Resolution chart At just 645g the Samyang 35/1.4 is a rather big an heavy lens. It weights 15g more than the Sony ZA 1.4/35 and 95 less than the Sigma 1.4/35. If you compare it to the Sigma Art 1.2/35 though it looks like a small and light lens being 435g lighter. The half a stop slower Sony 1.8/35 is significantly smaller and less than half the weight. Optical performance
The manual-focus Samyang/Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC is a good choice for street photography and more besides
Matthew Richards is a photographer and journalist who has spent years using and reviewing all manner of photo gear. He is Digital Camera World's principal lens reviewer – and has tested more primes and zooms than most people have had hot dinners! We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.
At f/1.4, image detail is slightly softer with less contrast, but I would expect a drop-off in image clarity at the widest aperture setting and this is still very good. Stopping down to anywhere between f/2.8 and f/11 shows the image quality at its most crisp. The Samyang AF 35/1.4 FE delivers surprisingly good optical performance for its very affordable price. Sure, flare resistance is below average and it shows quite a bit of CA and distortion is also a little above average but it can compete with the significantly more expensive Sony ZA 1.4/35 and also the still more expensive Sigma 1.4/35 which aren’t perfect either. Since I use LR correction of lateral CA is corrected by profile and I can’t turn the correction off. It isn’t corrected that well though and some CA is still visible. Vignetting Closest focus distance is 0.29m (11.4in.) in manual focus resulting in a magnification of 1:5.3 (same as the Sony f1.4). Due to the long lens the working distance is only 16cm (6.3in.) even when the lens hood is removed. A magnification of 1:10 is achieved at 0.44m distance. The Sony f1.8 goes down to 1:3.9, the Sigma offers 1:4.5. [0]
Built-in electronics enable a more refined operating experience for this manual-focus lens
A good eye is required for the wider apertures, where the depth of field and therefore correct focus can be down to a matter of millimetres. In busy and erratic scenes, a manual-focus lens will result in a lower hit ratio, but it should generally keep the eye of the photographer sharp. We tested the Canon-mount version and, compared with its rivals, the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 lens is the biggest and heaviest, measuring 111x83mm and a reassuringly weighty 660g. Its 77mm filter diameter is also big for its type. Made from a tough plastic with solid metal mounts, the quality of craftsmanship is evident. The aperture range is from f/1.4 to f/22, which is clearly marked on the ring at the base of the lens. It can be changed in 1⁄2 stops except between f/1.4 and f/2, and between f/16 and f/22. The lens ring controls the aperture in all but the Nikon-fit model, which features aperture coupling so the aperture can also be controlled in-camera. EXIF: Sony A7R III + Samyang AF 35mm F1.4 FE II (1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200) (Image credit: Matthew Richards) Lab results
There is one big problem: this lens probably won't arrive perfectly calibrated, and probably won't work perfectly with your camera unless you experiment a bit with how much manual offset you need to apply to get perfect focus at f/1.4. Nikon' AF fine tune won't help you: it only adjusts AF, but since this is manual focus, sadly it doesn't apply.Focus feels fine. It's more damped than Nikon lenses. The focus ring take up half the barrel, which is great. Samyang 35mm F1.4 AS UMC lens was designed to suit SLR and DSLR cameras. On a full frame camera the 35mm focal length has universal applications. It is a bright and fast wide-angle lens perfect for landscape, journalism and everyday scenarios. The Xiaomi 12T Pro offers a whopping 200MP main camera, but how does this perform, and do the other cameras deliver? Joshua Waller puts it through its paces.