Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE Review

Name: Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE
Brand: samyang

December 19, 2017 | Mark Goldstein |

Introduction

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE is a new moderate wide-angle prime lens for full-frame Sony Alpha cameras. The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE is comprised of 11 elements in 9 groups including two aspherical elements and two high refractive index elements and features a rounded 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to the out of focus areas of the image. It's the latest in a growing range of Samyang lenses to feature auto-focusing, incorporating a stepping motor for smooth and accurate autofocusing, and there's a UMC Super multi-layer coating to reduce flare and ghosting. The lens has a minimum focusing distance of 30cm/0.98ft and a maximum reproduction ratio of 0.17x The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens retails for £599.99 in the UK and $799 in the USA, where it's known as the Rokinon AF 35mm f/1.4 FE.

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 645 grams and measuring 11.5cm in length, the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE is a big lens given its focal length. It's similar in stature to the Sony Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm F1.4 ZA lens. As seen in the photos below, it rather dwarves the full-frame Sony A7R II camera, especially with the lens hood attached.

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens mounted on a Sony A7R II

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens mounted on a Sony A7R II

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens alongside a Sony A7R II

Build quality is excellent. The lens has a metal housing and a metal mount too. The optical elements are made of high-grade glass and aspherical lenses have been included to minimise aberration and unnecessary light dispersion. The focus ring is pleasingly wide and ridged for easier grip.

Side of the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens

Front of the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens

Rear of the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens

Focusing is usefully internal and manual focusing is possible when set on the camera body. Full-time manual focus override is also available, but there's no distance and/or depth of field scale.

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens has a wide focus ring. 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 67mm filter thread doesn't rotate on focus.

Side of the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE is a fairly quick performer, taking about 0.25 seconds to lock onto the subject when mounted on the Sony A7R II that we tested it with.

We didn't experience too much "hunting", either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time. It has quite a noisy focusing mechanism, though, which makes this lens less well-suited to video recording.

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens in-hand

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens with the supplied hood fitted

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE ships with a soft drawstring bag and a large plastic petal-shaped lens hood. It accepts 67mm filters.

Focal Range

At the 35mm focal length the angle of view is 65.5 degrees.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, were quite prevalent in our test shots, as shown in the examples below.

Light Fall-off

With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/1.4, there is significant light fall-off in the corners. Stopping-down to f/5.6 virtually eliminates this.

Macro

The Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE isn't claimed to be a macro lens, with a minimum focusing distance of 30cm/0.98ft and a magnification reproduction ratio of 0.17x. The following example demonstrates how close you can get to your subject, in this case a Compact Flash memory card.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. In the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE lens, Samyang employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades, which has resulted in very nice bokeh in our view. We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included several 100% crops for your perusal.