The first generation Samyang AF 50mm 1.4 FE has some fans for its appealing bokeh, but at the same time it showed more of a subpar performance in most other categories. Samyang’s engineers seem to have been aware of that, as this lens had been updated to the Samyang AF 50mm 1.4 FE II a few years later. Let’s see if this has become an appealing yet affordable 50mm 1.4 lens that speaks to a broader audience than its predecessor.
Released at the end of the DSLR era, these Samyang XP lenses had a very bad timing to begin with. And unlike many of Samyang’s other lenses, this Samyang 85mm 1.2 XP was only available for Canon EF-mount, where it faced fierce competition from the Canon EF 85mm 1.2L USM II, which also featured autofocus – and on a DSLR with its subpar focusing aids no one wants to give up on that. Today we have mirrorless cameras that actually work much better with manual lenses, time to find out, if this is an overlooked gem or just an outdated relic from the past.
Continue reading Review: Samyang 85mm 1.2 XP – A true hidden Gem
35mm are the favorite focal length of many reportage, event and wedding photographers. In the last years we saw boundaries being pushed as we can now choose from f/1.2 lenses with autofocus and manual focus lenses that even offer a maximum aperture of f/0.95. I gathered five recent ones of these super fast 35mm lenses with maximum apertures ranging from f/0.95 to f/1.2 and will compare them, to give you an idea which might work best for your needs.
Continue reading Comparison: Super Fast 35mm f/0.95 | f/1.2 Fullframe Lenses
Released in 2017, this Samyang 14mm 2.4 XP had a similarly bad timing as the Zeiss Otus and Milvus lenses its mechanical design is undoubtedly based on. By that time many people started using mirrorless cameras, so these huge DSLR designs certainly started looking less appealing. On top of that, many of us had been burned by Samyang’s (at least at that time) awful quality control, so paying a premium price for a Samyang lens? Not many people were interested in doing that. Nevertheless, some people say this is one of the best lenses for astrophotography ever made, that alone is reason enough to have a closer look at it.
I wasn’t a big fan of most of Samyang’s earlier lenses, especially not their early autofocus lenses. Their latest lenses have shown significant improvements over the earlier ones though and this Samyang 135mm 1.8 AF FE even features a unique selling point: it is the lightest 135mm 1.8 lens ever made. And not only that, it is currently also the cheapest option. Do cheap and lightweight go together with good here? Let’s find out in this review.
