The earlier Samyang lenses didn’t really impress me: dinky casing, lack of controls and severe issues with sample variation. This Samyang FE 24mm 1.8 AF was the first of a new generation of Samyang AF lenses though: customizable switch, focus hold button, rubber gasket and vastly improved materials. Did they finally hit the mark? Let’s find out in this review!
A small, lightweight and very affordable 18mm lens can be an interesting option for many photographers. It can extend the viewing angle compared to a midrange zoom significantly and if you only rarely delve into ultra wideangle photography it can also be a great option, as you will have less money sitting idle in your lens cabinet. The Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF wants to be exactly this lens, but the question remains, how high a toll the small size took on its optical performance. Let’s find out about that in this review!
Continue reading Review: Samyang AF 18mm 2.8 FE – The affordable UWA lens
The Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP is a bit of an odd lens. It is still the widest lens for DSLRs, but it was announced at a time when no one really cared about DSLRs anymore. And it came out after the Voigtländer 10mm 5.6, which surely didn’t help the marketing department. And in the meantime we also got the Laowa 9mm 5.6, which is even wider, has great optics and is small at the same time. So is there still a reason to get the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP in 2022? Let’s find out in this review.
“Tiny but ABSOLUTE” that’s Samyang’s claim for their AF 75/1.8 FE lens. One could add that it is one of the cheapest lenses for the system. So what can you expect from a 230g lens for $399? Read on if you want to know.
Most images in this review can be found in full resolution in my Samyang AF 75/1.8 FE flickr set. There you can also browse samples in a very high quality browser.
Back in 2018 Samyang – mostly known for cheap manual focus lenses like the 14mm 2.8 and the 85mm 1.4 at that time – wanted to show what they are capable of and released the first lens of their “Premium MF XP Series”, the Samyang 50mm f/1.2 XP. These faster XP lenses are only available for Canon EF mount and it seems they were devoid of any size constraints during development and even come with electronic contacts and electronic diaphragm controlled by the camera.
Despite all this it seems no one bought them though – was it due to bad marketing, lack in optical qualities or simply because of the massive size of these lenses? Let us find out in this review!
